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New Life for Fiona Fitzgerald! |
The
Warren Adler E-Sheet 37
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Fiona
Returns!
Fiona
FitzGerald is the heroine of my mystery
series and has appeared in
six of my books. Many people have asked
why I discontinued the series and I really had
no satisfactory answer except that I had gone
on to other novels.
 Yet
Fiona has refused to accept her fate. Her
character has continued to resonate in my mind
and I have decided to resurrect the series. A
new mystery, Death of a Washington Madame,
will be introduced in a unique way in the next
few weeks. My newsletter subscribers, and
anyone who subscribes this month, will be the
first to experience this.
Fiona has
attracted movie and television people for
years and the series and individual books have
been optioned to film makers and the
television networks numerous times, but for
various reasons she has not yet appeared as a
live action character.
The daughter
of a deceased Senator, Fiona is a homicide
detective in the Washington D.C. Metropolitan
Police Department.
It is a
mystery to many of her peers why she has
chosen a "blue collar" profession in a mostly
black police force. But to her the reasons are
clear. It is her way of fighting injustice and
penetrating the facade of chicanery and
manufactured imagery that characterizes many
in the Washington establishment.
Because of
her exposure to politicians and power brokers,
she has, in her gut, become a quester for
truth, determined to get inside the psyche of
those who run the most powerful country in the
world.
Fiona is also
single. She has had numerous love interests
and her relationships are continuously
dissected and explored throughout the series.
She is attractive and tough enough to cope in
a macho, racist, still male-dominated world,
and can operate with equal dispatch in all
layers of Washington's highly structured
"class" society.
Because of
her questioning nature, she has not, as yet,
been able to establish a truly satisfying
relationship with a man, although she is
constantly searching for such a permanent
relationship.
She is a
woman driven by strong passions, both
physically and intellectually. Nor does she
suffer fools with toleration. She is often
outspoken and opinionated, with lots of
attitude, although she is capable of seductive
charm and great generosity of spirit.
Fiona lives
in a beautiful house in Washington that she
has inherited from her parents and is in
demand as a date by important Washington
celebrities. Because of her political
background, she has enormous insight into the
machinations of "power people." She
understands their foibles and motivations,
their obsessions and vulnerabilities, insights
that assist her enormously in her crime
solving activities.
Because she
is so tied in with the establishment, she is,
invariably, charged by her superiors to solve
those crimes which deal with people in high
places.
She has had a
number of crime-solving partners, both male
and female, and has a special relationship
with her boss, the ravaged and over-worked
"Eggplant" whom she both admires and reviles
and ultimately respects. While he is a
successful man to many, he is not to his
socially conscious wife, who comes from a
family that is a prominent member of the "Gold
Coast," the elite community of class-obsessed,
highly educated and professional blacks who
have had a debutante cotillion in Washington
for more than a hundred years and who practice
their own brand of snobbery.
Her closest
friend and confidant is the Chief Pathologist
of the Washington MPD. He is a sensitive,
gentle expert who has a sixth sense about the
people who fall under his analysis. He mourns
his beloved dead wife and Fiona serves him as
a spiritual helpmate and surrogate daughter.
She seeks his advice on all matters that
affect her life and job.
The first
novel in which she appeared was titled
American Quartet which was chosen by
the New York Times in the year it was
published as best in its genre. (See
reviews.)
In
American Quartet she unravels the
mystery of a serial killer, an important
society figure, whose modus operandi is to
replicate the assassinations of four American
Presidents and which ends in a pulse-tingling
climax in the Kennedy Center as the killer
attempts to imitate the killing of President
Lincoln.
In
American Sextet, she discovers that a
journalist is manipulating a young woman into
blackmailing members of the power structure,
including a Supreme Court Justice, a
Congressman, a Senator, and a high White House
official. The young woman is found dead at the
foot of the Duke Ellington Bridge, one of
Washington's landmarks.
In
Immaculate Deception she discovers the
truth about an apparent suicide of a pregnant
unmarried Congresswoman who is an important
pro-life voice in America. Her investigation
not only takes her behind the scenes in
Washington but links up with corrupt Boston
politics.
In Senator
Love she finds herself romantically entangled
in the life of a charismatic womanizing
Senator whose mistresses are being
mysteriously murdered.
In
The Witch of Watergate, she solves the
murder of a famous Washington gossip columnist
who is found hanging from the balcony of her
Watergate Apartment.
In
The Ties that Bind, she discovers that
a Supreme Court Justice with a penchant for
sado-masochistic sex play has inadvertently
murdered the daughter of a prominent political
ally.
In a
sleight-of-hand authorial and God-like
intervention, the background of Fiona
FitzGerald changed radically between
American Quartet, American Sextet
and subsequent novels. In Quartet and
Sextet, she is the daughter of a New
York cop. Subsequently in the other novels,
she miraculously becomes the daughter of a
deceased Senator.
I have
apologized to my readers for this intervention
and promised to cease making such changes in
Fiona's antecedents. The reason for the change
was that I wanted Fiona to have deep roots in
the Washington social firmament where she
could use the contacts of her childhood and
her youth to enhance her detective work.
It is
important to note, however, that the character
of Fiona and all of the supporting characters
remain exactly as portrayed in every novel.
There are
characters that can never "die" in the
author's mind. Fiona is one and I will oblige
her wishes by keeping her alive and well as
long as she and I get along.
In the Palm of Your...Palm
To
celebrate the 25th Anniversary of
publication of Warren Adler's classic,
The War of the Roses, eReader.com
offers a special deal throughout the month
of June for readers who use Palm and other
portable eBook formats. For just $7.95, you
can download Palm versions of The War of
the Roses and its sequel,
The Children of the Roses, which was
published in
hardcover from Sourcebooks in 2004. Buy
on eReader.com:
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Until
next time, happy reading, and we hope to hear
from you in our interactive
book chats.
Warren
Adler
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