Cal Brantley
Created by Lise S. Baker

The winner of the 1998 St. Martin's Press/Private Eye Writers of America Best First P.I. Novel Contest, Lise Baker's The Losers' Club introduced a strong new voice in San Francisco private investigator CAL BRANTLEY. Dispatched to investigate a wrongful death case in Reno, a freak accident involving a child and a casino escalator, Cal is chagrined to discover her firm has decided to send along a chaperone -- an obnoxious former LAPD cop named Denny Wickerstaff.

Cal cracks wise, and offers us her hard-eyed view of things, yet within her chest beats the heart of a poet. Like the seedy motel whose "...lights on the neon marquee lit up like white powder on a whore's face." Not bad, huh? Adding to the versimiltude is Cal's at-times-frantic juggling of her personal and professional lives. This is a real person, living in the real world, but strong enough to tell it like it is.

Author Lise S. Baker is, in fact, a real-life private eye herself, which no doubt goes a long way to explaining the attention to detail evident here. A promising debut, from everything I've heard.

NOVELS

• The Losers' Club (2000). Buy this book

Thanks, Lise, for the nudge.

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