Mary Shelley
Created by Deborah Morgan

Motor City eye MARY SHELLEY has a bad marriage and an even worse ex behind her, and a son just out of prison. And with a double-barrelled name like that, what else could she do but dust herself off, and start up a detective agency called Prometheus Investigations? She may still be learning the ropes, but she's not someone to muck around with. She made her debut in a short story in 1998's Lethal Ladies II.

Author Morgan has previously published non-fiction, and several western short stories. That story was her first P.I. story, but she's just recently signed a three-book contract with Berkley for a new crossover mystery series featuring antiques. Jeffrey Talbot, protagonist of the series, will first appear in Death is a Cabaret, to be published in the fall of 2001. As well, Deborahserved as the editor of the PWA newsletter, Reflections in a Private Eye for a spell. Her interview with her husband (and client -- she's his publicist), fellow writer Loren Estleman, reprinted from R.I.P.E., appears in these pages.

UNDER OATH

• "I absolutely love Mary Shelley! She's got such a fresh voice and comes across as a real person in a very few words. And Vic and Bittenbinder will make splendid ongoing characters in a series."
  -- Marcia Muller, on "Freight"

SHORT STORIES

• "Freight" (1998, Lethal Ladies II)
• "Beaubien" (2001, Mystery Street)

Report respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.