Kate Blanchard
Created by J.F. Freedman

KATE BLANCHARD was one "good-looking and gutsy" cop working the mean streets of Oakland before she decided to ditch the job (and an abusive husband), and work as a private detective in hopefully quieter Santa Barbara, California in 1996's well-received, best-selling House of Smoke (1996).

Yep, Santa Barbara.

Not only is she covering Lew Archer's turf geographically, but she's also poaching his turf thematically -- the whole thing revolves around a rich, powerful California family and their dirty, twisted secrets.

Author Freedman is best known for his legal thrillers which started with his first novel, Against the Wind (1991) but Kate finally reappeared in A Killing in the Valley (2006), teamed with former DA turned biker and sometime-attorney Luke Garrison.

NOVELS

• House of Smoke (1996) ....Buy this book
• A Killing in the Valley (2006)...Buy this book

Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.