Sharon Gwyn Short
and
Patricia Delaney
Angel's Bidding
Past Pretense
Patricia Delaney
About the Author
Bibliography
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Women's Press Authors
Sharon Gwyn Short
and
Patricia Delaney
Angel's Bidding
First British Publication The Women’s Press See also New Releases
The longest hatpin had the face of an angel, and the smile of death… The hatpins were lined up on Patricia’s desk in a neat row - the angel in the middle, the peacock and ruby on either side. Besides being relics of another time, they all shared another characteristic. On each was skewered a message created from newspaper print...
Friedrich Kauffman, real-estate magnate and auctioneer, is used to making enemies. But when he starts receiving death threats - all impaled on antique hatpins that once belonged to his mother - his nervy daughter is forced to turn to private investigator Patricia Delaney for help. Delaney soon uncovers far more than the respectable Kauffmans wish to reveal. But shady business practices and bitter sibling rivalries are only the beginning when the angel of death claims its first victim…
"Patricia Delaney is a‘90’s sleuth…Fast-paced and intriguing." Kathy Hogan Trocheck, author of Every Crooked Nanny and To Live and Die in Dixie
"An incredible writer with a big future" Cincinnati Enquirer
"It’s a pleasure to meet Patricia Delaney, a most unusual private eye." Nancy Pickard
First British Publication The Women’s Press
The Second Patricia Delaney Mystery. See also June New Releases
Amateur drummer, computer whiz and seasoned sleuth, welcome back Patricia Delaney, PI. Gigi Lafferty is haunted by foreboding dreams and memories of a hidden past. Terrified that the secrets of her youth will be betrayed, she turns to one of the few people she believes she can trust. If investigator Patricia Delaney can't uncover the truth about her former life, perhaps her future is secure.
At first sight, Delaney fails to recognise Gigi. After all, it's been years since she worked as a bouncer at the downtown nightclub where her client once danced. By the time she makes the connection, Gigi Lafferty has vanished and the police are questioning Delaney about a body found floating face-down in a pool.
"Fast and furious" Time Out
"A fine addition to the ranks of professional sleuths." Sue Grafton
"Agatha Christie, '90's style. Entertaining and well-written. A worthy addition to the 'queens of noir'." Nine to Five
In Sharon Gwyn Short's novels we meet Patricia Delaney, a strongly independent, intelligent woman who enjoys her own company and lives (with her beagle) in a converted carriage house in the grounds of a country estate only a few minutes from her office in Cincinnatti. Patricia has been an exotic dancer and bouncer in her former life but now runs her own Investigative Consultancy business where she mainly deals with routine cases involving checking on backgrounds and credentials. She is also a drummer in a rock band.
At work Patricia is unusual in that she spends a lot of time using her computer skills to tap into the numerous Databases that have become indispensable to her investigations. Gone is the need to get an old friend in some government department to look up driving licence information etc. Patricia can do it herself. The speed with which information about all characters in her investigation can be amassed is awesome. The first reaction is that there'll soon be little use for any PI who can't so the same thing as a matter of course. Lengthy investigations into background will become a thing of the past. Patricia's use of a specialist bulletin board means that she can pool resources with other registered PIs around the world, but particularly between states/cities. This heralds a great leap forward in the way investigations could be handled - no more if we'd known about a case elsewhere we could've cracked this one more easily. This is obviously taking a simple view, but the potential of computer technology is immense. The differences in accessibility of information in Britain and America would presumably also throw up interesting differences in the way PIs could work. Personal information about Patricia is woven into the stories. In Angels Bidding we meet Lucy, Patricia's wayward niece, who's on the point of falling further into a life of petty theft and trouble with the law. We also meet Dean who runs a bar and is a good friend to Patricia. It's obvious that he would like the relationship to be something more but Patricia is not ready for any further commitments. Hints of some tragedy in her past relationship are developed more fully in Past Pretense but I'll not spoil things by telling you the whole story!
Sharon Gwyn Short has worked as a technical and business writer in the computer industry for eleven years. She lives in Ohio with her husband and two daughters.
- Past Pretense (The Women’s Press 1996 - ISBN 0 7043 4464 5) £5.99
- Angel's Bidding (The Women’s Press 1995 - ISBN 0 7043 4420 3) £5.99
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