TECHNICAL OVERVIEW:
There is a regional mood, an attitude and a culture unique to the Pacific Northwest.
Overhung with clouds, nestled between great mountains, lapped by powerful bodies of water and carrying the tradition of the Western Frontier, it is the home of Andi Wicksham and the setting to this quirky, compelling series of soft-boiled detective novels.
An audience of younger, urban-oriented, progressive mystery readers is targeted; with social, political, stylistic, and regional elements aimed to appeal to x-generational, multi-cultural audiences as well as the more traditional mystery crowd. There is ethnic and socio-economic, stylistic and cultural diversity--most of it seen from a young, independent, economically struggling-but-making-it perspective...modern attitude liberally slathered with Northwest style and tempered with a decent work ethic and acceptance of urban differences.
Technical aspects of the genre, (clue presentation, red herrings and foreshadowing; e.g. the locked room mystery in the third novel) are of the highest tradition. Each of the works has a particular social thrust--A River Of Lawyers is peppered with insights into law firms and the business world. Phacker takes focus on advertising businesses and cyber-phone-phreak hacker technology, technique and culture. Coming Up Roses involves interactions with right-wing culture, militia jargon and rose-hybridizing. In Ties That Bind, environmental activists and computer hackers play leading roles and toxic waste regulatory loop-holes are revealed.
Each novel in the series has tightly woven sub-plots involving the characters' personal lives. Relationships are realistic and complicated. In Coming Up Roses Andi's mother's breast cancer returns and is diagnosed as terminal. In Ties That Bind her mother asks her to be ready to help her commit suicide. In each of the works social problems are explored and commented upon in some depth.
Characterization is of the modern-realist tradition, with well rounded displays of strength, vulnerability and kookiness. Dialogue is terse and sprightly. A vein of banter is continued throughout, utilizing multi-lingual salutations, mystery and cyber-idiom and an awareness of (and comment on) mystery-genre literature.
Andi Wicksham happens to be a lesbian, but she's far more an urban, hip, modern young-woman professional than a person defined by orientation. It may need to be pointed out that these are not gay or alternative novels, there are no gay themes or subplots other than her healthy, monogamous relationship. The fiction is modern, but mainstream, politically progressive, and grounded in the mass-market, popular, contemporary mystery style and genre.