Noreen Ayres Biography and List of Works

American writer, whose hard-hitting crime fiction has brought freshness and action into the police procedural novel. Ayres' protagonist, Samantha "Smokey" Brandon, has more courage than Patricia Cornwell's chief medical examiner Kay Scarpetta and darker humour than Kathy Reichs' doctor Temperance Brennan.

Noreen Ayres was born in Sacramento, California. She received an M.A. in English and also studied writing, management, and forensic science. After graduating she has worked as a technical editor and writer for branches of the military, and for the computer and energy industries.

Ayres published her first novel, A World the Color of Salt, in 1992. It was translated a few years later into German and Danish. The novel introduced the former stripper and cop, Smokey Brandon, now working for the Orange County P.D. as a civilian forensic specialist. She is in her thirties, spouseless and childless, "five-five, bland blonde, the right weight." In the story an 18-year-old kid, whom Smokey knew, is shot in his parents' convenience store in a particularly violent way. "Before long you think everything counts the same, all murders are equal, everyone has to die sometime. Then a Jerry Dwyer wakes you up." When the investigation is progressing too slowly, she starts to investigate the case independently. In Carcass Trade (1994) Smokey tries to discover the identity of a corpse found burned in a rural canyon. To solve the case she uses the skills of her past and poses as a stripper in a biker bar. The bikers smuggle drugs, what else, but their real interest is a big surprise.

Tough and worldly-wise, Smokey is among the most interesting detective characters that appeared in the 1990s. Her first adventure was hailed "a page turner" by The Washington Post Book World. Smokey has struggled hard for her career. She is good at her work and she does not hide it from her male colleagues. Ayres' viewpoint on the masculine police force differs from such writers as Katherine V. Forrest, whose protagonist Kate Delafield is a lesbian, or Lynda La Plante, whose heroine Jane Tennison must handle sexism and bureaucratic obstacles while hunting criminals in post-Thatcher London. However, if necessary, Smokey is ready to go alone after the killers in spite of her superiors' displeasure.

At present Ayres is revising her third Smokey Brandon novel. She is also working on series of short stories featuring a black male PI based in Houston, Texas, revising a comic screenplay, editing a medical thriller written by a doctor, and writing a series of short stories featuring a gay PI. Her non-fiction work includes a cookbook entitled the "Convenience Market Gourmet", which she is co-writing.

For further information: A World the Color of Salt - tina kaufman reviews "women in crime" - femmes fatales - - Quotation: "When a life is deliberately taken away, it's a theft from dozens of people. And theft, to my mind, each time it happens and no matter to what degree, is a little killing, a murder of time and thought and caring." - from A Glance: Carcass Trade, 1994.

Other Works:

Books by Noreen Ayres