Witch of Watergate (Fiona Fitzgerald Novel) - Hardcover

Adler, Warren

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1556112963 ISBN 13: 9781556112966

Publisher: Dutton Adult, 1992

Synopsis

When Polly Dearborn, the infamous Washington Post investigative reporter whose poison pen had destroyed many a politician's career, is found hanging from her Watergate apartment, the elite of Washington rejoice. "The Witch of Watergate" is dead! But this is no time for detective Fiona Fitzgerald to celebrate. Although suicide seems logical for this lonely and miserable woman, Fiona is determined to find the truth.

About this title

From the Author:

How Fiona Fitzgerald Came to Be
It was the early eighties and the mass media consensus on gender was undergoing a massive change. Women were on the march and the emphasis was on both upward mobility and equality on all fronts, especially in the workplace.

In the culture of imaginative fiction, the concept of the heroic figure was being "genderized" and the notion of the female cop, soldier, firefighter, construction worker, and other jobs once considered male turf were swiftly disappearing.

Although I had never tackled the mystery genre before, which was growing in popularity, my then agent persuaded me to take the plunge. Since I lived in the metropolitan Washington area, I decided to use the police department that covered the nation's capitol as my venue. In casting around for a knowledgeable female who could give me some insight into the inner workings of the department and her own psyche, I was lucky to find an experienced female homicide detective, Judy Roberts, who led me deep into the entrails of the mindset and procedure of police work as seen through the female perspective.

Thus was born Fiona Fitzgerald, a brilliant young woman, working with the largely male dominated police force. Because I was familiar with the political and social circles of the power elite in Washington, I conceived the idea of Fiona working only on those cases that involved that segment of the Washington upper crust.

The first book in the series American Quartet, deals with a failed politician whose twisted mind conceives of the idea of staging a replication of the assassinations of our four American presidents. The year it was first released, The New York Times wrote that it was one of the most outstanding mystery books of the year. The series was born, although the background of Fiona was to undergo a profound change after the second book American Sextet was published.

In the first two books, Fiona's father was a New York cop and she had grown up in that city. But as with all of my books, the movie people beckoned and I found myself discussing film projects with a number of producers. One of them suggested to me that instead of making Fiona the daughter of a New York cop, it might be more interesting to make her the daughter of a prominent senator who had grown up in Washington.

The idea appealed to me for many reasons and I made the change, immersing her in a culture that I knew a great deal about. She was now ensconced in the heady precincts of elite Washington with many contacts in that world--social, political, and media--allowing me the opportunity to expand on all the possibilities inherent in that milieu.

In the books that followed, she was assigned to investigate murders that related to the power elite. Readers addicted to the series would unfortunately be confused by the sudden change of background from the daughter of a New York cop to the daughter of a prominent and late New York senator. I took the plunge and got few complaints.

A new publisher, founded by an experienced former executive of a major publishing company, decided to take on the series and I consented to move Fiona to his new company. This gave me the opportunity to fix Fiona's background in the first two books and make her uniformly the daughter of a senator. I rewrote parts of the first two books to fix this situation and saw in this new publisher a chance for Fiona to go on indefinitely solving murders among the players in the power structure.

Nevertheless, the books continue to be in play and there is some optimism that Fiona will be on her way to movie or television stardom. But until that happens, Fiona continues to enjoy a growing fan club among avid mystery readers.

About the Author:

Warren Adler is best known for The War of the Roses, his masterpiece fictionalization of a macabre divorce turned into the Golden Globe and BAFTA nominated dark comedy hit starring Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito. In addition to the success of the stage adaptation of his iconic novel on the perils of divorce, Adler has optioned and sold film rights to more than a dozen of his novels and short stories to Hollywood and major television networks. Random Hearts (starring Harrison Ford and Kristen Scott Thomas), The Sunset Gang (starring Jerry Stiller, Uta Hagen, Harold Gould and Doris Roberts), Private Lies, Funny Boys, Madeline's Miracles, Trans-Siberian Express and his Fiona Fitzgerald mystery series are only a few titles that have forever left Adler's mark on contemporary American authorship from page to stage to screen. Learn more at warrenadler.com.

About this edition

• Publisher: Dutton Adult
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 1556112963
• ISBN 13: 9781556112966
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256