Eleanor Taylor Bland

Eleanor Taylor Bland (December 31, 1944[1] – June 2, 2010) was an African-American writer of crime fiction. She was the creator of Lincoln Prairie, Illinois (based on Waukegan, Illinois)[2] police detective Marti McAllister.

Eleanor Taylor Bland
Born(1944-12-31)December 31, 1944
Boston, Massachusetts
DiedJune 2, 2010(2010-06-02) (aged 65)
NationalityAmerican
Alma materUniversity of Southern Illinois
Genrecrime fiction
SpouseAnthony Bland

Biography

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, she and her husband, Anthony Bland, who was serving in the US Navy, relocated to the Naval Station Great Lakes in North Chicago, Illinois.

She and her husband remained together for 31 years, before separating. She was diagnosed with Gardner's syndrome in the 1970s and reportedly given a short time to live but managed to overcome the disease. In later years, however, she fought several bouts with cancer.

Bland received a BA from the University of Southern Illinois in 1981, and from 1981 to 1999 worked as an accountant. She had two children and several grandchildren, and resided in Waukegan, Illinois, during the later years of her life.[3]

Bland died of Gardner's syndrome on June 2, 2010, at Vista Medical Center East in Waukegan.[2]

Works

Bland's first novel, Dead Time (1992), introduced her sleuth, African-American police detective Marti MacAlister, recently transferred from Chicago to the small town of Lincoln Prairie, Illinois. However, her second book, Slow Burn, was actually the first one written but no publisher wanted it.[4]

Several novels featuring Marti MacAlister followed. Marti works in collaboration with a male partner, Polish-American Vik Jessenovik, and their contrasting styles have been described as city-reared, streetwise, spunky and intuitive and Baptist (Marti) versus meticulous and small-town-minded Catholic (Vik).

Family and community life, and social issues, are also strong elements in the novels.[5]

In a survey of women detectives in crime fiction, Maureen Reddy points out that almost all African American women writers create detectives who have children and a family life.[6] Bland herself once commented that "the most significant contribution that we have made, collectively, to mystery fiction is the development of the extended family; the permanence of spouses and significant others, most of whom don't die in the first three chapters; children who are complex, wanted and loved; and even pets."[7]

Books
  • Dead Time (1992)
  • Slow Burn (1993)
  • Gone Quiet (1994)
  • Done Wrong (1995) ISBN 9780312957940, OCLC 34698212
  • Keep Still (1996)
  • See No Evil New York : St. Martin's Press, 1998. ISBN 9780312169107, OCLC 37560267
  • Tell No Tales (1999) ISBN 9780312971137, OCLC 43671747
  • Scream in Silence (2000)
  • Whispers in the Dark (2001)
  • Windy City Dying (2002)
  • Fatal Remains (2003)
  • A Cold and Silent Dying (2004)
  • A Dark and Deadly Deception (2005)
  • Suddenly a Stranger (2007)

Editor

  • Shades of Black: Crime and Mystery Stories by African American Authors (2004)

See also

References
  1. Drew, Bernard A. (2007). 100 Most Popular African American Authors: Biographical Sketches and Bibliographies. Westport, Conn., Libraries Unlimited.
  2. "Mystery writer Eleanor Taylor Bland dead at 65". Retrieved 23 May 2017.
  3. O’Donnell, Maureen. "Writer Set Mysteries in Waukegan." Archived 2010-11-20 at the Wayback Machine Chicago Sun-Times, June 8, 2010.
  4. Brown, Dale (2008). "Eleanor Taylor Bland: Busy Lady" in Conversations with American Writers: The Doubt, the Faith, the In-Between. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. P. 4.
  5. Lisinski, Jeanne M. "Eleanor Taylor Bland" Biography at Answers.com
  6. Reddy, Maureen (2007). "Women Detectives" in The Cambridge Companion to Crime Fiction (Cambridge Companions to Literature) by Martin Priestman. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, Mass.
  7. Review of Shades of Black in Publishers Weekly, January 19, 2004; quoted in Drewe (2007).
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