Maxine O'Callaghan's Delilah West books were among the first contemporary mysteries I ever read, so when I heard they were being re-released I was excited and looked forward to being able to read them again. Her Delilah West was a groundbreaking character as a female PI--coming before Kinsey Millhone, Sharon McCone and V.I. Warshawski.
If you are of a certain age, you probably remember a show called Magnum PI starring Tom Selleck. Magnum was a private investigator who drove around in a Ferrari and had a thing for ladies wearing skimpy bikinis. He always got results and made the life of a PI seem impossibly exciting, but was this an accurate portrayal of a real life private investigator?
Licensed private detective, Laura Holt (Stephanie Zimbalist) opens her own detective agency only to find that clients don’t want to hire a woman. So she invents a fictitious male boss named Remington Steele. It works like a charm. That is until a former thief/con man (Pierce Brosnan) shows up and publicly assumes the identity of Remington Steele. Drama, comedy and romance ensue.
