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Was FOUR ELEMENTS OF MURDER based on a real case?

January 20, 2021 By D.B. Borton Leave a Comment

Four Elements of Murder Update Most of the Cat Caliban books focus on an issue, and the focal issue in Four Elements of Murder, first published in 1995, is toxic waste incineration. This book is based on an actual case, with names changed and the setting shifted about eight miles south and across the Kentucky-Tennessee state line. From the late 1960s, LWD (Liquid Waste Disposal) had operated a toxic waste incinerator in Calvert City. This area was a popular tourist area that had also attracted …

Does Cincinnati’s abandoned subway really exist?

January 20, 2021 By D.B. Borton Leave a Comment

Cincinnati's Abandoned Subway One of the scenes in One for the Money, the first book in the Cat Caliban series, is set in an abandoned subway tunnel. In the late 19th century, Cincinnati was among the top ten most populous American cities, comparable to Chicago and New York in economic importance, and it suffered from the problems that growth created. In 1888, the advent of the streetcar marked the city’s first major attempt to confront the issue of mass transit. Meanwhile, dividing downtown …

Nellie, the Girl Detective

December 10, 2020 By D.B. Borton Leave a Comment

I'm including here Detective Edenhope’s 1894 dime novel Nellie, the Girl Detective not because it is a thrilling read, but because it includes so many of the tropes and themes prevalent in early girl detective stories. Despite the sensationalism of its content, the prose is plodding and the dialogue advances the story by baby steps, reminding readers, as do the one- and two-sentence paragraphs, that dime novels were uniform in length, so an author with a 20-page idea who wanted to sell a story …

Cat Caliban Series

October 8, 2020 By D.B. Borton 1 Comment

One for the Money In what ways does Cat challenge stereotypes about older women in general and older women detectives in particular? What other older women detectives can you compare her with? Do you find her a believable character? Is her relationship with her kids believable? How surprised were you to learn about Betty Bags’s history? Do you think it’s true that we make inaccurate assumptions about the past lives of homeless people? Lucille’s story was fairly typical of what Black …

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Four Elements of Murder Excerpt

September 21, 2020 By D.B. Borton Leave a Comment

July is a wicked month for gardeners. That miraculous encounter of fire, air, and organic elements that entertains us on the Fourth isn’t a bad metaphor for what’s going on down below, except that the more earthly spectacle isn’t half so entertaining. In fact, it’s downright heartrending, if not backbreaking. I should know. After sixty years, what my back wants is a padded deck chair on a Caribbean cruise ship, not a goddamn guerrilla war with grubs and dandelions. I remember the …