Papazoglou, Orania 1951- (Nicola Andrews, Jane Haddam, Ann Paris)

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Papazoglou, Orania 1951- (Nicola Andrews, Jane Haddam, Ann Paris)

PERSONAL:

Name is pronounced "O-rah-nee-ah Pa-pa-zog-lou"; born July 13, 1951, in Bethel, CT; daughter of George Sotirios (a lawyer) and Ann (a painter) Papazoglou; married William L. DeAndrea (a writer), January 1, 1984; children: Matthew William. Education: Vassar College, A.B., 1973; University of Connecticut, A.M., 1975; doctoral study at Michigan State University, 1975-80. Politics: "Pessimist/anarchist." Religion: Greek Orthodox.

ADDRESSES:

Home and office—Watertown, CT. Agent—Meredith Bernstein, 470 West End Ave., New York, NY 10024. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Writer. Greek Accent (magazine), assistant to the editor, 1980-81, executive editor, 1981-83.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Anthony Award finalist; Edgar Award finalist.

WRITINGS:

"PAY MCKENNA" SERIES; CRIME NOVELS

Sweet, Savage Death, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1984.

Wicked Loving Murder, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1985.

Death's Savage Passion, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1986.

Rich, Radiant Slaughter, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1988.

Once and Always Murder, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1989.

UNDER PSEUDONYM JANE HADDAM; "GREGOR DEMARKIAN" SERIES; CRIME NOVELS

Not a Creature Was Stirring, Bantam (New York, NY), 1990.

Precious Blood, Bantam (New York, NY), 1991.

Act of Darkness, Bantam (New York, NY), 1991.

Quoth the Raven, Bantam (New York, NY), 1991.

A Great Day for the Deadly, Bantam (New York, NY), 1992.

Feast of Murder, Bantam (New York, NY), 1992.

A Stillness in Bethlehem, Bantam (New York, NY), 1992.

Murder Superior, Bantam (New York, NY), 1993.

Bleeding Hearts, Bantam (New York, NY), 1994.

Dear Old Dead, Bantam (New York, NY), 1994.

Festival of Deaths, Bantam (New York, NY), 1994.

Fountain of Death, Bantam (New York, NY), 1995.

And One to Die On, Bantam (New York, NY), 1996.

Deadly Beloved, Bantam (New York, NY), 1997.

Skeleton Key, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2000.

True Believers, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2001.

Somebody Else's Music, St. Martin's Minotaur (New York, NY), 2002.

Conspiracy Theory, St. Martin's Minotaur (New York, NY), 2003.

The Headmaster's Wife, St. Martin's Minotaur (New York, NY), 2005.

Hardscrabble Road, St. Martin's Minotaur (New York, NY), 2006.

Glass Houses, St. Martin's Minotaur (New York, NY), 2007.

UNDER PSEUDONYM NICOLA ANDREWS; "SECOND CHANCE AT LOVE" SERIES; ROMANCE NOVELS

Forbidden Melody, Jove (New York, NY), 1983.

Reckless Desire, Jove (New York, NY), 1984.

Head over Heels, Jove (New York, NY), 1984.

Rules of the Game, Jove (New York, NY), 1984.

OTHER

Sanctity (novel), Crown (New York, NY), 1986.

(As Ann Paris) Graven Image (romance novel), Pocket Books (New York, NY), 1987.

(As Ann Paris) Arrowheart (romance novel), Pocket Books (New York, NY), 1988.

Charisma (novel), Crown (New York, NY), 1992.

Contributor to periodicals, including Working Woman, Mother, and Intro.

Author of regular column in Mystery Scene.

SIDELIGHTS:

Orania Papazoglou is the author of two mystery series, "Pay McKenna" and "Gregor Demarkian," the latter under the pseudonym Jane Haddam. Both of her series demonstrate a consistency, "each novel building on the preceding ones and maintaining a high standard in plot, characterization, and style," to quote Susan Oleksiw in the St. James Guide to Crime and Mystery Writers. Oleksiw added that the "Pay McKenna" books "are distinctive for their wry sense of humor and lightheartedness, and subdued social commentary." Of the "Gregor Demarkian" series, Oleksiw wrote: "A typical Demarkian murder investigation includes a murder in a fully realized setting that allows the author to explore a community and satirize one or more of the foibles of modern America." Whatever the setting for her Demarkian mysteries, Papazoglou is recognized as an author who, despite her long association with a fictitious gumshoe, has not gone stale or become reduced to predictability. As David Pitt saw it in Booklist: "The [sixteenth] Gregor Demarkian mystery is just as fresh as the first."

Sweet, Savage Death is a "Pay McKenna" mystery about a writer of romance novels, who is accused of murdering a literary agent. The heroine is intelligent, independent, and courageous, surrounded by the seemingly frivolous participants in a romance writers' convention. The book, according to critic Claire Harrison of the Washington Post, is a satire of the world in which romance novelists work. Harrison called the novel "fast-paced, fun and successful." She added: "I certainly never figured out who had done it."

Although successful with her "Pay McKenna" novels, Papazoglou is better known for her "Gregor Demarkian" series. Its hero, a retired founder and head of the FBI Department of Behavioral Science, is called in—either by friends or by the police—to solve particularly difficult and perplexing murder cases. Oleksiw observed: "Although Gregor Demarkian is dubbed the American Armenian Hercule Poirot, he is not at all like the petite Belgian with his idiosyncrasies and Papazoglou is not at all like Agatha Christie, beyond a shared interest in a carefully worked out murder."

Act of Darkness brings Demarkian to investigate a pair of murders committed at a meeting discussing an ostensibly good cause. At a remote Long Island estate, a group of influential citizens gathers to discuss a law proposed for the benefit of children with Down syndrome. Among those in attendance are presidential hopeful Stephen Whistler Fox and his wife, Janet, still grieving for a deceased child who had Down syndrome; Patchen Rawls, Fox's horrid mistress; Dan Chester, his dubious assistant and aide; and Dr. Kevin DeBrett, a specialist in the treatment of disabled and retarded children. The assembly is alarmed when DeBrett is found dead in his room with no signs of struggle; a second murder raises the stakes even further, as Demarkian steps in to survey the scene. "Juicy gossip abounds, tension builds and all present are suitably suspect … in this entertaining, satisfying mystery," commented a Publishers Weekly reviewer.

Demarkian is summoned to Maryville, New York, by worried cleric John Cardinal O'Bannon in A Great Day for the Deadly, a murder mystery set around St. Patrick's Day. O'Bannon asks Demarkian's help in solving the murder of prospective nun Brigit Ann Reilly, who died during a furious rainstorm. When her body was found, it was covered with water moccasins, virulently poisonous water-dwelling snakes. Demarkian discerns that Reilly died from hemlock, a decidedly non-serpentine poison, and that the snakes had clustered on her simply for warmth. No surprise there, either—the non-indigenous snakes were not accustomed to the climate of the north. Demarkian looks to a group of local animal-keepers for suspects, including actor Sam Harrigan and Josh Malley, the twenty-five-year-old consort of Miriam Baily, the sixty-two-year-old owner of the local bank. Complications abound as Demarkian navigates both religious and secular worlds in search of a determined poisoner. A Publishers Weekly contributor called the novel a "lucid and enjoyable yarn."

And One to Die On involves Demarkian in an investigation surrounding the murder of a one-hundred-year-old silent film star. When he and his good friend, fantasy novelist Bennis Hannaford, arrive for the centennial birthday party of her distant relative, Tasheba Kent, the pair discovers that an auction of some of the 1930s screen star's memorabilia will soon take place. Interest in Tasheba's career is still high because of a contemporary scandal that found her running away with her brother-in-law, Cavender Marsh, also a celebrity of the time. Since then, they have lived as virtual recluses in a posh Maine mansion. A varied group assembles for the auction, including Cavender's daughter, an avid Tasheba Kent collector, a tabloid journalist, and several bankers and attorneys. A severe storm cuts events short, but the murder during the storm of Tasheba and the journalist creates greater urgency. Demarkian must step in to solve the case before more murders pile up. With this novel, Haddam "colors a transparent mystery plot with the traditions of gothic horror tales and silent film melodrama," commented a reviewer in Publishers Weekly.

Papazoglou is noted for threading political arguments and social commentary throughout every novel. Indeed, critics have suggested that one of her greatest strengths is her skill as a social observer. Oleksiw commented: "In short scenes meant to introduce minor characters, she limns the attitudes and interests of young college girls in Fountain of Death, the sorrow of a plain, middle-aged woman looking back on her life in Bleeding Hearts, or rural dwellers coping politely with urban visitors in A Stillness in Bethlehem. Her ear for dialogue and the clichéd speech of the convert or devotee is evident throughout."

In True Believers this capacity to understand religious fervor is put to its greatest test. The novel centers upon a city block in Philadelphia that serves as home to several varied congregations, from a Roman Catholic Church to a center for activist atheism. Demarkian is called to the scene when an apparent suicide in the Catholic church proves instead to be a murder. He must unravel not only accusations of pedophilia, but also the escalating tensions between Catholics, Baptists, Atheists, and a congregation of gay male Episcopalians. "Only Haddam's superb plotting and characterizations allow this microcosmic creation to achieve credibility," observed a Publishers Weekly reviewer. Booklist reviewer David Pitt praised the work for its "engaging discussions" of issues not usually seen in genre fiction.

A fringe group of paranoiacs and conspiracy theorists is suspected of murder and mayhem, and Demarkian must sort out the situation in Conspiracy Theory. Within a week, billionaire financier Anthony van Wyck Ross and wife, Charlotte, are each killed in the driveway of their Bryn Mawr mansion. Concurrently, the Holy Trinity Armenian Christian Church is bombed. Authorities suspect members of fringe group America on Alert and in particular Michael Harridan, the chief reporter for a paranoid hate tract called the Harridan Report. Curiously, however, no one has ever seen Michael Harridan in the flesh. Though the FBI is watching Harridan's followers, including the odious Kathi Mittendorf, they are unable to stop the murder of one of their own agents. The press and the authorities suspect the America on Alert group, but Demarkian takes a cooler approach, surveying instead family and associates of the murdered Ross. Eventually, the sleuth decides to find Harridan as well, which proves much harder than it should be. Haddam "provides a well-documented primer (Internet sites duly cited) on the scary reasoning shared by generations of conspiracy nuts and the snobbery of old money," commented a Kirkus Reviews contributor.

Gregor Demarkian faces burnout in The Headmaster's Wife, as he realizes that he is getting tired of murders, investigations, and, especially, murderers. His spirit revives, however, when he receives a call from Mark DeAvecca, the fifteen-year-old son of a good friend. Mark has recently discovered the body of his roommate at the private school he attends, hanged in the pair's dorm room. Worse, he is having strange physical and mental symptoms, with his perceptions and grip on reality fading in and out. The fact that his roommate was a known drug dealer having a not-so-clandestine affair with the headmaster Peter Makepeace's wife intrigues Demarkian, who agrees to help. When he visits the young man, he insists he go to the hospital, where he is diagnosed with caffeine and arsenic poisoning. Demarkian begins to suspect murder in Mark's roommate's death. Makepeace tries to suppress word of the scandals plaguing his school, but more surface quickly in the tightly wound world of the elite rich's private school. The story is "filled with eccentric and oddball characters, with secrets to hide," noted a reviewer in MBR Bookwatch, and Demarkian has to "figure out which one is desperate enough to kill to keep the secret buried." A Kirkus Reviews contributor called the novel "an in-depth study of educational elitism, emotion versus intellect, and the question of what women really want."

"Credible characters and an intriguing plot laced with both humor and political commentary lift Haddam's outstanding" Hardscrabble Road, remarked a Publishers Weekly critic. Drew Harrigan is a controversial radio host in the Philadelphia area whose inflammatory comments polarize listeners. Worshiped by some and loathed by others, Harrigan is nonetheless not immune to the law when he is arrested for possession of copious painkillers without prescriptions. In short order, Harrigan fingers a dim-witted homeless man, Sherman Markey, as his supplier. Harrigan's arrest puts Markey in the center of the media spotlight as he unwittingly becomes a target for murder. When Markey is the victim of an apparent poisoning, Demarkian steps in to unravel the complex network of suspects and motives. The case is enlivened by characters such as Mother Costanzia of the Assumption of Mary, sister of Harrigan and chief nun of a monastery that just received a large, sheltered gift of land from the embattled Harrigan; the producer of Harrigan's radio show; and a left-leaning academic whose motives are strictly his own. "Haddam outdoes herself with a broad canvas" upon which she creates her characters, noted a Kirkus Reviews critic.

Under the pseudonyms Nicola Andrews and Ann Paris, Papazoglou has also written romance fiction, including four novels for the "Second Chance at Love" series.

Papazoglou once told CA: "I was christened Eastern Orthodox and educated Roman Catholic when Roman Catholics were what most people still think they are. In other words, I was brought up in two traditions, in which man's ability to choose evil as well as good was a given. Oh, there were people who were mentally ill, and people who were victims of circumstances, but mostly there were people who could and did control their actions. (In Orthodox Christianity, nobody controls his own destiny.) I suppose I'm still there, in a way.

"Many of us, myself included, haven't been to church in years. We manage to make our decisions on questions of good and evil in other than religious terms. The only thing I've really decided is that evil—especially physical violence—should not be portrayed as attractive or ‘entertaining’ in the conventional sense. Sanctity was, I think, in many ways an ugly book, but then a lot of it was about an extreme case of child abuse. I got a certain amount of criticism about the book not being for ‘weak stomachs,’ but I still think I was correct to write it the way I did.

"On the other hand, if I wrote that sort of thing all the time, I would go nuts. I do lighter writing to keep my mind from disintegrating into paranoia.

"As for motivations—well, I started trying to write when I was six. If I had a day off from school, I went and pounded away on a little manual typewriter my grandmother gave me for Christmas. Given a choice, this is still what I'd rather be doing—next to anything. It would be nice to have a mission. It would be even nicer to have a ‘purpose in life.’ Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, I write because I write."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

St. James Guide to Crime and Mystery Writers, 4th edition, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1996.

PERIODICALS

Booklist, January 1, 2000, David Pitt, review of Skeleton Key, p. 883; April 1, 2001, David Pitt, review of True Believers, p. 1449; June 1, 2003, David Pitt, review of Conspiracy Theory, p. 1749; March 1, 2005, David Pitt, review of The Headmaster's Wife, p. 1147; April 1, 2006, David Pitt, review of Hardscrabble Road, p. 24.

Kirkus Reviews, March 1, 2001, review of True Believers, p. 296; May 1, 2002, review of Somebody Else's Music, p. 617; May 15, 2003, review of Conspiracy Theory, p. 718; March 1, 2005, review of The Headmaster's Wife, p. 262; April 1, 2006, review of Hardscrabble Road, p. 325.

Library Journal, February 1, 2000, Rex E. Klett, review of Skeleton Key, p. 120; June 1, 2002, Rex E. Klett, review of Somebody Else's Music, p. 201; March 1, 2005, Rex E. Klett, review of The Headmaster's Wife, p. 71.

MBR Bookwatch, April, 2005, review of The Headmaster's Wife.

Publishers Weekly, June 21, 1991, review of Act of Darkness, p. 56; September 6, 1991, review of Quoth the Raven, p. 100; February 3, 1992, review of A Great Day for the Deadly, p. 76; June 13, 1994, review of Dear Old Dead, p. 62; October 31, 1994, review of Festival of Deaths, p. 58; February 12, 1996, review of And One to Die On, p. 63; December 6, 1999, review of Skeleton Key, p. 56; April 2, 2001, review of True Believers, p. 42; May 27, 2002, review of Somebody Else's Music, p. 40; June 9, 2003, review of Conspiracy Theory, p. 39; February 28, 2005, review of The Headmaster's Wife, p. 45; February 27, 2006, review of Hardscrabble Road, p. 36; March 13, 2006, Leonard Picker, "It's Not Just about the Detective," interview with Jane Haddam, p. 45.