Bethel, Connecticut-born Orania Papazoglou is the author of the Gregor Demarkian mystery series which she writes under the pseudonym Jane Haddam. The series made its debut in 1990 with Not a Creature Was Stirring.
According to the The St. James Guide to Crime and Mystery Writers, "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."
Papazoglou is noted for threading political arguments and social commentary throughout her novels and it has been said that one of her greatest strengths is her skill as a social observer. She is also recognized as an author who, despite a twenty-something-title run of her series, has not gone stale or become reduced to predictability.
The author has said “The best thing about a series is that it provides you with a continuing frame–you don't have to reinvent the wheel every time you write a book. The biggest drawback is that there is no way for your continuing characters to have consistently exciting lives without the whole thing beginning to sound like a soap opera.”
Her technique, she says, comes down to putting “more emphasis on the suspects, who change from book to book.”
Her protagonist, Demarkian, is the retired founder and head of the FBI Department of Behavioral Science and his services are often in demand by friends or by the police to solve particularly difficult and perplexing murder cases.
Although he has been dubbed the “Armenian-American Hercule Poirot,” Demarkian is not at all like the mustachioed Belgian with his many idiosyncrasies.
The latest book in the series, Living Witness, received a starred review in Booklist which notes that the series shows no signs of slowing down and adds “How the author consistently manages to use the traditional mystery format to tackle some of contemporary society’s most volatile issues is itself something of a mystery, but it’s undeniably true that Haddam does what so many other writers fail to do: tell a story that challenges its readers to consider subjects of great social, political, and ethical importance.”
Evolution vs. creationism is the issue in Living Witness. A 91-year-old woman who is part of a group of small-town citizens who are suing the school board for adding creationism to the school curriculum is beaten nearly to death. The local police chief is one of the school board members and the first to admit he’s one of the prime suspects. He doesn’t trust the state police and turns to Demarkian for help.
The town is split into two camps, the evolutionists – the liberal, college educated “newbies” – and the creationists – the conservative, blue-collar “old-timers.” But the more Demarkian learns about the town's movements and prejudices, the more certain he becomes that the solution lies elsewhere. Meanwhile, the media are circling like hungry sharks, dubbing this a Scopes trial “replay.”
Kirkus also raved “Haddam, who usually has more on her mind than mere murder, defeats the anti-scientists with fact as well as tact. If another 'monkey trial' comes up, the evolutionists should ask her to write their brief.”
