Eleanor Taylor Bland (December 31, 1944Drew, Bernard Alger (2007). 100 Most Popular African American Authors: Biographical Sketches and Bibliographies. Westport, Conn., Libraries Unlimited. – June 2, 2010) was an African-American writer of crime fiction. She was the creator of Lincoln Prairie, Illinois (based on Waukegan, Illinois) police detective Marti McAllister.
Biography Bland was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and married Anthony Bland, a member of the United States Navy, when she was fourteen. In the early 1970s, they relocated to the Naval Station Great Lakes in North Chicago, Illinois She and her husband remained together for 31 years before separating.
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.O’Donnell, Maureen. "Writer Set Mysteries in Waukegan." Chicago Sun-Times, June 8, 2010. She served on the board of the Waukegan Public Library and chaired its friends of the library group.
She was diagnosed with Gardner's syndrome in the 1970s, and was reportedly given only two years to live at the time. However, Bland lived forty more years. She died from Gardner's Syndrome on June 2, 2010, in Waukegan, Illinois.
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.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.
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.Lisinski, Jeanne M. "Eleanor Taylor Bland" Biography at Answers.com
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.Reddy, Maureen (2007). "Women Detectives" in The Cambridge Companion to Crime Fiction (Cambridge Companions to Literature) by Martin Priestman. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, Mass. 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."Review of Shades of Black in Publishers Weekly, January 19, 2004; quoted in Drew (2007).
Books Dead Time (1992) Slow Burn (1993) Gone Quiet (1994) Done Wrong (1995) , Keep Still (1996) See No Evil New York : St. Martin's Press, 1998. , Tell No Tales (1999) , 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)
Legacy & Awards Following her death, the organization of mystery writers Sisters in Crime created the "Eleanor Taylor Bland Crime Fiction Writers of Color Award" in her honor.
The Chicago Literary Hall of Fame has announced her as a 2026 inductee, citing among other things her presidency of Sisters in Crime and her mentoring of mystery writers Libby Fischer Hellman and Michael Dymmoch.
See also Police Procedural Crime fiction Mystery (fiction) Detective List of female detective/mystery writers List of female detective characters
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Further reading