(She’s a cross between James Bond and The Avengers’ Emma P...)
She’s a cross between James Bond and The Avengers’ Emma Peel - a girl detective with the sleuthmanship of Mike Hammer and the measurements of Marilyn Monroe. This Girl for Hire is the first in a series of darkly funny and innuendo-laden crime novels originally published in the 1950s and 1960s. In this one, Honey finds herself playing strip poker with four murder suspects and a deck that’s as stacked as she is!
(n Girl On the Loose, Honey is kidnapped and dressed to lo...)
n Girl On the Loose, Honey is kidnapped and dressed to look like an AWOL Marine named Sylvia Verse, only to have her kidnapper killed in a hail of bullets intended for Honey. Rescued by Lieutenant Mark Storm, she is informed that on the same night an old friend from Junior College was smothered to death shortly after giving birth. Meanwhile, in the same hospital, someone who matches Honey's description kidnaps a millionaire's new baby.
(Honey’s boy toy Rip Spensor, a Los Angeles Rams QB who go...)
Honey’s boy toy Rip Spensor, a Los Angeles Rams QB who got sacked by a steamroller (“ground right into the asphalt”), and Angela Scali, an Italian Hollywood bombshell that set out for an innocent weekend at a nudist colony run by some quirky evangelical Christians and ended up hanging dead in a romantic mountain glade (“the grass underneath red with her blood”). What connects the two: Both were associated with a certain blonde gumshoe with an unmistakable 38-22-36 figure and a license to carry.
(Honey West is a character created by the husband and wife...)
Honey West is a character created by the husband and wife writing team Gloria and Forest Fickling under the pseudonym 'G.G. Fickling,' and appearing in eleven mystery novels by the duo. The character is notable as being one of the first female private detectives in popular fiction. She first appeared in the 1957 book This Girl for Hire and would appear in nine novels before being retired in the mid-1960s, with two comeback novels in 1971.
Gloria Fickling is an American writer. Together with her husband, she created a popular mystery novels series Honey West, published under the pen name G. G. Fickling.
Background
Gloria Fickling was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1926 as Gloria Gautraud and grew up in St. Albans in what was then rural Long Island. As a teenager of fourteen, she contracted a severe rheumatic fever, and on the advice of doctors, her parents sent her to live for a year with an aunt in southern California. Her health improved dramatically, and after returning home, she felt certain that her future would be here.
Career
As soon as Gloria then still Gautraud graduated from high school, she went west to Los Angeles with the aim of getting into the fashion industry as a journalist. She worked her way onto the field’s most influential newspaper, Women’s Wear Daily, and later as a fashion publicist for the May Company, which included arranging photo shoots for its ad campaigns.
After World War II ended Gloria Gautraud met the love of her life, Forrest E. “Skip” Fickling. They married in May 1949.
Skip Fickling’s other passion was writing fiction, and Gloria often worked to support him so that he could write novels. She became a trade newspaper “stringer” often writing about Laguna Hills where the family resided. Skip’s early efforts never found a publisher, whereupon he then came up with the idea of a spunky female private detective whose personality matched that of his wife. Honey West was no prim Miss Marples. Rather, she was a young, bright, and self-assured blond with the body of Marilyn Monroe and skills that usually outmatched those men who underestimated her. What is certain, however, is there never had been a female sleuth like her before in fiction. The couple would eventually write eleven titles under the name, “G.G. Fickling,” using Gloria’s maiden name for the initials. As Gloria would later describe it, Skip had the inspiration but not the organization, so Gloria used her talents as editor to pull the books together with plot devices and a sure fashion sense.
By the 1960s, the books were selling in the millions and the Encyclopedia Britannica deemed Honey West as "the leading female fictional character in the world." A television series starring Anne Francis as Honey turned out to be disappointing, though, because they had been contractually prevented from writing scripts for it. Nonetheless, success allowed Gloria and Skip to finish their dream house in Laguna Hills. Skip died in 1998, but Gloria continues to write pieces for local journals.
Gloria Gautraud and Forrest "Skip" Fickling married in 1949. On something of a lark, Skip joined a Marine Corps Reserve unit at El Toro. As so many other Marines had discovered, the base was located conveniently to Laguna Beach. They began renting a series of houses here with the requirement that each have a sweeping view of the Pacific. Then, in July of 1950 following the communist invasion of South Korea, Skip was ordered to active duty at Camp Pendleton. Shortly afterwards, Gloria went into labor with their first child. There were complications, and unfortunately, the base hospital was ill-equipped for such emergencies. The baby, a boy, died three days later. Gloria was understandably devastated and went into a severe depression. Fortunately, the Marine Corps compassionately released Skip from active duty, leading them to the next stage of their lives that would bring them much fame as a couple as well as three more sons: Michael, Christopher, and Jeffry Evan.