Background
She was born in Trieste, Italy but spent most of her life in New York.
(At forty-one, Norah Mulcahaney's star is on the rise: She...)
At forty-one, Norah Mulcahaney's star is on the rise: She's passed the rigorous NYPD's captain's exam, and she's also succeeded in adopting a baby boy. But, her happiness is shattered when, within a month's time, four of her fellow officers commit suicide, each man found dead of a wound inflicted by his own service revolver. When Norah's longtime mentor, Chief James Felix, asks her to pay a visit to one of the grieving widows, Norah finds herself immersed in a controversial case that hits way too close to home. Chief Felix very nearly becomes the fifth victim, compelling Norah to prove the deaths are murder, not suicide. It's a race against time--before another of New York City's finest is laid to rest forever. With a plot that will keep O'Donnell's fans guessing, Blue Death is a gripping addition to the Norah Mulcahaney series.
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She was born in Trieste, Italy but spent most of her life in New York.
She studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, New York and her first career was in the theatre - as an actress on stage and television and as first female stage manager on Broadway.
Until 1954 she worked as a director and stage manager of summer stock packages for the Schubert Organization. From 1960 she published ten stand-alone novels. They varied from fairly stock murder mysteries to novels of psychological suspense.
Only one, The Face of the Crime, was a police procedural. In 1972, her first book with Nora Mulcahaney The Phone Calls was published. It brought back characters from her earlier police novel, but with the addition of the female lead.
In total, 17 books were published in this series, the last in 1998. Each book focused on a single major crime and Nora's concerns about her personal life were intertwined with her working life. In 1977, 1979 and 1980 she tried an interesting idea in a separate series - a protagonist, Mici Anhalt, who is an investigator for a Crime Victims Compensation Board.
In 1990, she moved with the times, following other women who had begun series centered on female private detectives. In total she published four books with lead character Gwen Rammadge, a genteel woman turned private investigator to pay the bills. One of the Norah Mulcahaney books, No Business Being a Cop was filmed for TV as Prime Target, starring Angie Dickinson, Joseph Bologna and David Soul.
(At forty-one, Norah Mulcahaney's star is on the rise: She...)