Watching the Detectives by Helen Chappell

So, I thought I’d check in with my friends Vernon Murray and Karl and Sherry Peoples. Collectively, they and their employees are known as C.S.I., Confidential Secure Investigations. Did you know there are private eyes in Easton? This town is just full of surprises. Unlike the amateur sleuth of my mysteries, Hollis Ball, these

folks are for real. Welcome to the world of real-life private detectives. The highly romantic image of private investigators has been shaped by books, movies and TV. The archetype is Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe, or Richard Roundtree’s John Shaft, the hardboiled Dick who works alone in a seedy office, bottle of

Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake in The Blue Dahlia (1946), directed by George Marshall and written by Raymond Chandler. 9