Mystery Writer Eleanor Taylor Brand Dies

Eleanor Taylor Bland, author of 13 mystery books, died of cancer on June 2. Her series features African American Marti MacAlister as a tough streetwise homicide detective who lives in a suburb about thirty miles north of Chicago with her two children. Bland lived most of her life in Waukegan. Her support of the written word was legendary. She served on the board of the Waukegan Public Library and chaired the friends of the library. She mentored writers Libby Fischer Hellman and Michael Dymmoch and served as president of Sisters in Crime. Bland once commented that "the most significant contribution that we (African American women writers) 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." Bland received the Pen Oakland Josephine Miles Award, the Chester A. Himes Mystery Fiction Award, and the Most Influential African American of Lake County Award. On her blog, Chicago author Sara Paretsky wrote: "Our world of writers, readers, humans is diminished....Grace under pressure, gallantry, these are the images that come to mind, and, always, a smile that warmed us to the core of our souls. May your memory be a blessing to those of us you’ve left behind."