Photo By Jymi Bolden

In his latest book, Atomic Renaissance, local author Jeffrey Marks pays homage to the women mystery writers of the 1940s and '50s.

Jeffrey Marks has a thing for the ladies. Morbid curiosity is not exactly what drives his interest, although there's always a certain bit of morbidity when it comes to mystery writers. Death, after all, becomes her, as Marks explores in his latest release, Atomic Renaissance: Women Mystery Writers of the 1940s and 1950s.

The book is an appetizer, sampling the lives of seven authors, including Phoebe Taylor Atwood, Dorothy B. Hughes and Patricia Highsmith, through mini-biographies. As World War II ended, these women moved away from society's expectant need for home-baked apple pie to cook up some devil-filled literary delights. Men of the time, having experienced the stark horror of war, no longer pondered whether it was Col. Mustard in the hall with the candlestick. Real-life grit clung to the new shape of mystery writing. Women, seeking a dangerous fantasy closer reflecting their reality, exploded into a field where they weren't wanted.

Delving into the women who shaped the craft of mystery writing is a decisive déjà vu for Marks. An earlier title, Who Was That Lady?, devoted itself to Craig Rice, a peer to the authors featured in Atomic Renaissance. His research into Rice led Marks to continue investigating this literary niche, though he couldn't possibly devote a whole book to each of his subjects.

"Part, I just started with a woman and there was an informal old-girls network," Marks explains. "Seven just seemed like a lucky number. It seemed like a good number for a book."

But Marks' success in capturing these women can't solely be contributed to luck. Barriers presented themselves. Time wasn't on his side. Authors popular in the day were fading from view.

"There were two or three people that shortly after I talked to, they passed on," he says.

"When all was said and done, there was not enough to get in-depth biographies. In a lot of cases, it's not rehashed material."

To fill in the blanks, Marks found himself going back to school. A dreaded occurrence for many, Marks is completely comfortable with the notion. He loves seeing what's hidden in the hallowed halls of university libraries, a prime resource in allowing him to experience his Atomic Renaissance.

"It's getting to be fairly common for mystery writers to leave (their papers) to a university. From those papers, you can usually find all you need to know about them," Marks explains. "I just get a kick out of sitting there all day and reading it. I usually have to put time limits on my research, or else I'd stay in that phase forever."

The persistent patience imbedded in Marks' personality and his almost disturbing love of research allowed him to construct his selective Who's Who. Marks has the unenviable task of serving seven, using little available ingredients. His efforts result in biographical fast food -- quick and easy-to-digest with a hunger for more. To address that need left in readers, Marks garnishes his compilation with bibliographies for each author and recommends similar contemporary authors.

"I actually had myself listed in Dorothy B. Hughes. She had that balance of different things that I found I did, too," says Marks, who enjoys moving from non-fiction to fiction in his own writing. "I find if I just do one or the other, I don't know, I find I just want to do something else."

Marks began his career by going to the dogs. He edited Canine Crimes and Canine Christmas, two themed mystery anthologies, penning his own stories for each collection. More would follow: Magnolias & Mayhem, Murder Mystery and Malone and the forthcoming Criminal Appetites. His fascination with Craig Rice led to Who Was That Lady? Spending time on Rice pushed Marks onto his own full-length fiction. He's working on the third title in his Ulysses S. Grant series.

"I always enjoyed history, and I knew a lot about Grant, being born in the same town as him," Marks says, referring to Georgetown, Ohio. "I kind of like the idea too of a tarnished hero, not quite the white knight."

The historical mysteries have served him well with the first two entries, The Ambush of My Name and A Good Soldier. And somewhere along the way Marks found time for Intent to Sell: Marketing the Genre Novel.

This is one writer with no time for writer's block.

"I never have it. I suffer from the opposite," Marks confesses. "I have more ideas than I have time to commit it to paper. It's really hard to say no when something just comes to you. A couple of the scenes come to me, and it just kind of starts from there. And those couple of scenes suggest other ideas."

And before he knows it, Marks is experiencing a renaissance all his own, just like those ladies he loves. ©