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|  Deaf
Characters in
Fiction
Mystery
/ Suspense
( Recently
discovered)
My notes on the deaf characters in red.
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Steven
Barish - Reasonable Doubt
Exposing a murderer and rescuing
a friend from jail is doubly dangerous when you can't hear,
especially when there is Reasonable Doubt. |
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Jean
Bedford - Signs of Murder
(Australian writer). Published
by Angus and Robertson.
If
you know of this title or deaf character, please email the
info to me at info@myshelf.com
|
Amazon |
T.C. Boyle - Talk Talk
The main character (Dana) is deaf, and becomes a victim of
identity theft.
"This time Boyle delivers a fast-paced, edge-of-your
seat thriller, applying his mastery of language and characterization
to the compulsively readable mode of the commercial suspense
novel. He proves that he can master his literary chops to
maintain the tension as well as any old pro of the genre...the
great achievement of Talk Talk is the way the novel brings
us into the moment-by-moment experience of its profoundly
deaf central character. We feel and understand her every emotion
and reaction." -the Portland Oregonian
Thank you Kristi D., Manager of WOU Bookstore in Monmouth,
OR, for sending us this title.
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Gillian
Bradshaw - The Somers Treatment
(SF/Mystery)
Doctor Janet Morley has taken a young, deaf Nepalese boy under
her wing and taken him to England in the hope of finding medical
treatment to help him. But neurosurgeon David Somers and MI5
agent Michael Shahid only serve to rouse her suspicions that
something more sinister is in the air. |
Amazon |
Dan
Brown - Digital Fortress
(TechoThriller) When the NSA encounters a code it cannot break,
the agency calls its head cryptographer. What she uncovers
sends shock waves throughout the corridors of power.
Assassin in the storyline is Deaf.
|
| Amazon |
Heron
Carvic
- Miss Seeton Draws the Line
"A
Miss Seeton mystery." Includes a major deaf character.
If
you know of this title or deaf character, please email the
info to me at info@myshelf.com
|
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Ira
Cochin - Passion Hunter
Gumm Bwongi regains consciousness
in the jungle to find her husband Mutua, a game warden at a
wildlife reserve in Kenya, dead at the hands of the poacher
they were tracking. Gumm heads to the to the town of Zun-gowa.
Gumm sees Mak enter a repair shop whose owner is a huge, powerful
man named Ebbe Tongwa. Later, Gumm meets Ebbe and finds he
is deaf and blind, a kindly, gentle man who has triumphed over
his disabilities. |
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Susan
Conant - Ruffly Speaking
Has deaf character and one who
is losing her hearing
(The
focus is on dogs, including a hearing ear dog for the deaf).
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Edmund
Crispin - Buried for Pleasure
( Gervase Fen
Series)
If
you know of this title or deaf character, please email the
info to me at info@myshelf.com
|
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Carla
Damron - Keeping Silent
(A Caleb Knowles Mystery) Sam, a
deaf artist is accused of murdering his deaf fiancee. His
hearing brother Caleb is out to prove him innocent, but is
having a hard time of it.
(Signing and lip reading thoroughout. Deaf characterization
VERY realistic - best I've read so far. Tugged at my heart
strings.)
|
Amazon with titles |
Lindsey
Davis - Time
to Depart ~ Ode
to a Banker
(Historical Mystery- Ancient
Rome) - Main character finds a deaf baby in Time to Depart.
His sister adopts the baby. In Ode to a Banker
the adopted deaf child, Marcus Baebius Junillus is age 3.
(Character
makes noises, mother has him copy her mouth movements to teach
him speech. Also draws pictures when teaching him. I am interested
to see how the author handles this in future story lines.
Set in 74 A.D. )
|
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Colin
Dexter - The Silent World of Nicholas
Quinn
A deaf academic who designs
English-as-a-foreign-language tests for Oxford is murdered. |
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Colin
Dexter - The Remorseful Day
(Last Inspector Morse)
Deaf man is one of the suspects in his mother's murder.
(Character uses voice and lip reads. The other characters
reminds the reader that he is deaf by saying so. Not as good
a deaf characterization as I would like to see in a storyline.)
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Jeffrey
Deaver - A Maiden's Grave
A bus carrying eight deaf
children and their teachers stops in the middle of the Kansas
countryside, a car wreck directly ahead. Soon, three escaped
killers rise out of the nearby cornfields and take children
and teachers hostage |
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Toni
Dwiggins - Interrupt
(TecnoThriller) In Silicon Valley,
profoundly deaf 12-year-old Wayne Faulkner tries to call 911
when an intruder stuns his father in the back yard - and 40,000
phones suddenly go dead. Wayne's father, Andy, can't figure
out what happened, and he ought to see it at once: he's a telecom
engineer, after all. But the terrorist Interrupt is clever,
and Interrupt doesn't mind murder... Andy, soon a prime suspect,
must identify Interrupt before the next killing - for Interrupt
has taken Wayne. But Interrupt may be anybody, even the beautiful
lineworker, Nell Colson. Anybody at all. |
| Alfred
Hitchock's mystery magazine |
Robert
Edmond - Alter An Accident Has
Been Arranged
(Alfred Hitchock's mystery
magazine ; v. 4, no. 2) (March 1959) Includes a deaf character.
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Forrest
L. Erickson, Debra A. Petersen - Silent Zone
A powerful military general has
been granted exclusive authority to conduct a top-secret experiment.
When a faulty computer chip causes a system overload, the
experiment is responsible for the tens of thousands of people
within the 45.5 degree parallel to become deaf. Only a select
few individuals that are working on it, the general and the
President of the United States, know the true purpose of the
top-secret experiment. When chaos begins, so does the conspiracy
to cover up the truth about the real cause of the deafening
crisis. |
Amazon |
Steve Eubanks - Hot Laps
[review]
A Stockcar Thriller
Protagonist’s teen daughter is hearing-impaired.
Eubanks handles the dialogue-through-signing so well that
Katie’s conversations fit.
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Roberta
Gellis - A Mortal Bane
(Historical Mystery) Magdalene
la Batarde, a widow runs a former whorehouse whose staff includes
blind Sabina, slightly simple Ella, mute Letice, and deaf cook
Dulcie. |
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Elizabeth
George - For the Sake of Elena
Elena Weaver was a surprise
to anyone meeting her for the first time. In her clingy dresses
and dangling earrings she exuded a sexuality at odds with the
innocence projected by the unicorn posters on her walls. While
her embittered mother fretted about her welfare from her home
in London, in Cambridge — where Elena was a student at
St. Stephen's College — her father and his second wife
each had their own very different image of the girl. Elena is
deaf and someone bludgeoned her to death. |
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Dorothy
Gilman - Thale's Folly
Not your typical mystery.
Lead character solves strange situation. Homeless person turned
deaf -- mentioned a time or two.
(Very
minor character. Rarely seen. Don't get a grasp that the person
is deaf. Others just say he is.)
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Sue
Grafton - "A" is for
Alibi
(A Kinsey Millhone Mystery)
~ Includes a minor deaf character.
If
you know of this title or deaf character, please email the
info to me at info@myshelf.com
|
| Amazon |
H.
Edward Hunsburger
- Death Signs
Includes
a major deaf character.
If
you know of this title or deaf character, please email the
info to me at info@myshelf.com
|
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Kristen
Johnson Ingram - The Rule
of Silence
The deaf nun was polishing the
green malachite altar with a soft cloth, illuminated only by
the dark red of the sanctuary light hanging from its sconce
behind the altar. Then her fingers moved rapidly, spelling something:
Behind you. Be careful. Behind you! Allegra whirled, drawing
in her breath. In the dim light someone wielding a heavy iron
shovel was rushing down the stairs toward her. |
Amazon |
Polly
Iyer - InSight
Mystery w/ a blind Psychologist and a deaf Detective. Deafness
by gunblast while taking down a meth lab.
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Hialeah
Jackson (aka Polly Whitney) -
The Alligator's Farewell
People who haven't been hurt by life don't become private eyes.
Before Annabelle Hardy took over her father's Miami detective
agency, she was beautiful, married, and teaching at Yale. She's
still beautiful--but now she's deaf, widowed, and learning the
lessons of the streets from her hot-tempered and oddly named
partner, Dave the Monkeyman. They're not your usual P.I.'s.
And their new case is not your usual murder.
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Martha
P. Johnson - Deadly Secret
Anne Barnhart finally felt safe.
Her psychotic ex-husband - convicted of murdering two little
girls - was believed to be dead. Now she could put the memories
of her brutal marriage behind her and begin to enjoy the new
life she'd carved out.for her and her deaf daughter. Except
that a woman has just been killed... a woman who was driving
Anne's car. Daughter is Lindsay - deaf and in danger. |
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J.
A. Jance - Exit Wounds:
A Novel of Suspense
Deaf pup. They use sign to talk
to him. :) |
Amazon |
Jonathan
Kellerman. - Silent
Partner
Includes
two deaf characters, Shirlee and Jasper Ransom |
Amazon
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Judith
Kelman - The Session
Caity is deaf and a best-selling
children’s writer.
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Betty
Sullivan La Pierre - The
Silent Scream
(Suspense / Thriller) The
main character is a young deaf boy who finds his mother and
dog murdered in his house. 3rd in the Hawkman Series |
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Margaret
Lawrence - Hearts and
Bones - Blood Red Roses - The Burning Bride
Midwife Hannah Trevor and her
deaf-mute daughter set in 1780s Maine. - Indian Signs and
Lip Reading for communication.
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Margaret
Lawrence - Ice Weaver
(Hsitory
Mystery) In January 1809, John Frayne returns to New Forge,
New York, to reclaim his father's confiscated lands and becomes
drawn to a beautiful, damaged woman in ragged clothing -- a
perplexing, wild creature. A mute madwoman named Jennet,
she is soon declared indigent and put up for auction. Frayne,
stangely compelled to help her, bids for her future. Together,
they struggle through the coarse and killing world that closes
in on them both. |
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Jack
Livingston - Die Again, Macready ~ Hell-bent
for Election ~ The Nightmare File ~ A Piece of the Silence
Series with a deaf detective named
Joe Binney. --
out of print-- |
| out
of print |
Bud
Long - The
Case of the Lombard Street Murder - The Case of
the Los Angeles Chameleon
Featuring Comrade Dolgov of the
KGB. A novelette. Includes a deaf character, Karl Trevinko.
Sign language is used throughout. (Author is deaf)
|
| Amazon |
Bret
Lott
- The Hunt Club: A
Novel
(Amazon.com) "It started with a body,
the head of it pretty much gone, the hands skinned." This
eerie introduction to Bret Lott's The Hunt Club
sets the tone for this novel of murder, violence, and sinister
secrets. The settings are dark and sultry: ramshackle trailers,
forgotten burial grounds, and the seedy Hunt Club itself, built
on "trash land." Events are witnessed through the
eyes of 15-year-old Huger Dillard, smart, precocious, and always
at the forefront of some crisis or criminal activity. Huger
is also the eyes for his uncle, the owner of the Hunt Club who
was left blind from a fire that killed his wife. Huger and "Unc"
are unwittingly entangled in a web of murder and deceit, and
they must solve this classic whodunit. Assisted by a local
cook and her young, deaf daughter, this is a fresh and
innovative detective team. |
| Amazon |
Cynthia
Manson - Death of the Verandah
Mystery stories of the South from Ellery
Queen's mystery magazine and Alfred Hitchcock mystery magazine
/ edited by Cynthia Manson.
Contents:
The comforts of home / by Flannery O'Connor -- Tell the women
we're going / by Raymond Carver -- Old Mr. Marblehall / by Eudora
Welty -- The forgotten witness / by Melville Davisson Post --
Come down from the hills / by John F. Suter -- The grave grass
quivers / by MacKinlay Kantor -- The Georgia resurrection /
by S.S. Rafferty -- Voices in dead man's well / by Donald Honig
-- The right to sing the blues / by John Lutz -- Just like a
hog / by Bryce Walton -- Jambalaya / by Douglas Craig -- The
theft of the bald man's comb / by Edward D. Hoch -- The
Secret / by Florence V. Mayberry -- The family rose
/ by Charlotte Hinger -- The last revival / by Clark Howard
-- Willie's story / by Jerry F. Skarky.
Notes: Originally published: New York : Carroll & Graf,
1994.
Short
story "The Secret" includes a deaf character.
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Deanie
Francis Mills - The Jigsaw Man
If
you know of this title or deaf character, please email the
info to me at info@myshelf.com
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Ed
McBain - Cop Hater - Eight
Black Horses - Let's Hear it for the Deaf Man
~80 Million Eyes -The Heckler
- Mischief - Hark!
(87th precinct mystery) The deaf
man is a bad character who gives the 87th Precinct grief..
Cop
Hater: Detective Carella meets and woos
the beautiful deaf-mute Teddy
|
Amazon |
Ed
McBain - McBain's Ladies: The
Women of the 87th Precinct
(From
Publishers Weekly) This book is not one of McBain's superior
police procedurals but a jumble of excerpts from his bestsellers
about the 87th Precinct. Lifted out of context, these chapters
describe both the policewomen of the precinct and the wives
and lovers of the men on the force. Starting when Detective
Carella meets and woos the beautiful deaf-mute Teddy (Cop Hater,
1956), other extracts dwell upon the Carellas as the ideal
spouses, parents and lovers. |
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Anthony
Morton - Deaf, Dumb, and
Blonde
If
you know of this title or deaf character, please email the
info to me at info@myshelf.com
|
| Amazon |
Carolyn
Brimley Norris
- Island Of Silence
Mystery
story involving Deaf and hearing people (1978) |
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Charles
O'Brien - Mute Witness
- Black Gold - Noble Blood
- Lethal Beauty - Cruel Choices
- Fatal Carnival
(Historical Mystery - French
Revolution) Anne Cartier, a vaudeville actress soon to be
a deaf teacher works in London and Paris just before the French
Revolution. Solves mysteries and training to teach the deaf.
Deaf woman is a witness in this one.
(Many
mentions of both historically famous deaf schools in Paris and
London. Communication with the deaf in the story line is done
with some signing, some lip-reading, drawing and painting, but
mostly mentions silently showing. Very Well Done..)
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Abigail
Padgett - Child of Silence
This powerful and suspenseful
debut features an unusual heroine, San Diego Juvenile Court
child abuse investigator Bo Bradley. A closet manic-depressive,
Bo fights to keep her job and her equilibrium when she is assigned
the case of a four-year-old boy found tied to a mattress in
an abandoned house on an Indian reservation. She realizes that
the boy is deaf, not retarded as she first thought, and hopes
to place him with a family who will teach him to sign. |
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Jane
Peart - A Sinister
Silence
(Christian Mystery) [Edgecliffe
Manor Mysteries] (Historical
Mystery) turn-of-the-century
England. Paige Mallory becomes sick and looses her hearing.
Like a deaf person she uses sign and lip reading. Will her deafness
be permanent? |
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Nancy
Pickard - The Whole Truth
Murder of six-year-old deaf girl |
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**Dianne
G. Pugh, Dana Issacson (Editor) - Cold
Call
(An Iris Thorne Mystery) In
Pugh's fast-paced debut, she introduces a new series and a wonderful
new heroine: immediately likable, witty investment counselor
Iris Thorne. The only man at the office who knew the real Iris
was Alley, the deaf and handicapped mailman. When Alley is killed,
Iris knows it wasn't a random act of violence--because Alley
was hiding $238,000 in a safe-deposit box. |
Amazon with titles
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Alan
Russell - No Sign of Murder
~ The Forest Prime Evil
If
you know of this title or deaf character, please email the
info to me at info@myshelf.com
|
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Dwight
Steward - The Acupuncture Murders
(A Joan Kahn-Harper novel
of suspense) Includes a deaf character. |
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John
Simpson - Crossed Wires
Crossed Wires, a highly
original mystery novel, introduces readers to an unusual heroine,
who is being stalked by a particularly chilling serial killer.
Finley is tenacious, sympathetic, and attractive. What then
makes her an unusual sleuth? Finley is deaf. And Finley
and the murderer who hunts her inhabit, literally, a new world
- almost a new dimension. They live an important part of their
lives within the electronic bulletin boards accessed by their
personal computers. |
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D.R.
(David) Schanker - A Criminal Appeal
Nora Lumsey aids with the
appeal of a 10 year old black deaf boy accused of a drive
by shooting (murder). |
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Victoria
Thompson - Murder on St. Mark's
Place (A Gaslight Mystery)
Victorian mystery about
a midwife and a NY detective who solve crimes on their own.
The detective has a 3 year old deaf son. The father investigates
ways to help him and his son communicate.
Beginning signs of deafness very realistic -- tore at my heart!
Can't wait to see this storyline take off in next mystery)
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Peter
Tremayne - The Spider's Web: A
Mystery of Ancient Ireland
(Historical Mystery)
Chieftain of Araglin, has been murdered by Moen, a deaf, dumb,
and blind creature raised by Teafla, who has also been slain.
Sister Fidelma and an aged mountain recluse, Gadra, must
use finger signals with Moen. They want to prove him innocent. |
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Barry
Unsworth - Morality Play
(History Mystery) Nicholas Barber
is a twenty-three-year-old priest who, fearing the wrath of
the bishop for breaking his vows of chastity, takes up with
a troupe of traveling players. Coming to a small town in the
middle of winter, the troupe puts on their usual morality play
but gets caught up in a drama of a different kind: a murder
has taken place, and a mute-and-deaf girl stands condemned,
awaiting execution |
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Penny
Warner - Dead Body Language ~
Sign of Foul Play ~ Right to Remain Silent ~ A Quiet Undertaking
~ Blind Side ~Silence Is Golden -
Dead
Man's Hand
Deaf newspaper woman,
Connor Westphal in Flat Skunk, CA.
Click
here for the Kindle format !
.
(Female sleuth signs and lip reads,
but also talks well. Reminders of deafness throughout.)
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Patricia
Wentworth - The Listening
Eye
Paulina Paine, though deaf, can lip
read so well that she "overhears" two men plotting
a theft and murder. A perfect case for Miss Silver.
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