Tag Archives: Angela Hardwicke

Russ Colchamiro Talks Angela Hardwicke

With a new year comes a new sci-fi mystery from Crazy 8 Press inmate Russ Colchamiro, featuring his intergalactic hardboiled private eye Angela Hardwicke. Part Doctor Who, part Blade Runner, part Philip Marlowe, Hardwicke is back again in Fractured Lives.

As Hardwicke gears up for another mystery, we sat down with Russ to discuss this noirish sci-fi tale and his long-range plans for the character:

Crazy 8 Press: You say Angela Hardwicke is an intergalactic private eye. What’s her turf?

Russ: Hardwicke’s turf is Eternity, a galactic realm in service of the design, maintenance, and construction of the Universe. Eternity—or E-Town, as it’s known—is to the Cosmos what Hollywood is to the movie business. At street level, Eternity looks and feels much like our Earth, but a bit more futuristic. Not quite Blade Runner, but not entirely modern Earth either. Somewhere in between.

C8: What was the inspiration for Hardwicke?

Russ: I’ve always loved private detective stories and noir. And I love science fiction and fantasy. Hardwicke first appeared in two of my previous novels Genius de Milo and Astropalooza. I immediately fell in love with her and knew we’d be together for a long, long time.

C8: How does the intergalactic element fit into her cases?

Russ: After her initial appearances as a tertiary and secondary character, I’ve since written five Hardwicke short stories and two novels. Some of Hardwicke’s adventures are down and dirty at street level, while others take place in various corners of the Universe. Most take place in both within the same story. My goal, particularly with the novels, is to juxtapose the workaday, dangerous, grind-it-out necessities of being a tough and thorough investigator, with the complex, fascinating, and unpredictable nature of the Universe, and the beings who populate it.

C8: Hardwicke has a young protégé, Eric Whistler, and a cast of supporting players. Are they back?

Russ: You bet! Whistler wants so badly for Hardwicke to respect him both as a PI and a person, so he sometimes tries a little too hard. But he’s learning!

C8: So what’s Hardwicke up to in Fractured Lives?

Russ: Whereas the first Hardwicke novel, Crackle and Fire, had more of a thriller vibe, Fractured Lives is a more personal, emotional story for Hardwicke. A woman named Wanda Fyne comes to Hardwicke saying that her teenage daughter, Darla, a galaxy design prodigy and freshman at a prestigious design school, is having some sort of nervous breakdown that does not conform to or results from mental illness or stress. Wanda contends it’s far worse and insidious—that someone has stolen a piece of Darla’s soul.

There are also rumors about a nefarious character known as the Scarlet Raj, who is some sort of urban legend. I’ll let you discover whether or not the two are connected, but the mystery takes us all over E-Town, including to this specialized University, the local art scene, construction sites, and a semi-secret organization that makes repairs in the Universe.  

The intersection of these elements is further complicated by Hardwicke’s five-year-old-son, Owen, who may or may not have special abilities of his own. Ultimately, Hardwicke is forced to reconcile how—or if—she can continue to be a badass intergalactic private eye and a mother. Her life is often in danger, both on-realm and off, and is off the grid on a rolling basis. As a result, the two key sides of her life collide, and don’t always work out the way she wants. 

C8: Great cover, by the way! It’s so striking.

Russ: Thanks! It took several iterations to get it where I wanted, but once you read the novel, the imagery will make perfect sense.

C8: Do you have additional plans for Hardwicke?

Russ: Absolutely! I just started writing the third Hardwicke novel, which will be out September 2022. I will be writing at least five Hardwicke novels, one a year through book five. At that point, depending on fan enthusiasm, I’ll either keep going, or jump into the spin-off series I have planned. I’m not ready to decide just yet how I’m going to handle that. I’ll see how things are going when I get there. But yes, if you’re a fan of Hardwicke, and I hope you are, there will be many more Hardwicke adventures to come, including new short stories which will continue to pop up, and maybe even a collection at some point.

C8: Do we need to read the Hardwicke mysteries in sequence?

Russ: Each Hardwicke mystery is completely self-contained. You might miss a little character development if you read the novels out of order, which is true of any ongoing series, but it doesn’t matter where you start. I reintroduce the world building and the characters in each novel so you always know where you are.

Fractured Lives is on sale now!

Angela Hardwicke, Intergalactic Private Eye

I love private eyes. Always have. Part detective, part crime stopper, part secret agent. And lots of mystery.

And yet Angela Hardwicke, my hard-boiled PI who has now appeared in eight of my books through Crazy 8 Press, seemingly came out of nowhere.

Then again, doesn’t that sound like a private eye?

An amalgam of Doctor Who, Blade Runner, and Philip Marlowe, Angela Hardwicke first appeared in Genius de Milo, the second in my Finders Keepers sci-fi comedy backpacking trilogy, which might seem an odd place for a private eye to show up in the first place.

Loosely based on a series of backpacking trips I took through Europe and New Zealand with a buddy of mine, Finders Keepers is a Bill and Ted-style romp about two loveable knuckleheads running around the globe having zany adventures, while simultaneously mixed up in a quest for a jar containing the Universe’s DNA.

Finders Keepers was supposed to be one and done, but I left it open-ended, and ultimately followed up with the sequels Genius de Milo and Astropalooza, with the scope of the three-book narrative far exceeding my expectations.

When Hardwicke first shows up in Genius de Milo, it’s a blink-and-you-miss-it appearance, but I knew even then I was onto something, so Hardwicke played a much larger and significant role in Astropalooza. After that I was utterly hooked, and knew I’d be writing Hardwicke stories again.

Before I gave her a stand-alone novel, however, much less her own series, I put together an anthology for Crazy 8 Press called Love, Murder & Mayhem—I served as editor—collecting 15 stories from as many authors contributing a range of sci-fi mysteries. It was in this collection I wrote my first Hardwicke short story, “The Case of My Old New Life and the One I Never Knew,” about arson in a rock club in the galactic realm of Eternity.

Since then I’ve written a half dozen Hardwicke short stories, taking her from one end of the Cosmos to the other, with cases about a massive helix of the Universe’s DNA, rerouting Halley’s Comet, a whodunnit in a daycare center, and a case about an AI on death row, “The Case of Jarlo’s Buried Treasure,” which appears as a bonus story at the end of my first Hardwicke novel, Crackle and Fire, on sale today.

On the surface, Crackle and Fire has Hardwicke tracking down an intern from a galactic accounting firm who has disappeared with sensitive corporate files.

Yet the mystery, as these things do, becomes much larger than Hardwicke ever envisioned—she soon finds herself embroiled in a deadly case of lies, intrigue, and murder, clashing with vengeful gangsters, MinderNot rallies, and a madman who’s come a long way to get what he wants.

Dig even deeper, though, and you’ll find that Crackle and Fire is as much about Hardwicke having to make a critical decision—can she be an intergalactic private and all that comes with it and be a mother to her young son who, for reasons I won’t share now, is not in her care?

It’s a critical question for Hardwicke, and the answers don’t come easy.

As you can see, Hardwicke and I have been getting to know each other. It’s been a great relationship so far, but we’re just getting started. Hopefully you’ll come to know her, too.

Crackle and Fire is Hardwicke’s first novel, with many more deadly cases yet to come. I’m working on the sequel now, and it’s a doozy.

The only question for you is: are you ready for the ride?