Billie Walker, the heroine of Dead Man Switch, is not your average hard-boiled detective.
A fast-talking, champagne-swilling private investigator, Billie’s particular brand of grit was born on the battlefields of World War Two, where she earned her stripes as a war reporter hunting down Nazis. Upon returning to Sydney and finding that women were expected to head back into the kitchen, Billie bucked convention and re-opened her father’s detective agency, where she spends most of her time tracking down cheating spouses until she’s put on the case of a young man who goes missing.
For author and activist Tara Moss, Billie was a character that was seven years in the making.
Dead Man Switch is the beginning of a brand new crime series from Tara that takes us right back to the flinty streets of Sydney in 1946. Meticulously planned and researched (Billie’s office is in a real building that now houses a youth hostel), this book gives its readers both a refreshing twist on a grizzled classic crime genre and a fascinating insight into the Sydney of yesteryear.
Raised on her Oma and Opa’s wartime stories, Tara has been fascinated by the ‘40s all her life. It’s no surprise, then, that the setting of Dead Man Switch came into her head long before its hard-hitting heroine did, and she was keen to dive straight into the research to find an authentic story. Tara looked at hundreds of newspaper articles, city blueprints and photographs of the time, seeking out women’s stories especially.
“It’s kind of my decade for vintage, for film, for hard-boiled and noir. This is a period that I’ve been drawn to for a long time. And then it was kind of, ‘who do I want to see there in the ‘40s?’ and that’s Billie.”
Billie Walker is certainly a very interesting woman for her time, one who’s generated lots of interesting and fun reactions from her readers that Tara has been greatly enjoying.
“I ended up creating a character basically that I want to hang out with,” she laughs.
Tara Moss visited Booktopia for a book signing session, before sitting down for a podcast with Ben Hunter and Bronwyn Eley. To hear all about how Billie Walker came into being, Tara’s fascinating research process, and just what we can expect from this new series in the future, listen to our podcast below and grab a signed copy of Dead Man Switch while stocks last!

Dead Man Switch
Billie Walker: Book 1
Meet PI Billie Walker - smart and sexy, with a dash of Mae West humour, she's a hard-boiled detective with a twist.
Sydney, 1946. Billie Walker is living life on her own terms. World War II has left her bereaved, her photojournalist husband missing and presumed dead. Determined not to rely on any man for her future, she re-opens her late father's detective agency. Billie's bread and butter is tailing cheating spouses - it's easy, pays the bills and she has a knack for it...
About the Contributor
Olivia Fricot
Olivia Fricot (she/her) is Booktopia's Senior Content Producer and editor of the Booktopian blog. She has too many plants and not enough bookshelves, and you can usually find her reading, baking, or talking to said plants. She is pro-Oxford comma.
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