Writing the other: The private eye in Cheryl A. Head's Bury Me When I’m Dead

The paper examines the representation of Charlie Mack, the African American bisexual female private eye in Cheryl A. Head's Bury Me When I'm Dead (2016) to understand the generic and ideological shifts, observed in lesbian crime fiction by contemporary African American women writers. Placed at the intersection of feminist theories and crime fiction studies, it examines how the protagonist in the novel not only questions the Anglo-American masculine ideology of the private eye but also unshackles it from female-heterosexual biases. The paper thus argues that the African American private investigator re-interprets the role of the detective in contemporary crime fiction and highlights the transformation that has shaped the very understanding of the genre. The discussion shows how Charlie Mack is crucial in questioning traditional detective stereotypes, redefining the normative nature of ‘sleuthing’, and claiming agency in the context of intersecting inequalities.