11/12/1996 Jeremiah Healy gives the state of the profession address

November 12, 1996.  On this date, in Vienna, Austria, American mystery writer Jeremiah Healy spoke at the conference of the International Association of Crime Writers.  His subject was "the current status of the private investigator novel in the United States."  It was a fitting choice; by that point Healy had published nine books in the award-winning John Francis Cuddy series.

He argued that the two most important changes in the field were women investigators, and the investigation of controversial social issues.  "In my own books I have explored the crisis of the battered spouse in divorce cases like the O.J.Simpson situation, the rights of journalists not to reveal their confidential sources for articles, the issue of whether a person should have the Doctor-Kevorkian right to assisted suicide, and the dangers posed by religious fanatics.  I also think this current focus on social issues has elevated the private investigator novel from the level of popular entertainment to a zenith of important literature."

The speech appeared in the Summer 1997 issue of Murderous Intent mystery Magazine.