New Character - A Series in the Making??

I think I have encountered a character who can stand up to at least one more novel.

Bev Deller is an insurance adjuster who specializes in fire investigations. Typically she works on large losses such as hotels, restaurants and factories. She routinely deals with cops, lawyers, injured people and business people with many different agendas.

There's conflict galore! And she travels, so there can be all kinds of interesting settings.

She's divorced with a teen-aged daughter. They live in the small college town in Ohio, where Bev grew up and to which she returned to live with her father after her divorce. Her father is now dead. Her mother is an aging Chicago socialite who left her father when Bev was very small. Her father's family disowned him from the time he left home for college, and they never acknowledged Bev. That family estrangement has left her daughter feeling disconnected, rootless and curious. The primary sub-plot in After the Fire involves the process of connecting with Bev's father's family.

Sub-plots can go in lots of directions: dad's family; weird mom; teen angst.

Bev is tough but fair, and very tender-hearted (although she keeps that to herself for her own protection). She's smart and no-nonsense whether she'd dealing with investigators, lawyers or claimants. She's compassionate and gentle when dealing with victims of tragedy. She's ruthless and uncompromising when dealing with people who commit insurance fraud and/or who intentionally destroy property and injure people.

She's multi-dimensional.

I think I might follow After the Fire with another Bev Deller story and see if I can market them as a potential series.

Meredith