Although she knows and cares for the homeless people of her community, she does not identify with them. Then, one of her acquaintances is found dead beneath her home, and she is accused of the crime, which forces her to take a more active part in both the homeless and non-homeless communities. Some novels transcend that beginning and show other homeless characters much more deeply. Some books, like And Your Little Dog, Too by Melissa Cleary and John Grisham's The Street Lawyer, say nice things, ultimately, about their dead homeless characters, but give little insight and have little emotional impact. Remember Me, Irene , by Jan Burke, on the other hand, portrays a much more complex picture, showing homeless alcoholics and rich alcoholics, both rich and poor families under stress and torn apart.
Homeless characters come from a variety of backgrounds.
In Who in Hell is Wanda Fuca , his first book, we are introduced to private detective Leo Waterman, who numbers among his friends many chronically homeless alcoholic men and women. Waterman uses his homeless friends as surveillance operatives in all six of Ford's Waterman novels, his own personal Baker Street Irregulars. Word spreads quickly on the streets, and soon 37 homeless men and women join the investigation in order to get justice for Buddy. Investigating The most recent and most empowering trend in homeless mysteries is the homeless detective. Besides the homeless ops in Ford's fine novels and Lora Robert's Liz Sullivan, there is Rosemary Aubert's Judge Ellis Portal in Free Reign .