Tara Moss is now a private investigator
Sunday Herald Sun, Australia
Moss goes undercover
MODEL, author, TV host... now Tara Moss can add private investigator to her list of professions. The glamorous best-selling author graduated from the Australian Security Academy in Sydney on Friday with her Certificate III (in Investigations ed.).
Her next step is to apply to the NSW police to obtain a full private investigator's licence. She plans to make the application before the end of the month. When registered by the police she can start working as a fully fledged PI.
"I am very excited,'' Moss said yesterday.
The internationally successful author said she planned to use her newly acquired skills to help research future novels.
She is already deeply into her latest novel, tentatively titled Siren. She visited burlesque clubs in Paris during a recent European trip to research story lines for the thriller.
It is not the first time Moss has thrown herself into training for her novels -- several years ago she toured the FBI academy in Quantico, Virginia, and has studied forensic psychology and criminology.
Moss is now based in Sydney after selling her Melbourne home last month. And she is also keeping her eye on the US.
She signed with LA-based production company J2TV, the television arm of J2 Entertainment, in September. J2 is looking at developing a TV project based around Makedde Vanderwall, the fictional former supermodel turned private investigator Moss has developed through her novels Fetish, Split, Covet and Hit.
Sunday Herald Sun - Sydney Confidential
Model-cum-author now a spy
AS one of Sydney's most recognisable society women, it's hard to imagine Tara Moss could go unnoticed anywhere.
But the model author has what it takes to go undercover - and the real McCoy private eye qualifications too.
The glamorous best-seller graduated from the Australian Security Academy on Friday with a Certificate III - with the next step to apply to NSW Police for a licence to spy.
Moss told Confidential the training was to "propel" the plots of her popular crime novels but conceded going undercover had its limitations.
"I'm not necessarily suited to undercover work (given her profile) but the guy I worked with on surveillance told me I was a great distraction," she said, laughing. Professionally speaking, that is.
Tailing a real private investigator for work experience on the job, Moss was used in a decoy role during a domestic stakeout in a suburban shopping centre.
"I had to distract the man we were following, then give the guy I was working with a signal (the man in question) was on his way back to his car."
Her commitment to getting the details right in her previous novels, from her first Fetish to her recent release Hit, has been praised by fans and critics alike.
But when it comes to investigating her private life, Moss declined to reveal too much about the new Sydney man in her romantic life.
"There is a leading man in my life right now but it's very recent, this year. He's not a public figure and I'd rather let him speak for himself," she said, coyly.