I don't want to sound Politically Incorrect, but the role of women as detectives in mystery novels is time-honored yet must be regarded separately from the role of the male detective. This web page makes a distinction between the 'classic' old maid as sleuth (Jane Marple is the paragon) and the tougher babe whose profession is private investigator (epitomized by Kinsey Millhone); then there are intermediary examples, the woman lawyer, police inspector, or normal housewife caught up in circumstances of a crime if it comes down to that.

Women Detectives Old Maids and Private Eyes

Other 'Category' web pages on this site: The Top Fifty Mystery Novels Locked Room Murders and Impossible Crimes Science Fiction and Occult Mysteries Oddities Pop-up extracts from the 'Index Page':  Women Private Detectives  Race Tracks and Other Sleaze  Specialists  Historical Detective Stories  Comic Mysteries  Classic Short Stories  Hard-Boiled Detectives  Spy Novels  Science Fiction Mysteries

I have no evidence to back this up, but it is probable that the majority of mystery novel readers (apart from fans of hard-boiled detective stories) are women, and it is therefore understandable that stories with women as the protagonist or detective are extremely popular. Even some of the early Victorian and Edwardian detective stories had women detectives (such as Baroness Orczy's Lady Molly of Scotland Yard). They were often 'professionals' -- usually, journalists -- who actually sought out mysteries as opposed to heroines who fell into them by circumstance. Your classic dithery spinster, as exemplified by Agatha Christie's Miss Jane Marple, who always seems to be on the scene when a murder happens, was an early type in the Golden Age of Detection, but in the last half-century has been supplemented by the woman who makes her living detecting. This web page is not intended to be comprehensive -- indeed, I am not qualified to make it so as this is not my favorite type of detective -- but will provide an outline of the subject, with a preference for the female private investigator.

Old Spinsters and Widows

• Miss Jane Marple (Agatha Christie): Seemingly dithery old lady from the village of St. Mary Mead, England, she is shrewd as well as nosy (and fortunate to be on the scene for so many murders). Her approach to detection, while she is clever at figuring out methods, is intuitive based on analogies from experience ('reminds me of the milkman and his niece...') and she is brilliant at deducing motivations. For more, see Series - Marple.
• Mrs Pargeter (Simon Brett): The widow of a mobster, she gets herself out of predicaments with the help of a large circle of old colleagues of her 'saintly' husband who have the appropriate skills such as safe-cracking or body-guarding to aid her. Books: Mrs, Presumed Dead (1988), Mrs Pargeter's Package (1990), Mrs Pargeter's Pound of Flesh (1992), Mrs Pargeter's Plot (1996), Mrs Pargeter's Point of Honour (1999).
• Lizzie Thomas (Anthony Oliver): Welsh 'mother-in-law' in an English village who solves crimes with the help of her friend the retired Inspector Webber. The Pew Group (1980), The Property of a Lady (1983), The Ellberg Collection (1985), and Cover-Up (1987).

Also to be mentioned are Hildegard Withers the schoolteacher and Mrs Pollifax the CIA spy (and there are others).

'Housewives'

• Doran Fairweather (Mollie Hardwick): Antique dealer in an English village, married to a vicar, who happens into a lot of crime situations, including kidnapping and murder. The author is most famous for writing the BBC TV series Upstairs, Downstairs. There are several books in the Fairweather series, including Perish in July (1990) and Bandersnatch (1994); it started out well, but became of less interest as it went on. (See my review of Come Away, Death.)
• Elizabeth McPherson (Sharyn McCrumb): Young North Carolina woman who has 'adventures', not always murders but involving a crime or scam of some sort. After a few books as a single woman, she married a Scotsman. Sample books: Sick of Shadows (1984), Lovely in Her Bones (1985), Highland Laddie Gone (1991). McCrumb's 'Appalachian' series (e.g. Ballad of Frankie Silver) is far better and more interesting.
• Tommy and Tuppence Beresford (Agatha Christie): Is it strictly fair to include a husband and wife pair here? Well, why not. At one point in their careers they were actually private investigators, but in the main should be classed as 'amateurs', since they started out as a 'bright young couple' and aged accordingly. "Tommy Beresford, an unimaginative but charming young man, encounters a childhood friend, Tuppence Cowley, after he is released from service in WWI. Jobless, they decide to start 'Young Adventurers Ltd.' promising potential clients that they are : 'Willing to do anything. Go anywhere...No unreasonable offer refused.' The Jazz Age duo marry at the end of their first adventure..." [AC site]. They appear in The Secret Adversary (1922), Partners in Crime (ss, 1929), N or M (1941), By the Pricking of My Thumbs (1968), and Postern of Fate (1978) -- a long career (but not as long as Poirot's).

Professionals

• Deborah Knott (Margaret Maron): Lawyer/Judge (NC-based). "Deborah Knott is a 30-something District Court Judge in Colleton County, NC, which lies a few miles southeast of Raleigh. The youngest child and only daughter of an elderly ex-bootlegger's second marriage, she grew up on a working tobacco farm with one foot in the county's agrarian past and the other in its hi-tech, increasingly urbanized, present." [MM site] Books: Bootlegger's Daughter (1992), Southern Discomfort (1993), Shooting at Loons (1994), etc.
• Sigrid Harald (Margaret Maron): Policewoman (NYPD). "Lt. Sigrid Harald, NYPD, is a loner. The daughter of a Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist and a police officer shot in the line of duty when she was only a toddler, Sigrid has grown up in the shadow of a loving, if distracted mother and the mystique of a dead hero as father. She is very competent in her profession but has difficulty connecting to anyone emotionally. Fortunately, life and circumstances conspire to change that over the course of the series." [MM site] Books: Death in Blue Folders (1985), One Coffee With (1988), Death of a Butterfly (1991), etc.
• Jane Tennison (Lynda La Plante): Policewoman (London). Was made into a very good TV series with Helen Mirren starring -- a sort of English Hill Street Blues with a feminist slant as this Chief Inspector tries to establish her authority over her macho male underlings. Beautifully acted, but not very good as a mystery. Prime Suspect (1991) and sequels.
• Merrily Watkins (Phil Rickman): Priest/Exorcist in Hereford England. These are mystery novels with a supernatural twist (not strictly relevant to the solution of the crime but genuine enough). The Rev. Watkins is a heavy smoker, a bit of a free spirit, with a teenage daughter, who has been selected by her bishop to be the diocesan exorcist. Books: The Wine of Angels (1998), Midwinter of the Spirit, A Crown of Lights, The Cure of Souls, The Lamp of the Wicked, and The Prayer of the Night Shepherd so far.
• Tess Monaghan (Laura Lippman): Baltimore-based newspaper reporter and freelance investigator. Baltimore Blues (1997) is the first in a fairly long series. For those who like the city of Baltimore, the setting is well done (but I've only read two of the series -- my library shelves are creaking under the weight, and my book budget is limited).

Private Eyes

• Bertha Cool (A.A.Fair/Erle Stanley Gardner): With her partner Donald Lam, the earliest woman PI? A series of semi-comic mysteries from the later Golden Age. She is greedy, among other things, but the stories are both amusing and good detection. From The Bigger They Come (1939) to Fish or Cut Bait (1963).
• Kinsey Millhone (Sue Grafton): California-based ('Santa Teresa'). Starting with A Is for Alibi in 1983, the series is now up to the letter S; what the author will do after Z is anybody's guess.
• Sharon McCone (Marcia Muller): California-based (San Francisco). Over 20 books in the series, starting with Edwin of the Iron Shoes in 1977. (See my reviews of The Broken Promise Land and Both Ends of the Night.)
• V.I.Warshawski (Sara Paretsky): Chicago-based.
• Carlotta Carlyle (Linda Barnes): Boston-based, with well-described setting. Six-foot-tall redhead and ex-cop and cab driver now a hard-boiled but well-intentioned PI. A Trouble of Fools (1987) was the first in this fairly long series of over 10 books.
• Anna Lee (Liza Cody): London-based ex-cop now working for Brierly Security. A gritty hard case type. Dupe (1980) was the first in the series and won a John Creasey award as Best First Novel. Bad Company (1983) and Head Case (1986) are others. (See my review of Musclebound.)

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