Topical: The Crime Warp celebrates International Women's Day 2013

 

The Crime Warp celebrates International Women’s Day 2013

                International women’s day celebrates the various ongoing achievements of women.  In the crime fiction arena, with the likes of Agatha Christie leading the way we have a strong base for women writer's to come to the fore.  In fact there are so many female crime fiction writer's nowadays that we, at the crime warp,  are reluctant to attempt to enumerate them and their achievements.  Instead, we've opted to delve into the realms of the women characters  created by a some of these extremely talented women writer's. 

This list is by no means conclusive and we’d welcome any additions you readers can add to our list.

Christie at work

Miss Marple by Agatha Christie 


 

No list of women detectives would be complete without representation from Agatha Christie.  Her Miss Marple is an iconic figure in the land of crime fiction (or indeed St Mary’s Mead).  This septuagenarian spinster foils the killer every time with only a pair of knitting needles and an obscure parallel from her small rural village at her disposal.  Her apparent innocence conceals her razor sharp intellect and lulls the perpetrator into a false (usually arrogant) sense of security.  For me, although many have tried to take her place, Margaret Rutherford is the Miss Marple.

                                                                   Charlie Fox by Zoe sharp

             
   I doubt there’s a more marked contrast to Miss Marple than Zoe Sharps’ Charlie Fox.  The ex-military, weapons and body guarding expert has experienced more of the world‘s evil than Miss Marple in all of her seventy plus days.  Charlie Fox has a complex character that develops and grows with every novel.  Her past, her shaky relationship with her parents and her passionate love for boyfriend Sean Meyer all contribute to her character.  Charlie Fox is a true action hero.  Not only can she take a punch but she can administer one with finesse.  A truly wonderful female creation in the male dominated action, thriller, crime genre.

 Kinsey Millhone by Sue Grafton

Kinsey Millhone is the heroine of Sue Grafton’s Alphabet series. An ex cop turned private detective, always a good combination.  She has flaws (what good detective doesn’t?); she has a weakness for junk food, cuts her own hair (badly), owns one dress (black, good for all occasions), has been divorced twice and is obsessive about cleaning.  Orphaned at an early age, she was brought up by an aunt who pretty much left her to her own devices and as a result she is afraid of being abandoned.   But despite all this, (or maybe because of it), Kinsey is independent and tough, she also has a great sense of humour and she gets the job done.  You can’t help but like her!

                                                                        Anna Travis by Lynda La Plant

Detective Inspector Anna Travis is the creation of Lynda La Plant.  Joining the police as a somewhat raw detective, university graduate Travis was fast tracked so she was never in uniform.  Exceptionally attractive, Travis has made mistakes, her love life tends to conflict with her work, but she is trying hard to separate them and is learning fast.  She is an extremely ambitious, workaholic who won’t let a case go until she has solved it. Gradually moving up the ranks she would even give Jane Tennison a run for her money.


 

V.I.Warshawski by Sara Paretsky

We have come to expect strong independent female crime fighters, be they pathologists, cops or FBI agents, but in the 1980s when V.I. Warshawski, private eye, first came on the scene, she was a pioneer. Feisty, smart and brave, with an in-your-face attitude second to none, she single-handedly brought a wide range of criminals to justice and paved the way for exciting female leads in crime fiction. Whisky, sex and opera, in any order, are V.I. Warshawski’s way of relaxing from the stresses of a dangerous job. Kathleen Turner was well-cast as V.I. in an otherwise disappointing film in 1991.

 To date her creator Sara Paretsky has penned fifteen V.I. Warshawski novels, all set in Chicago. Fearlessly gunning for the underdog, V.I. is as interested in social justice as the author herself, who was involved in the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s. Sara Paretsky has won a number of awards, including the Cartier Diamond Dagger Award for lifetime achievement from the British Crime Writers’ Association and in 2011 was named Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America. She is also a founding member of Sisters in Crime, a world wide organisation promoting female crime authors.


Carol Jordan by Val McDermid


       McDermid's Carol Jordan comes across as unflappable and composed, yet it is , in my mind, her inner demons and the way she deals with them that make her strong.  During her career she has fought sexism to get to her current position, she has made decisions that put her team at risk and she has been tortured and raped.  But by far the greatest cross she has to bear is the murder of her brother and his wife. 


 Carol stores her grief and anger up , unleashing it against the one person that can help her (Tony Hill) whilst depite her personal loss continuing to do her job.  When I read a Jordan/ Hill book I very clearly see Hermione Norris as Carol.  Her understated acting and general air of privacy, I think made her an ideal Carol Jordan.

Harriet Vane  by Dorothy L Sayers

Of course, Harriet Vane is not really a major detective in the same mould as the other Golden Age detectives, male or female. But she does become involved in detection through her relationship with Lord Peter Wimsey and by the end of the Wimsey novels, Busman’s Honeymoon, she finds herself in equal partnership with Wimsey, in more ways than one.

It could be, and has been, argued that Harriet Vane is Dorothy L. Sayers’s alter ego: that through her, DLS can explore and enjoy a relationship with Wimsey, the detective  she created and fell in love with, as well as to exorcise some personal demons. Like Sayers, Vane is an Oxford graduate (still unusual for a female in the 30s) and a mystery writer. Unlike Sayers, Vane is physically attractive and ends up fulfilling her sexual and romantic life by marrying the man she loves. Sayers married, but not to her first love.  

 Intelligent and witty, Vane entrances Wimsey from the first moment he meets her in Strong Poison.  He offers to find the real culprit for the murder (of her lover) of which she has been accused and states early on in the novel his intention to marry her, but she has various issues she needs to deal with before she can accept (at the end of Gaudy Night).

 In Have His Carcase, the second novel featuring Vane, she finds a body on a beach and becomes embroiled in the detection of the murderer – aided by the ever faithful Wimsey. In Gaudy Night, she is approached by the principal of her old Oxford college to help with a poison pen problem and goes undercover to do some detection. Removed from Wimsey, she acts as the main detective for most of the book, finding herself in physical danger. Wimsey unmasks the murderer, but Vane’s detective efforts have borne fruit as well and Sayers’s  sub-plot of Wimsey’s wooing of Vane, and her reluctance to surrender her independence to a man, gives a strong emotional drive to the book. Finally, in Busman’s Honeymoon, the Wimseys set out upon married life (their first night ruined by a corpse) and again, Sayers uses the relationship to explore her views on the equality of women within marriage.

And so Vane is more than a side-kick or a vulnerable woman stereotype. Sayers lets her intelligence and independence shine through and set the benchmark for other strong women characters in detective fiction in later years.  And gives us a damned good love story along the way.

“And what do all the great words come to in the end, but that? I love you — I am at rest with you — I have come home.” Wimsey to Vane in Busman’s Honeymoon.

 

Agatha Raisin by M C Beaton

Ah, the indomitable Mrs Raisin.  Touchy, caustic and irreverent.  She smokes all over crime scenes and handles evidence but she always gets the murderer in the end.  What I love about M C Beaton’s unlikely lady detective is that she breaks every rule in the book and the reader is treated to an entertaining murder mystery which isn’t hampered by the usual angst of investigative realism.  Whether you are reading the novels in print form or listening to Penelope Keith’s delightful portrayal in audio, you will enjoy a steady delivery of humour and a colourful array of quirky characters.

Who is your favourite Woman Sleuth - Let us know and we'll publish your comments in support!!!