Whodunit?

The Women of Crime Fiction

Female mystery writers have always been among the most feted in the genre—think Dorothy L. Sayers, P.D. James and Agatha Christie. In spite of this fact, some hardcore mystery devotees continue to see women's contributions as second-rate. The female authors reviewed below explode that preconception. From legal thrillers to hard-boiled noir, they explore every corner of the varied crime fiction landscape to produce some of the genre's best work, period.

The women of crime fiction

REVIEWS BY BRUCE TIERNEY

Let's get the subjective part of the review out of the way first thing: Sandra Scoppettone's This Dame for Hire is hands-down the hippest, laugh-out-loud funniest and most entertaining novel I've read this month. The dame in question is Faye Quick, girl Friday for Woody Mason, a Greenwich Village private investigator. The date is 1943. Mason has gone off to serve in the Pacific, and the feisty Miss Quick (these days she would be "Ms.") has been left to hold down the fort. Rather more quick than fey, our heroine is steeped in the lingo of the war years: guys are mugs or lugs; girls are babes or tomatoes; the A-train would do if the flivver was laid up, and a fin or a sawbuck would buy a clue. In the midst of all this atmosphere resides a clever and convoluted plot that Raymond Chandler would be proud of. If you are a fan of The Thin Man (the cinema version, with William Powell and Myrna Loy), Richard Prather's Shell Scott novels, or '40s mystery magazines, don't miss This Dame for Hire. (p.s.: My casting pick for the Faye Quick role is Debi Mazar: sharp, pretty and oh-so New Yawk.)


Q: When is a detective not a detective?
A: When she's an Episcopalian priest, as is the case with Clare Ferguson, co-protagonist in Julia Spencer-Fleming's To Darkness and to Death.
Clare Ferguson is the quintessential conflicted heroine: she is in the throes of a religious conflict with her deacon over the issue of gay marriage, and she is recklessly in love with a married man, a police officer, no less. It must be noted that said married man is in love with Clare as well, but it appears that their path will be a rocky one for some time to come. When a wealthy Adirondack landowner goes missing in the unforgiving forest, Clare joins the search party. Nothing is quite as it seems at the mountain mansion of Haudenosaunee, however—there's the estranged (and more than a little strange) brother whose predilection for fire-starting may have fueled a generation-old disaster; the lifelong woodsman about to be unceremoniously put out of business; and the woodsman's daughter, an unrepentant tree-hugger at sixes and sevens with her father. Several people will die, and at least one or two will be major surprises to the reader. If you admire atmospheric prose, if you appreciate a good story with clever twists and if you yearn for a dash of (unrequited) romance in your mysteries, To Darkness and to Death should be right up your alley.


Best-selling English author Val McDermid is back with a taut and original police procedural, The Torment of Others. Two years ago, serial killer Derek Tyler was apprehended and sentenced to indefinite confinement in a mental institution. The forensic evidence was irrefutable, and indeed, Tyler confessed to the crimes. Now there is a new victim, a London prostitute, killed in identical fashion, with every clue leading directly to Tyler. A copycat, you might think? Not possible, because the police held back some of the details of the earlier murders, details which were unerringly replicated in this most recent killing. DCI Carol Jordan and her roommate, criminal psychologist Tony Hill, launch a "sting" operation, disguising a young female cop as a streetwalker in hopes of luring the current-day murderer out of hiding. This is risky business at the best of times, but Jordan has just returned to the police force after a similar botched operation in which she was raped and nearly killed. Both her superiors and her subordinates question her ability to withstand the pressure of such an investigation. Before she is done, DCI Jordan will uncover one of the most diabolical (and original) villains in recent memory. Fans of Ruth Rendell, Ian Rankin and Reginald Hill will find The Torment of Others impossible to put down.


One of the (many) reasons for becoming an attorney instead of a cop is to avoid having bad guys' guns pointed in your direction. Still, despite her best efforts, Assistant U.S. Attorney Vicki Allegretti finds herself looking down the barrel of a loaded 9mm Glock. The encounter does not end well—although Allegretti manages to escape with her life, her partner is shot several times and killed. It should have been a simple meeting with a confidential informant, but nothing is ever simple: the informant lies dead a floor above. So begins Lisa Scottoline's latest novel, Devil's Corner, a Grisham-like legal thriller of conspiracy and murder in West Philadelphia. Burning with shame and anger over the death of her partner, Allegretti devotes herself to bringing his killers to justice. Bit by bit, she realizes that the conspiracy reaches the highest levels of city government, and that her own life may well be in danger. Scottoline is a lifelong resident of the City of Brotherly Love, and she captures the feel of the place brilliantly: the cadence of language, the rhythm of the street that is uniquely Philly.


An actress by trade, the fiery Catarina Velosi needed intensity and drama in her personal life as well. Noted Los Angeles playwright Alfonso Reventon wrote a play about her, for her, to propel Catarina to the stardom she so desperately craved. But on opening night, Catarina was nowhere to be found, and the understudy gamely jumped into the role. As dramatic in death as in life, Caterina washed up on remote Point Fermin beach, a beautiful blue corpse battered by tides, rocks and tiny hungry fish. L.A. Times reporter Eve Diamond knows Catarina's legend well, for Catarina was once involved with Eve's boyfriend, Silvio, who has been less than forthcoming about his ongoing involvement with Catarina. Was he involved in her death? Or could it be Alfonso, for whom Catarina served as muse and nemesis? Or perhaps Marisela, Alfonso's tempestuous (and exceptionally jealous) wife? Savage Garden is the fourth in the Eve Diamond series by L.A. journalist and author Denise Hamilton; the first, The Jasmine Trade, was nominated for several major mystery awards, including the Edgar, the Anthony and the Macavity. Savage Garden is a worthy addition to this laudable series.



MYSTERY OF THE MONTH
This month, the Tip of the Ice Pick Award goes to Reggie Nadelson for her starkly realistic Disturbed Earth, a novel of post-9/11 New York. Russian-born NYPD Detective Artie Cohen has been assigned a thorny and troubling case: the investigation of a pile of blood-soaked children's clothing purportedly found by a Russian immigrant on a Brooklyn beach. The difficult possibility that Artie must face is that the clothing belongs to his godson, Billy, supposedly away for the weekend in upstate New York. The thing is, nobody can reach Billy, nobody saw him leave, and the family he is supposed to be with disavows all knowledge of his whereabouts. Nadelson captures the cityscape of New York with all its glitter and warts, from the wealthy West Side to the immigrant enclaves of Bensonhurst and Brighton Beach. Particularly effective are the interactions between Cohen and the other Russian immigrants, both friend and foe (and believe me, it is not easy to determine just who is who). The suspense is unrelenting, and the denouement surprising, to say the least. Disturbed Earth is the fifth Artie Cohen novel. If there is any justice, Disturbed Earth will attract the same level of critical and popular acclaim as Dennis Lehane's Mystic River, Michael Connelly's Blood Work or George Pelecanos' Drama City.


She's back!
No discussion of female mystery authors would be complete without including Janet Evanovich, whose latest Stephanie Plum novel, Eleven on Top, hit stores and bestseller lists on June 21. Fed up with danger, the sassy bounty hunter tries quitting her unusual job, but continues to fall into situations that threaten her life--and her budding romance with Joe Morelli.

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