  Mystery
This week: The Female Crime-Solver Edited by: Jeff  
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"Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known."
- Carl Sagan
Random Mystery Trivia of the Week: Agatha Christie was (and still is) one of the most influential and bestselling mystery writers of all time. She wrote 80 detective novels, is the most translated individual author in the history with her works seeing publication in 103 languages, and is rivaled only by William Shakespeare and The Bible in sheer number of book sales... at an estimated four billion copies sold worldwide.  By comparison (and for some perspective), J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series has only sold approximately 400 million copies, and Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series has sold roughly 100 million copies. Stephen King's body of work has sold around 350 million copies. Dame Christie truly is the "Queen of Crime!"  |
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THE FEMALE CRIME-SOLVER
There was a time, not too long ago, when solving crimes was for male characters, plain and simple. Cops, private investigators, crime scene technicians, etc. were considered "male" jobs along the same lines of corporate executives and professional athletes. But as times have changed and women have established themselves as being able to do the same jobs men can do, it's only natural that women characters have begun to make appearances in mystery fiction, solving crimes instead of committing them or being supplemental. There were precursors, like Agatha Christie's detective Jane Marple, Arthur Conan Doyle's detective Irene Adler, and Nancy Drew by the pseudonymous Carolyn Keene... but it hasn't been until the last few decades that we've really seen female crime solver characters find their own place in mystery fiction. Some of the most well-known female roles of today are:
Book Series
 Kinsey Millhone: A female private investigator by Sue Grafton, most prominently featured in her bestselling "alphabet mystery" books (A is for Alibi, B is for Burglar, C is for Corpse, etc.) (debuted 1982)
Stephanie Plum: A female bounty hunter by Janet Evanovich, most prominently featured in her bestselling "numbers series" of books (One For The Money, Two For The Dough, Three To Get Deadly, etc.} (debuted 1994)
Lisbeth Salander: A female private investigator and computer hacker, featured in Stieg Larsson's "girl" trilogy of books (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire, The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest) (debuted 2005)
Kay Scarpetta: A female medical examiner by Patricia Cornwell, most prominently featured in her bestselling series (Postmortem, Body of Evidence, All That Remains, etc.) (debuted 1990)
Temperance Brennan: A female forensic anthropologist by Kathy Reichs, most prominently featured in her bestselling series (Deja Dead, Death du Jour, Deadly Decisions, etc.) and the currently-running television series Bones. (debuted 1997)
Television Series
C.S.I.: The C.S.I. franchise of shows (the original, New York, and Miami) have built a dynamic of having female lab techs mixed in with their male counterparts. The series formula has both a male and female lead: Gil Grissom (William Peterson) and Catherine Willows (Marg Helgenberger) in the original, Mac Taylor (Gary Sinise) and Stella Bonasera (Melina Kanakaredes) in C.S.I.: NY, and Horatio Caine (David Caruso) and Calleigh Duquesne (Emily Proctor) in C.S.I.: Miami.
Law & Order: Over the years, Law & Order - and especially its spinoffs - use the same dynamic to great effect. The original often employs a prosecutor and his female colleague (currently Mike Cutter [Linus Roache] and Connie Rubirosa [Alana de la Garza]), while Law & Order: Special Victims Unit has featured Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni) and Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) as lead detectives and partners since the beginning of the series. Law & Order: Criminal Intent has gone through several sets of detective partners, all male and female combinations: Goren (Vincent d'Onofrio) & Eames (Katherine Erbe), Logan (Chris Noth) & Barek (Annabella Sciorra), Logan & Wheeler (Julianne Nicholson), Logan & Falacci (Alicia Witt), and - currently - Nichols (Jeff Goldblum) & Stevens (Saffron Burrows).
Veronica Mars: A somewhat short-lived (but excellent) television series surrounding title character Veronica Mars (Kristen Bell), a savvy, sassy high school student who solves mysteries with skills she learned from and working for her private investigator father. (2004-2007)
Sydney Bristow: A female CIA agent from the show Alias, played by Jennifer Garner. (2001-2006)
Jessica Fletcher: A female author and amateur detective, played by Angela Lansbury in the long-running series Murder, She Wrote. (1984-1996)
Dana Scully: Fox Mulder's more logical and skeptical FBI agent partner, played by Gillian Anderson in The X-Files. (1993-2002)
Brenda Leigh Johnson: Deputy Chief of the LAPD's Major Crimes Division, played by Kyra Sedgwick in The Closer. (2005-present)
Leverage: In this television series about former criminals who use their skills to help innocent people, two of the key members of the team are con artist Sophie (Gina Bellman) and thief/burglar Parker (Beth Riesgraf). (2008-present)
What's important about these female characters becoming more prominent in recent years is that, in addition to the equality issue, a female perspective can lend a completely new dynamic to the familiar police procedural or mystery. Men and women, while having many similarities, have long been proven to approach situations differently from a different point of view, be it psychological, emotional, physical, etc. Having a mystery with a female crime-solver can give the story a unique or differing perspective than one that adheres to the traditionally male point of view.
Many authors have used their female protagonists and their perspective to great effect, particularly in the arena of crime solving. Whether she's a detective, cop, FBI agent, spy, reformed criminal, private investigator, crime tech, bounty hunter, or something else entirely, consider giving female roles in your story a real bearing on the narrative and don't just relegate them to supporting roles. It's a challenge to write both male and female characters, but something a good writer should be able to do... and sometimes you might just surprise yourself with what a female character in a nontraditional role might do.
A film school professor of mine was once in a situation where he was asked to change his screenplay about a male journalist in Vietnam during the war to a female protagonist. The executive famously told him, "What's the big deal? You just change all the 'he's' to 'she's' and call it a day." What that executive didn't understand was that changing the gender of a character (especially a female in a war zone, in those days, surrounded by all male soldiers?) changes the entire dynamic of a story... everything from how the character responds to conflict, to what their opinions and world view are. So the next time you're thinking about writing a mystery, consider making the protagonist a female crime-solver, rather than the more traditional choice of writing a male lead, and see where it takes you.
Oh, but please don't just change the 'he's' to 'she's'... 
Until next time,
- Jeff
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This week, I would encourage you to check out the following mystery items:
You're near / You're sitting near / You're relaxing near
| |  | The Tower (E)
A very short story about a slightly mysterious holiday written when I was about 17.
#1690891 by smizwaz  |
“Ok. Well thank you for bringing me here,” Cassie smiled as they pulled up, “It looks wonderful. Are there any places you suggest I should visit?” “The museums are good,” said Kivil, “but it depends what you like. I warn you. There is an old tower near the cottage. Stay away.” “Ok. What’s wrong with the tower?” questioned Cassie.
| |  | Invalid Item
This item number is not valid.
#1664371 by Not Available. |
What is life, if you do not die? / What is death, if your dead inside? / What is hope, if your luck is wrong? / What is love, if your soul is gone?
Her heart was beating really fast / Her eyes were opened wide / If only she could reach the door / To see her friend inside.
‘I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go’ - I hear the Priest say. First I freeze when I hear the words but then my heart fills with warmth; I look around and have a kind of a feeling as if someone were watching me, or is it only a fantasy? These words take me back to a summer twenty-four years ago, the most thunderous summer I ever had.
| | | Invalid Item
This item number is not valid.
#1690984 by Not Available. |
I got the call from Mike Sanderfield just as I sat down for dinner. It wasn’t normal for me to skip dinner, but Mike was my best friend and he did say it was an emergency. To the befuddlement of my mother, stepbrother, and stepfather, I excused myself from the table. I didn't get many details from Mike on the phone other than something important was stolen and he needed my help. Mike was lucky that his house was only two blocks away from mine. Any farther and he would never hear the end of it from me.
Welcome to “Crack Kraken’s Code”! For each round, I will disguise a quote—which could have been sung, spoken, or scrawled—and your task is to be one of the first five people to decipher it.
Write for me the type of story I love to read--a tale with a plot twist or surprise ending. I'm an expert at figuring out the twist before it happens. See if you can fool me! It's a great way to sharpen your plot development skills and win prizes.
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In response to my last newsletter on the past:
Budroe writes: "Hey, we have a special "Build A Mystery!" workshop beginning this week. I encourage all readers of this Newsletter to participate in the Novel Writing Workshop this month, sponsored by opto. I'll be presenting it, and it's going to be a blast! you can find it here. "
Thanks for letting us all know about this great activity!
Adriana Noir writes: "Your newsletters are always amazing. There's really nothing else that can be said!"
Aww, thanks Adriana! That means a lot coming from a fantastic NL editor like you.  |
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Mystery: July 21, 2010 Issue [#3864]
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