At a conference a few years back, a panelist said with a straight face that he didn’t find female detective characters to be believable. Women, he asserted, just want to be grandmothers. It was shocking, of course, but also a little bit laughable—according to recent numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, women make up about 23% of detectives and criminal investigators in the United States. That number leaps to almost 50% for private investigators. And yet, at a different conference, after describing my Kat Stone series, I was asked pointblank if lady PIs really exist.
While the question surprised me at the time, I’ve come to realize that a lot of folks have preconceived notions about crime fighters, myself included. I’ll admit to a fondness for the tough guys and gals of noir. I like a PI who can find trouble, cuss a blue streak, and fight without spilling her whiskey. But there’s also something irresistible about unexpected sleuths. The ones on nodding terms with antiheroes perhaps, but who might not seem like investigators at first glance. Not your bloodhounds, but your mutts you might say.
The protagonists of the following novels—a classical musician, a high school outcast, and a gentle librarian for starters—are also getting the job done, thank you very much. They’re breaking the mold in delightful, unpredictable ways.
Dark Dawn Over Steep House by M.R.C. Kasasian
If I were an heiress, I would fly to Heathrow once a year to pick up the latest Gower Street Detectives novel instead of waiting for the later US publication date. Instead, I pre-order and do a little jig when I dive back into March Middleton’s adventures. Oh sure, irascible genius personal detective Sidney Grice is the so-called star of the operation, but it’s March who keeps me returning to these always startling and sometimes grotesque stories of Victorian era London. She is indeed an heiress, but one who doesn’t mind getting her hands or bonnet dirty. She indulges in quite a few unladylike vices including gin and cigarettes, doing a poor job of hiding them from her guardian. In this latest mystery, her independent streak leads to some disastrous consequences, but it’s still possible to see how her inborn curiosity and hard-won resilience are invaluable assets.
Murder Between the Lines by Radha Vatsal
While the journalist turned sleuth story is a familiar one, Vatsal puts a surprising spin on this career change. Set in 1910s Manhattan, reporter Kitty Weeks writes puff pieces for a newspaper’s Ladies Page, assignments that mostly bore her but sometimes provide opportunities to test the boundaries of her safe existence. In Murder Between the Lines, a finishing school student is found frozen to death in Central Park, a tragedy that Weeks doesn’t believe was an accident. Her investigation takes her into danger but also into more freedom. Vatsal’s attention to detail is superb, and she manages to combine real-life events and facts with a gripping fictional tale.
99 Ways to Die by Ed Lin
Lin’s Taipei Night Market series stars Jing-nan, a food stand operator who finds himself drawn—and occasionally dragged—into more dangerous work. In this third installment, Jing-nan is being blackmailed to investigate the kidnapping of a high-profile billionaire. The victim and his champion are not particularly sympathetic, and Lin never shies away from the complicated politics of Taiwan. His books are smart and richly detailed. Lin offers truly original contributions to the crime series landscape.
Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl
While now one of my favorite novels, I’ll admit that I bought Special Topics in Calamity Physics because I liked the cover and it was on sale the night before a long flight. Although normally a nervous flier, I was annoyed when my plane landed because I wanted to read all 500 or so pages of this story at once. It’s not really accurate to say I read this novel—I inhaled it. Shy, precocious Blue van Meer makes some unforeseen friends at her fancy new high school. They are glamorous and eccentric with the emotional volatility of teenagers and intelligence on par with, well, physicists. Pessl spins a complex mystery that matches the intensity of her memorable characters.
Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal
Not only is the investigator in this book surprising, it’s surprising that there is a mystery. While the jacket description hints at a darker subplot, I was still amazed by the skillful way Jaswal weaves an unsolved murder into this story. The protagonist is a daughter of Indian immigrants who chafes at the conservative Sikh neighborhood where she was raised. And yet she finds herself teaching creative writing—specifically erotica—to a group of older women in that very community. Eventually their gossip turns to a dark secret about the death of a rebellious wife. Nikki can’t leave well enough alone and begins to look into the suspicious circumstances, leading to a genuinely frightening climax in an endearing novel.
Murder in the Manuscript Room by Con Lehane
The ornate halls and hidden back offices of the 42nd Library in New York City are ideal settings for some mischief and—in the case of Lehane’s series—murder. The curator of crime fiction (a job that does not currently exist but a girl can dream) is mild-mannered, observant Raymond Ambler. In this second installment, a colleague is killed, and there’s something not quite right with the ensuring police inquiry. As Ambler navigates his mess of a private life, he tries to use his professional connections to solve the crime himself. Lehane writes with a steady hand, paying as much attention to character development as to plot.
Killing in C Sharp by Alexia Gordon
Gordon’s charming Gethsemane Brown series combines genres, dipping into cozy and paranormal conventions to create something unique. The lively protagonist is an African-American classical violinist who finds herself decidedly out of place in a rural Irish setting. By book three, though, she’s made friends and settled a little—until ghost hunters arrive. As if that weren’t bad enough, she also has to prove the innocence of a composer accused of being a killer. Brown’s sharp intelligence and dogged determination always serve her well.
Bellweather Rhapsody by Kate Racculia
While this novel certainly echoes a classic Agatha Christie-style whodunnit, it is also distinctive in how it balances personal dramas with the central mystery. The perspective shifts between characters, and teenage singer Alice Hatmaker accepts the challenge of figuring out if her prodigy roommate ran away or was murdered. The events take place as a once impressive now dilapidated hotel in upstate New York. Hundreds of high school-aged musicians swarm the place for a statewide festival. Racculia takes this fun premise and exceeds expectations, telling multiple satisfying stories at once.
On the Island at the Center of the Center of the World by Elizabeth Kadetsky
In this lyric novella, a mother flees to Malta with her son. Netti dreams of making a happy new life for them both, but her drinking habit transcends borders. After witnessing an accident, she attempts to redeem herself by looking into the particulars, unwittingly disturbing old-world families with little patience for outsiders. This story clocks in at about ninety pages, but still manages to pack a punch. The elegant language collides with an eerie, almost claustrophobic mystery.
