Female Sleuths in Fiction

In her tweeds and sensible shoes, Miss Jane Marple of the quaint village of St. Mary Mead initially seems to be like any other elderly British Spinster-the type of sweet old lady who lives for cucumber sandwiches at tea time and natters on about her rose garden.

But as the saying goes, first impressions can be deceiving and none more so than in the case of Miss Jane Marple, the shrewd and methodical amateur sleuth heroine of thirteen Agatha Christie mysteries. The most famous female sleuth in all literature, Miss Marple cracked her last case in 1976's Sleeping Murder. Thirty years later, there are scores of female sleuths, private detectives, forensic anthropologists, and bounty hunters solving crimes in the pages of best selling mysteries. Here are eight notable mysteries featuring female sleuths, written by women.

1: B is for Burglars by Sue Grafton. This is the second entry in Grafton's Kinsey Milhone Alphabet Mystery Series and arguably the best. Santa Barbara private investigator Kinsey Milhone encounters a veritable rogue's gallery of suspects in this winner of the Shamus Award from the Private Eye Writers of America organization.

2: A Bitter Feast by S. J. Rozan. What first appears to be a missing persons case gradually turns into something far more complex and deadly for Chinese-American private investigator Lydia Chin and her partner in Rozan's gripping mystery, the fifth in the series.

3: Blacklist: V. I. Warshawski by Sara Paretsky. Set in the aftermath of 9/11, Paretsky's eleventh V. I. Warshawski mystery finds the wisecracking Chicago private investigator looking into a possible link between a murdered journalist and a suspected Arab terrorist.

4: Body of Evidence by Patricia Cornwell. The second of Cornwell's mysteries featuring Dr. Kay Scarpetta, the chief medical examiner of Virginia. In this solidly plotted novel, teeming with twists and turns. Scarpetta investigates the murder of a local romance novelist.

5: Both Ends of the Night by Marcia Muller. Tracking down the killer of her flight instructor, hard-boiled private investigator Sharon McCone must leave her native San Francisco for the frozen Minnesota wilderness. This book was also a Publishers Weekly "Best Book" of 1997.

6: Eleven on Top by Janet Evanovich. My favorite, juicily entertaining entry in Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series, about a New Jersey lingerie buyer, turned bounty hunter.

7: A Murder is Announced by Agatha Christie. Most critics and fans regard A Murder is Announced as the best of the Miss Marple mysteries. Responding to a newspaper advertisement, townspeople arrive to play what they think is a murder game, until a stranger is shot dead before them.

8: An Unsuitable Job for a Woman by P. D. James. This chilling mystery introduces novice sleuth Cordelia Gray, who just inherited a detective agency and now must solve her first crime: the bizarre murder of a wealthy man's son, found hanging by the neck.