Lady Detectives

Ever since I first read Nancy Drew and Harriet the Spy, I have loved the idea of being a lady detective. Not in the Mata Hari way, using my feminine wiles to cozy up to powerful men, but more like Nancy Drew, carefully looking at the evidence, taking risky moves to find answers and getting to do a big reveal of all the correct answers at the end of the story. Of course, if I got to eavesdrop, snoop and judge people along the way to the big reveal that would be okay too. Occasionally, they may make mistakes or fumble along the way but they are always witty, sparkling characters. While I do like to go back and read my childhood books, there are lots of adult lady detectives to discover.

Isabel “Izzy” Spellman is featured in The Spellman Files, Curse of the Spellmans, Revenge of the Spellmans and The Spellmans Strike Again by Lisa Lutz. Izzy is the craziest character in a family of private detectives in San Francisco. The books switch between solving a mystery and exploring the dynamics of a family of snoops, where wire tapping and tailing your relatives is considered love. The books don’t necessarily follow a traditional narrative arc but they do offer lots of giggles at the ridiculous situations and enjoyment at the irreverent, snappy dialogue. They are a quick and amusing read.

Cece Caruso is featured in I Dreamed I Married Perry Mason, Not a Girl Detective, Shamus in the Green Room, Christietown and Dial H for Hitchcock by Susan Kandel. Cece writes biographies of famous mystery writers and always seems to stumble across a modern day mystery in her research. Her other passion is shopping for vintage couture so there are plenty of exciting outfits as she uncovers the mystery. Cece never seems to get her life together but she has a lot of fun along the way. I also really enjoy learning more about the authors of some of the most classic series in the mystery genre, like Earl Stanley Gardner and Dashiell Hammett.

Stephanie Plum is featured in One for the Money (I mentioned the movie version of this in my last post) and sixteen other numbered books by Janet Evanovich (it felt excessive to list seventeen books by one author). Jersey girl Stephanie is a bumbling bounty hunter that used to sell lingerie and then landed in the only job that would have her working bail bonds for her dirtball cousin Vinny. She is caught in a love triangle between a handsome cop that she has a past with and a sexily dangerous bounty hunter/security consultant. Helping her find her targets are an ex-hooker and her wild grandma, both of whom are carrying guns they don’t know how to use. The series are light-hearted despite the often terrible crimes that she finds herself in the middle of and the scary people she interacts with.

This is likely going to be part one of a series, I realized how many of these series I am currently in the process of anxiously awaiting the next book.