Why Female-Sleuths?

Why not Male-Sleuths too? Well, first and foremost - I’m a girl. When I started reading for fun as a teenager, I wanted to read about things that girls like myself were doing.

One day my mom was shopping at our local department store and I wandered over to the book section. There were several Nancy Drew books for sale and I persuaded Mom to buy me “The Secret in the Old Attic” - the 1944 version in yellow hardcover. I was hooked! To date, that is one of my favorite Nancy Drew books.

(I also saw the blue hardcover Hardy Boys books but didn’t get any. I still haven’t read any Hardy Boys yet. Hope to someday.)

Plus I’m drawn to the cozy, or traditional mysteries. The publishers are marketing these books to women and I’ve gotta say, I’m right there. Amazon.com sure has me pegged as they have tons of recommendations that are right up my alley.

I like that many of these mysteries feature women who have chosen many different career-paths, or who are interested in so many different kinds of hobbies. The lists are endless.

Plus these ladies are typically nice, or funny or interesting in someway. They are wives, moms, daughters, sisters, aunts and nieces. They have personalities and feelings that I can relate to.

Several years ago I was really into Jonathan Kellerman’s Alex Delaware child psychologist series. I thought the books were good and extremely well written, but the graphic descriptions of violence really bothered me. Sadly, I stopped reading him.

In general I’m not against reading about male-sleuths and I imagine there are several good ones out there. Feel free to leave a comment if you have some you’d like to recommend.

It’s just that there are many, many female-sleuths out there. I’d like to read about them all someday!