M. Ruth Myers's Blog, page 7

End-of-Year Mysteries with Woman Private Investigators

Did you miss any of these late 2013 books? All are additions to series by authors on my Starter’s Dozen of Woman P.I.’s.

The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon by Alexander McCall Smith –  Botswanan private investigator Mme. Precious Ramotswe rises to the occasion of helping two clients, one a lady lawyer and the other the troubled owner of a new beauty salon.
Critical Mass by Sara Paretsky –  Chicago’s V.I. Warshawski helps longtime friend Dr. Lotty Herschel, who escaped Austria as a child in 1939.  Now WWII secrets create a threat in the present.
Gross Sarcastic Homicide by Dani Amore –  L.A. private eye Mary Cooper returns to investigate the strange murder of a corporate executive.

ONE MORE TREAT:

Author Dana Stabenow offered readers a short story featuring Alaskan private investigator Kate Shugak.  “Any Taint of Vice” will help tide them over until the next full-length novel.

M. Ruth Myers writes the Maggie Sullivan mysteries featuring a woman P.I. in the 1930s/40s.

Filed under: Authors, News Tagged: M. Ruth Myers, P.I. fiction, woman P.I. novels, woman private eye novels

The Night Before Christmas for Authors

‘Tis the night before Christmas and on KDP,

Not a new free book’s listed for browsers to see.

The trolls, eschewing their favorite food, lemons,

Are skulking in caves, eating unripe persimmons.

And authors have turned their computers to OFF

With loved ones to greet and libations to quaff.

So to all of you on this magical night:

Peace, Joy and Hope for a New Year that’s bright.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Filed under: Opinion, Uncategorized Tagged: M. Ruth Myers, mystery, woman P.I. novels, woman private eye novels, woman sleuth

Just Out — New Mystery with P.I. Maggie Sullivan

DON’T DARE A DAME, the third book in Maggie Sullivan mysteries, has just been published by Tuesday House. It finds the tough woman private eye tangling with a politician and feeling the crunch of brass knuckles.

M. Ruth Myers writes the Maggie Sullivan mysteries featuring a woman P.I. in the 1930s/40s.

Filed under: Authors, News Tagged: crime fiction, M. Ruth Myers, woman P.I., woman private eye novels, woman sleuth

Try This Private Eye Series Free

Here’s a no-cost chance to try a private eye series featuring a woman P.I. in a small Midwestern city during the years 1938-1947.  NO GAME FOR A DAME, first book in the Maggie Sullivan mysteries, is free 10/18-20.  Book #3, DON’T DARE A DAME, will be out next month.

No Game for a Dame (Maggie Sullivan mysteries)

New Private Eye Writer Makes Solid Debut

If you like your private eyes thoroughly hard boiled, don’t miss Broken, the well-crafted debut novel by indie author Matthew Storm. Remember my grousing about the frustrations of sifting for woman P.I. yarns on Amazon? This is one of those finds that make it worthwhile.

Storm’s private investigator, Nevada James, was once the youngest woman to become a homicide detective in the San Diego Police Department. She was liked and admired by her colleagues. Then a serial killer she was closing in on shattered her bones and forced her to watch as he killed two young girls and carved their faces into macabre masks.

After a long stint in a mental hospital, followed by dismissal from the force, Nevada has become a chronic blackout drunk. When we meet her, she awakens from her latest bender with vomit on her shirt and no idea what day it is. She’s been forced to awareness by incessant pounding at her front door.

It’s the opening overture by a notorious gangster who offers her money enough and a case compelling enough to her tortured psyche that she can’t decline. His estranged wife and their ten-year-old daughter have disappeared. He wants Nevada to find them.

As she struggles to strike a balance between staying sober enough to function while drinking enough to ward off the shakes, the reader watches two storylines unfold. One is the private eye working her way through a maze of rival drug dealers, infidelity and treachery inside the organization of the man who hired her. The other is an individual trying to struggle back up from the depths of alcoholism.

Plot, pacing and dialogue are crisp and proficient. Characters are rounded and well drawn. This holds particularly true for the P.I. at the center of it all, who even though we’ve seen alcoholic detectives before, emerges as more than a stereotype.

This is not a story for squeamish readers. Although its violence is not particularly graphic, there is some, along with a decent amount of strong language.

Is Nevada James someone you’d want for a best friend? Probably not, but you’ll find her compelling.

I’m hopeful, based on the novel’s ending, that Broken marks the start of a series. The author has promised an interview here, so maybe we’ll find out.

M. Ruth Myers is author of the Maggie Sullivan mysteries featuring a woman P.I. in the 1930s-40s.

Filed under: Authors, Reviews Tagged: Matthew Storm, woman detective novels, woman P.I., woman private eye novels, woman private investigator, woman sleuth

New: Light & Fun

A new “Light & Fun” list of novels with woman private eyes has been added to the Lists page. Check it out when you’re in the mood for something a little bit light or quirky.

Both authors have series that can keep you reading for quite a while.

M. Ruth Myers is the author of the Maggie Sullivan mysteries and other novels.

Filed under: Authors Tagged: M. Ruth Myers, woman P.I. novels, woman private eye novels, woman sleuth

Free — Woman Private Eye Novel

Sink your teeth into a free mystery novel by an author you may not have tried.

TOUGH COOKIE, the second book featuring Depression-era private eye Maggie Sullivan, is free for Kindle Sept. 6-7.

When the gin-sipping gumshoe is invited to dine with a millionaire, she doesn’t expect the first course to be a gun in her face. It draws her into a gold-plated web of theft, revenge, double crosses and murder.

Filed under: Authors, News Tagged: M. Ruth Myers, Maggie Sullivan mysteries, woman private eye novels, woman sleuth

IF SHE’S NOT A PRIVATE EYE, DRESS HER IN CONCRETE

Recently, in hopes of finding some interesting new gal gumshoes to add to this blog — as well as my own reading pile — I spent an hour sifting through titles on Amazon. I came away with nothing to show for my efforts except frustration.

My approach was, I thought, quite logical. I went to the PRIVATE INVESTIGATORS category. Then, using the drop-down sub-list in the column to the far left of the titles which appeared, I narrowed by search with the WOMAN SLEUTH option. I’m fairly certain this gives you titles which the author or publisher has placed in both those categories. (Most books are allowed only two categories.)

Next I set off happily clicking covers and reading product descriptions.

Happy went by-bye very quickly.

Here were the recurring disappointments I encountered:

1. The so-called private investigator turned out to be something else. Maybe she was in a related occupation such as lawyer or F.B.I. agent. Hey, I like and admire some such mysteries, such as those by Debbi Mack with her tough lawyer sleuth or Alex Kava’s smart FBI profiler Maggie O’Dowd. But these protagonists aren’t P.I.s. The books don’t give the same vibe. Other books listed here had protagonists in jobs that were excruciatingly far afield.

Private Eye Writers of America, the group that gives the Shamus award, defines a private investigator as “a private citizen (not a member of the military, federal agency, or civic or state police) who is paid to investigate crimes.” Honesty compels me to note that a longer definition expands to include TV or newspaper reporters (Hey! What about NPR???) as well as insurance investigators and lawyers. So I’m a little pickier than them, but not by much.

2. The protagonist was nominally a P.I. but the story would have fit just as well — and often better — in the ROMANCE category. In some cases I downloaded and read samples before discovering this. Romance and light mystery fans may be satisfied. Private eye afficionados will not be. Again, and even more sharply here, the vibe is wrong.

Some authors are skilled enough, and understand the genre well enough, to add a dollop of romance to their stories without spoiling the flavor. They do so with a very light hand.

Let me try to clarify this particular complaint with an analogy. You know those photos that occasionally surface, usually around Easter, of a dog wearing a costume of rabbit ears and sometimes a fluffy white tail? A dog wearing bunny ears and a bunny tail is not a bunny.

3. Finally, much less common, in some books that supposedly feature a woman sleuth, the private eye is actually a male. This doesn’t annoy me nearly as much as it mystifies me. I write it off as something to do with algorhythms, which means it would baffle the oracles at Delphi.

Still, it’s worth an hour of frustration now and then to find a new book or series that will bring me hours, days, even years of enjoyment.  And some of you may think I bring the frustration on myself by being too picky in my definition of a private eye novel.  Admittedly, folks nearest and dearest to me have at times suggested that I’m a bit, well, anal.

That’s okay.  Being a little bit anal improves your posture.

 

Filed under: Opinion Tagged: M. Ruth Myers, woman P.I., woman P.I. novels, woman private eye novels, woman sleuth

ADD A DOUBLE-DOUBLE DIP OF WOMAN P.I.s

Are you interviewing new woman P.I.s to add to your reading list? Here are two authors, and as a bonus, one of them has two series.

Laura Lippman, a long-time reporter herself, created Tess Monaghan, who covered the news at a Baltimore newspaper until it went belly up. Tess then transferred her skills to a new career as a private investigator. There’s a spectacular sense of place in this series, along with a window into the world of precinct level politics, where Tess’ father and uncle are foot soldiers. The tone is smart and wry.  Writing and pacing are first-rate.  The author creates rounded characters using just a few deft brushstrokes.

Thanks to GalGumshoe follower  Susanne Weigand in Germany for suggesting Lippman!

Sandra Scoppettone (her website appears to be defunct, but you can visit her blog) is the author of two series with woman P.I.s.

One features Faye Quick, a girl from the secretarial pool, who in 1943 takes over a detective agency when her boss is drafted. Every page overflows with jargon of the era, and whether you like that or not will influence how you like the books.

Scoppettone’s other series is built around Lauren Laurano, a former FBI agent who now lives and works out of New York’s Greenwich Village. She’s got lots of electronic savvy, she’s street smart and she’s a lesbian. I have not read any of this series, which I came across at my local library.

M. Ruth Myers is the author of the Maggie Sullivan mysteries and other novels.

Filed under: Authors Tagged: female P.I. novels, M. Ruth Myers, woman P.I. novels, woman private eye novels, woman sleuth

Why Do We Like P.I. Stories?

Whether the detective is a man or a woman, I love private eye stories. Like other afficionados, I like mysteries in general. Thrillers too. But my favorite, the absolute ultimate treat, is a good P.I. story.

Why? I think there are three reasons.

The P.I. exposes wrongdoing and delivers justice when ‘the system’ can’t.

Probably no other genre leaves the reader with such reassurance that good triumphs over evil. I don’t mean happy endings or tripping off into the sunset. I mean schemers exposed and thwarted even when the law can’t touch them. I mean murderers pushed or tricked into slip-ups leading to their arrest months, or even years, after they’ve gotten off Scott free.

The private eye can step outside the laws and boundaries which hamper law enforcement personnel. She can do a discreet bit of lock-picking that points her toward squeaky clean evidence elsewhere that will stand up in court. He can whack a lowlife over the head or persuade them to talk with a gun in their ribs where police can’t.

The P.I. has chosen this type of work because of a strong moral core.

P.I.s, by, choice confront ugliness and deceit on a day-in-day-out basis. They aren’t drawn into helping someone by accident or through friendship, but because they’ve set out to help people who can’t find help anywhere else. They are driven by a strong sense of right and wrong — something which most of us think is in shorter supply than it should be.

Yes, they need to pay their bills, and we love that about them too, for it makes them like us. Some may strike us as more amoral than moral. Yet we know they’re people of integrity. It’s what makes them tick.

They confront the kind of evil we know abounds in the world. Not supernatural beings and vast conspiracies, but the evil that comes from greed and resentment and jealousy. The evil of the human heart. Police procedurals deal with such evil too, but they do it, to greater or lesser extent, as a group. Which leads us to …

The P.I. is a loner.

Like the cowboys before them, P.I.s are self-contained and self-reliant. Sure, some of the cop detectives we love best are mavericks who flaunt authority and go off on their own when they shouldn’t. Ian Rankin’s John Rebus and J.A. Konrath’s Jacqueline (Jack) Daniels, to name but two. Yet for all their independent ways, they’re constrained by a command structure, turf disputes and the need to have evidence stand up in court. Oh, and let’s not forget the threat of job loss.

P.I.s answer to no one save their own conscience. They have neither the encumbrances of regulations nor the camaraderie of co-workers. At best they have a faithful secretary, or maybe a partner if they’re a two-person agency. There’s no one to watch their backs. They operate without a safety net.

Look closely at most of them and we might characterize them as misfits. But isn’t there something of the misfit in many of us as well? Something in their existential loneliness speaks to us. We like their individualism. We like their refusal to knuckle under to authority or be scared off by violence. In their solitary determination, we see affirmation that one individual can make a difference.

That’s why I like P.I. stories. Why do you?

Filed under: Opinion Tagged: M. Ruth Myers, P.I. fiction, woman P.I., woman P.I. novels, woman sleuth