Mysteries, crime novels and thrillers featuring female detectives.

Fiction only, please -- and if part of a series, please only list ONE * book from that series -- preferably, if the woman is part of a man/woman team, one where her role is particularly highlighted in some fashion or other.

STRICTLY NO HORROR, SCI-FI, SUPERNATURAL TALES or ROMANCE, PLEASE! All of these will be removed.

This list is about the real world, and the great crime fiction of the present and of years past.

* Please also note that a LOT of series are already represented on this list. So before adding a[nother] book from a given series, you may want to double check whether that series is still lacking in its entirety. If it is not, any further books from the series added regardless will likewise be removed again.

Similarly, spam will be removed without any warning.
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174 likes · 
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Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) 546 books
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Susanna - Censored by GoodReads 3388 books
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Lobstergirl 5834 books
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ღ Carol jinx~☆~☔ʚϊɞ 4181 books
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Dara S. 7613 books
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Annette 6625 books
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Bettie 15681 books
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Laura 2842 books
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More voters…


Comments Showing 1-16 of 16 (16 new)

dateUp arrow    newest »

Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) Folks, PLEASE stick to the list description. There are several nonfiction entries here now, several cases where more than one book per series has been added, and several books that, however great they may be, are neither mysteries nor thrillers by any definition whatsoever -- all of which I'm going to remove. Again, this doesn't say anything about the books in question. I just don't think they happen to belong on this list.


message 2: by [deleted user] (last edited Apr 11, 2012 01:13PM) (new)

Female Detectives? How does Hunger Games and Tess of the D'Ubervilles (which I abhor) fit in?


Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) See coments above -- someone evidently didn't bother to read the list description.

I'm willing to leave "Hunger Games" (book 1) in for the moment on the grounds that it might (just) be considered a thriller, and at least it has a female protagonist. May end up changing my mind about that eventually, though.


Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) Alright -- I did delete The Hunger Games after all because it kept attracting the wrong kind of books.

Also amended the list description. -- If anybody sees anything on this list that doesn't seem to fit the description, I'd be most grateful for a heads-up.


message 5: by Cindy (new)

Cindy Divergent is YA Dystopia, not a mystery.


Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) Cindy wrote: "Divergent is YA Dystopia, not a mystery."

Thanks, much appreciated. Deleted that and also Blood in the Skies (steampunk).

Do keep the alerts coming if you see something else. This is one hard-to-monitor list ...


message 7: by Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) (last edited Dec 09, 2012 02:28PM) (new)

Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) Alright, since this list has started to collect more than an average amount of spam entries, here's a warning: Any and all entries I consider spam will be removed REGARDLESS to what extent, facially at least, they would appear to meet the criteria for inclusion.


message 8: by Theresa (last edited Feb 20, 2013 01:59AM) (new)

Theresa Dunn In the Bleak Midwinter Julia Spencer-Fleming (Clare Fergusson mystery series #1)


message 9: by Theresa (new)

Theresa Dunn A Duty To The Dead (Bess Crawford, #1) by Charles Todd by Charles Todd
A Bess Crawford mystery #1


Susanna - Censored by GoodReads You add books at the top of the list, at the tab next to "all votes."


message 11: by [deleted user] (new)

I would consider The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane to be supernatural. I voted for it and then deleted my vote.


message 12: by Judy (new)

Judy The Eyre Affair is a great story, but is clearly fantasy.


message 13: by Artemisa (last edited Nov 10, 2015 08:55AM) (new)

Artemisa Ask Agregué "El Moái de Obsidiana" escrito por Artemisa Ask.
La novela ocurre en Isla de Pascua, en Chile y está ambientada en 2014.
¿Qué más temible que una madre que protege a su hija de un posible asesino que ronda a los turistas en Isla de Pascua?

El Moái de Obsidiana


message 14: by BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) (last edited Feb 09, 2019 08:17AM) (new)

BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) Can Nemesis (#461) be removed? The first one of the Miss Marple stories, Murder at the Vicarage, is already on this list (and the description is quite clear, as it says only ONE of a series). Same goes for Finger Lickin' Fifteen (#550), Fearless Fourteen (#553), Lean Mean Thirteen (#555) and Twelve Sharp (#557), as the first one of the Stephanie Plum novels, One for the Money, is also already on the list...


message 15: by Valerie (last edited Aug 06, 2021 10:08AM) (new)

Valerie Hi Everyone - I stumbled onto this list and feel right at home. I write the Logan McKenna Mystery/Thriller series and think Logan would fit right in. Not sure how lists work-still learning my way around Listopia here. Is there anything special I need to do to add my books? There are 7 in the series. Whisper Creek releases Sept 14th.

Shattered Logan Book 1 (The Logan McKenna Series) by Valerie Davisson
Forest Park Logan Book 2 (The Logan McKenna Series) by Valerie Davisson
Devil's Claw Logan Book 3 (The Logan McKenna Series) by Valerie Davisson
Lies That Bind (A Logan McKenna Mystery Book 6) by Valerie Davisson
Vanishing Day Logan Book 4 (The Logan McKenna Series) by Valerie Davisson

Vanishing Day: Logan Book 4


message 16: by S. (new)

S. Amour Hi there! I'm the author of the upcoming title, The Covert Buccaneer. I noticed that 3 readers voted it to this list and I don't think they read the list description. Yes, The Covert Buccaneer prominently features fearless females, but it is not a crime book. Ok, it does feature a (real life) Chicago woman counterfeiter in an extended passage in one of the chapters, but overall it's not a crime fiction novel. I just don't want to mislead readers, which can ultimately be a disservice to the author (me!)


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