The Orange County Register, October 11th, 2006
Here’s a pop quiz: Which of the following fictional detectives was not created by a female writer: (a) private investigator Kinsey Millhone (b) medical examiner Kay Scarpetta (c) caterer Goldy Schulz (d) police officer Ray Weiss (e) none of the above.
It’s a bit of a trick question because it’s unusual for an expletive-spewing male cop to be written by a woman. But Ray Weiss is the lead character in Edgar Award-winning Theresa Schwegel’s upcoming novel, “Probable Cause.” In fact, they’re all characters created by female authors. Their range – from hard-boiled, professional private eye to smart amateur sleuth – is testament to the growth and evolution of mysteries written by women.
And it’s safe to say that Sisters in Crime, founded in 1986, had something to do with that development by helping to raise the profile and popularity of mysteries by women.
According to a survey sponsored by the group and administered by a third party, crime fiction is the second most popular genre, next to nonfiction. More than 90 percent of readers surveyed said they had no preference for books written by men or women – and a majority of the readers polled were male (56 percent male vs. 44 percent women.)
As the group celebrates its 20th anniversary, we talked with authors and others in the mystery field about changes in the genre, their writing careers and why crime fiction is as popular as it is today.
Earlene Fowler, Fountain Valley
Fowler is the author of the Benni Harper mystery series in which each book takes its title from a quilting pattern. She launched the series with “Fool’s Puzzle” in 1994; her most recent book is “The Saddlemaker’s Wife,” a mainstream novel about a waitress who inherits a cattle ranch in central California.
On feminism in her novels: “Benni is a rancher. They’ve got their own rules within the rural community. Women grow up equal to men doing men’s jobs. A cow is having a calf and it needs to be pulled, it doesn’t matter if you’re a man or a woman. But their relationships with men are very traditional. ... I think she just accepts it. She’s used to being around traditional men, men who would open the door for you. If you’re broken down on the highway, do you want a poet or a truck driver to stop?”
On changes in the genre: “I think the mystery field is not what it was 20 years ago. I think all the genres have blurred. If you look at the best-sellers list right now, you have romance writers writing mysteries, mystery writers whose books are more relationship-oriented. You have mainstream, literary writers who are putting crimes in their novels. We have to laugh in the mystery field.
“I think one of the reasons that’s happening is that publishing is trying to attract the next generation of readers. Nobody knows what to do. I think that’s why a lot of publishers are running scared, and saying, ‘Let’s try this, let’s try that.’ I think writers are, too. I don’t know what the answer is.”
Theresa Schwegel, Costa Mesa
Schwegel got off to a fast start in the mystery field last year with her first novel, “Officer Down,” about Samantha “Smack” Mack, a hard-drinking, tough-talking Chicago police officer, which won the Edgar Allan Poe Award for best first novel. For a follow-up, the 31-year-old author and Chapman University film school graduate wrote “Probable Cause,” due out in December, about another Chicago cop, this one male.
On writing male characters: “When I started writing (‘Probable Cause’) it occurred to me that there aren’t very many women who write men. I don’t know why. I was afraid that that was what people would say about the book, ‘Oh, she can’t write men.’ I got my first review, and what I appreciated was that the reviewer didn’t comment on the fact that I wrote men, and said, in fact, that the book worked because of the characters.”
On the profanity in her novels: “I just gave a speech this morning, and some women afterward asked me why I had to use the f-word so often. I said cops speak this way. In writing truthfully, you gotta throw a couple of them in. I think that language in general has gone that way. ... It certainly wasn’t done for shock value. I don’t think anybody who has been around police officers or is one has said anything about the language.”
Randy Abbot, Evansville, Ind.
Abbott teaches “Women Mystery and Detective Fiction Writers and the Rise of Feminism” at the University of Evansville, which covers everyone from Miss Marple to Nancy Drew to V.I. Warshawski.
On changes in the mystery field: “I think one of the important differences is that in the ’30s and ’40s, the way that great writers of the genre back then like Hammett and Chandler portrayed women is very different than the way that women writers of the ’80s and ’90s portrayed men. Women in the novels of the ’30s and ’40s were seen as Eve types, beckoning men to eat the forbidden fruit. They were vamps and tramps and tried to lead men off the path. ... But in the women’s versions of those stories, men aren’t treated as one-dimensional types who are evil. They are just in the story, and I think to their credit, a lot of modern women writers have more sympathy for the opposite sex and don’t treat them as bad guys.”
On the popularity of mysteries: “In the early days of mystery novels, they were looked down upon as trash. A serious person wouldn’t read a mystery novel. It was a poor sister of literature. Which is funny because if you look at the important writers of the 1930s and ’40s, they’re hardly read anymore these days. But look at Agatha Christie. She’s been dead since 1976, and all her books are still in print. She’s not the only one. Look at Ngaio Marsh, Dorothy L. Sayers. People find mysteries and read them for generations. Think of Nancy Drew – she’s been through all these generations from 1920 when the first books came out until today.”
Rochele Krich, Los Angeles
Krich, author and president of Sisters in Crime, often brings her Jewish heritage into her fiction. She writes one series about a Los Angeles crime reporter named Molly Blume who is married to a rabbi, and another about LAPD homicide detective Jessie Drake, as well as stand-alone mysteries.
On why writers like mysteries: “I think crime fiction allows the writer to explore social issues that seem so appropriate because we’re dealing with good and evil. It’s no wonder that some literary writers are trespassing into crime writing.”
On why readers like mysteries: “I was on a panel with (novelist) Carolyn Hart, and she made an interesting comment about the appeal of mysteries. What she said is that readers of crime fiction are gratified when there is a commitment to goodness at the end of the book. I think that’s true.”
