Those readers looking for other novels in the field will be best served by turning to Clark's subsequent efforts in fiction, especially, A Stranger is Watching (1977), A Cardie Will Fall (1980), and While My Pretty One Sleeps (1989). There are however, other writers, especially women writers, who have promoted strong female characters in the mystery field. Certainly Sara Paretsky, Sue Grafton, Marcia Muller, Linda Barnes, and others have opened up the crime and detective genres to resourceful and dynamic women protagonists. These characters may have harder edges and survive without the help of a male protector, but they are also the end products of a two-centuries old pattern of literary female emancipation.