RARA-AVIS: Re: female authors

From: Kevin Burton Smith ( kvnsmith@thrillingdetective.com)
Date: 01 Feb 2008


Jordan wrote:

> I tend to shy away from female authors, because I prefer male
> perspectives (for crime novels). But I'm willing to look: who are the
> best female hard boiled & noir authors?

Good timing. The Girl Detective and I are currently sifting through a hip-deep pile of old pulps, paperback originals and the like, looking for those very dames for an upcoming anthology. The featurettes in the back of HELL OF A WOMAN only scratched the surface. Not only do women write this stuff, but they've been writing it just as long as the guys have.

I think some of you will be surprised at some of the stuff we're digging up. Anyone who thinks hard-boiled and noir is exclusively a man's game is just gonna have to readjust their mindsets.

I've found a few I'm dying to blab about, but I don't want to scoop myself. Suffice it to say a lot of them wrote from a "male perspective" (by which I assume you mean a male as first person narrator or central protagonist). And, knowing how "sensitive" some guys are, now as then, about their he-man reading material, several of these women wrote using male pen names.

So I'll be watching this thread with interest. And some of you, be warned: I'll be contacting you soon.

Kevin Burton Smith The Thrilling Detective Web Site 10 Years of P.I. Thrills



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 01 Feb 2008 EST