Dan Conrad, whose words have appeared here to great effect in the past wrote again.
As the news in the real world continues to be little but gloom and doom... I've turned (in fiction writing) to a series of heroes and heroines who face problems that would make Hercules wince but never fail to come out victorious--and then some.
Ken suggested Laurie R. King, and I started with Art of Detection featuring Kate Martinelli--a lesbian cop in San Francisco. [For reasons I don't understand, this book's title shows up as The Art of Detection on illustrations.] Now I'm going back to the start of the series and then take up with the heroine introduced in Beekeeper's Apprentice - I think.
My favorite right now is one Molly Murphy who is introduced by Rhys Bowen in Murphy's Law.
Molly is wanted for murder in Ireland (ca1900) but has immigrated (illegally) to New York and is bent on being a private investigator--against all odds.
Then there is Maisie Dobbs who enters in a novel by the same name by Jacqueline Winspear. It doesn't hurt that her experiences as a British nurse in W.W.I and her being part gypsy give her uncommon insight.
Then there is that disgraced son of a British nobleman who solves murders in high places (with help from his sometime actress, prostitute, spy girlfriend) in 4 novels by C. S. Harris. I'm about 80th on the waiting list for the 4th in the series.
Oh, then there's my favorite so far this year, and not just because of the name. Kate Atkinson's When Will There Be Good News. It takes a while to get going but when it does, hold on to your hat. You'll love that teenage girl and older heroine even more than the featured detectives.
That's it for now. Got a bunch of books on Christianity as it was before Constantine (to say nothing of the Apostle Paul) twisted things around to create a religion unrecognizable by the early followers of Jesus. Enough for now.
See also:
- Rhys Bowen's Molly Murphy web site
- Rhys Bowen interviewed by Barbara Peters of Poisoned Pen Press and Bookstore, Arizona
- C. S. Harris' web site
- Kate Atkinson's web site
- Patrick Ness' review of When Will There be Good News from The Guardian (UK)
- Improbable upstart, my thoughts on Beekeeper's Apprentice
- Maisie Dobbs mysteries
- Recorded Maisie Dobbs mystery
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