:still reading mysteries:

[jennaria]

Except I've learned from my last picks, and begun using the first-chapter test (read the first chapter, and if you're still interested, continue). I generally don't do that, mostly because I read very fast, but I also don't want another situation of toting home five books, only to find that three of them are pretty much duds. Books are heavy, dammit, and the walk home from the library takes me up a very steep hill. I don't need exercise so badly that I'm going to tote books I don't want to read back and forth over said steep hill.

Have idly been thinking about what it means that I will choose mysteries over other genres these days. Not that I don't love a good romance, or fantasy, or SF, but given the choice, I gravitate toward mysteries. I keep remembering something I read once, that said that 'mystery is the most conservative of genres.' Something has disturbed the status quo, and the detective is trying to set it right. Sometimes they don't succeed, but those tend to feel like they're cheating somehow, at least to me. If I want to read about a world where life isn't fair and the wicked flourish as the green bay tree, I can read the paper.

Also also, any time the writers of the cover copy for mystery novels with a feminine detective want to stop automatically comparing said female detective to Miss Marple, I am totally down with that. They don't compare every male detective to Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot after all. Hmph.

Comments

[jennaria]

No, the AI series is by Donna Andrews and begins with YOU'VE GOT MURDER. I saw at least two more with the same detective, but inasmuch as I'm trying to do something vaguely resembling a survey, I'm avoiding repeats until after Blogathon.

Female detective fiction...I'm actually tempted to go check the male-authored stuff, because it seems like there's a much higher percentage of male detectives who are legitimately involved in cases (as either a cop or a private detective), whereas the women are much more likely to be either trying to clear their own name/a good friend's name, or just being nosy. Not to mention the inexplicable proliferation of cutesy, 'look! we have recipes!' sort of mysteries.

[stranger]

I've mostly ignored the mysteries with recipes, which appear to be an 00's fad. Before that it was mysteries with cats, and while I adore cats, I think they're only moderately good detectives. And it helps if the perp is a fish or rodent.

Have you seen a series by Barbara Paul, featuring Marion Larch? Very non-cutsey, female police detective lead, etc. Warning: some gore and lots of mean streets.