Remember those classic
crime novels written by Ian Fleming, Raymond Chandler, Mickey Spillane, and
Dashiell Hammet? These were exciting thrillers with one thing in common besides
tough protagonists and beautiful women--they were all written by men.
It used to be that in
order to write a hard-boiled crime novel you had to be a guy. Not any more.
Today’s women authors are finding success in what was traditionally a male
preserve, thrillers and crime novels. Let’s meet a few!
Patricia Cornwell has a background as a police reporter and as a
staff member in the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Richmond, Virginia.
Her first crime novel, Postmortem,
was published by Scribner's in 1990. Cornwell has since written a slew of
bestsellers including those featuring Postmortem’s heroine Kay Scarpetta, her detective pal Marino,
and her eccentric niece, Lucy: Body of Evidence (1991), All That Remains (1992), Cruel and Unusual (1993), The Body Farm (1994), From Potter's Field (1995), Cause of Death (1996), Unnatural Exposure (1997), Point of Origin (1998), Black Notice (1999), The Last Precinct (2000), Blow Fly (2003), Trace (2004), and Predator (2005).
Cornwell is noted for
her meticulous research and superb writing. In May 2007, Cornwell was awarded
an honorary doctorate of letters from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice,
who cited her cultural contributions through her "commitment to the
principles of academic excellence and understanding for all."
Nora Roberts, who was born Eleanor Marie Robertson, writes thrillers
under the pen name of J.D. Robb. Roberts’s first novel, a romance entitled Irish
Thoroughbred, was published by
Silhouette in 1981. Roberts wanted to expand her repertoire and published Naked
In Death, written under the name
J.D. Robb, which introduced New York Police Lieutenant Eve Dallas. Breaking
every rule, Dallas gets involved with Roarke, a suspect in her latest murder
case. Naked In Death
initiated a string of best-selling police procedural novels.
Over 280 million
copies of Roberts’s books are in print, and her novels have been published in
35 countries. Time Magazine
named Roberts one of their 100 Most Influential People in 2007, and said she
"has inspected, dissected, deconstructed, explored, explained and extolled
the passions of the human heart."
Linda Davies is a British author of thriller fiction. She
worked as an investment banker in New York, London and Eastern Europe, and left
her career to write her first novel, Nest of Vipers. She now lives in Dubai with her husband, her
two sons, and her daughter Lara. Subsequent novels include Wilderness of
Mirrors, Something Wild, Into the Fire, and Final Settlement.
Zoë Sharp was born in Nottinghamshire, England, and wrote
her first novel when she was fifteen. Her professional writing career took off
in 2001 with the publication of the first Charlie Fox book, Killer Instinct. This was followed by Riot Act and Hard Knocks. Charlie Fox next appeared in Florida in the
thriller First Drop, first
published in the UK in 2004 and by her American publishers, St. Martin's Press,
in September 2005.
Sandra Brown began her writing career in 1981 and since then has published seventy novels, most of which remain in print. She's the author of fifty-six New York Times bestsellers, including Play Dirty, published in August 2007 by Simon &
Schuster. Her other recent bestsellers include Ricochet, Chill Factor, White
Hot, Hello, Darkness, The Crush, Envy, The Switch, The Alibi, Unspeakable, and
Fat Tuesday, all of which
appeared on the New York Times
bestseller list in the number one to five spot.
So there! Aspiring
thriller writers, get to work! In hard-boiled crime fiction, the possibilities
for the dynamic diva are endless.
User Comments
blog comments powered by Disqus