I love reading complicated women. Messy, difficult, sarcastic, strong, clever, unusual, prickly women—works in progress who don’t always make good decisions and defy expectations. Characters shaped by their circumstances—good or bad—who use their considerable talents to figure their way out of difficult situations. I crave books that make me look anew at familiar genres or subjects. An element of mystery is the secret ingredient that makes me fall hard for a story; add a memorable female lead, and you’ve got the perfect book. It wasn’t long before I switched from reading female-led mysteries to writing them. I haven’t looked back.
Claire DeWitt is a troubled detective hired to solve a disappearance in post-Katrina New Orleans.
She learned her craft by studying the teachings of an elusive French detective, and was set on her career path after failing to find her missing friend as a teenager. She is haunted by disappearances of all kinds, and through this fascinating main character Gran weaves an atmospheric, compelling mystery.
The first time I read this book a hidden door in my writing brain unlocked—detective novels can be more than the classic setup of a talented sleuth following the clues. They can be messy and enigmatic and unsettling—in fact, Gran convinced me that they should be.
New Orleans, and Vic Willing, Assistant District Attorney for the prosecutors' office, has been missing since Hurricane Katrina hit. Called in from San Francisco is Claire DeWitt, a detective whose expertise and methods derive from some unique sources.
What Claire discovers takes us into the heart of the crime-ravaged, deeply wounded city, where those who can afford it live behind fences and those who can't are slain daily on the streets. And it's there she discovers that the only thing worse than an unsolved case, maybe, is a solved one.
From the acclaimed author of Dope and Come Closer, City…
Stevie Bell is a student of true crime and frighteningly good at solving cold cases—making her perfect for the elite Ellingham Academy in Vermont, the site of a famous unsolved crime.
The combination of Stevie’s compelling personality, the boarding school setting, and the deft unraveling of the mystery had me flying through pages. Johnson has created an addictive narrative using a compulsively readable style and a wonderful cast of characters, but the jewel here is Stevie.
It’s a YA novel but I don’t think I’ve ever related to a teen more. (We’d both rather hide inside our comfy black hoodies rather than face difficult conversations.) This series reminded me of the immersive feeling of falling in love with reading as a kid, wanting to live alongside these characters and be one of the gang.
From New York Times bestselling author Maureen Johnson comes the start of a new series about a sharp and funny young detective named Stevie Bell who begins school at an elite, yet peculiar, boarding school and finds herself entangled in a murder mystery; perfect for fans of 13 LITTLE BLUE ENVELOPES.
New York Times bestselling author Maureen Johnson weaves a delicate tale of murder and mystery in the first book of a striking new series, perfect for fans of Agatha Christie and E. Lockhart.
Ellingham Academy is a famous private school in Vermont for the brightest thinkers, inventors, and artists.…
Flavia de Luce is a know-it-all pre-teen, but Bradley pulls off the trick of making her fun to read.
She lives in a small 1950s English village prone to suspicious deaths, in a crumbling mansion called Buckshaw, where she likes to tinker in her uncle’s old chemistry lab. Somehow Flavia is both heartbreaking—her mountain-climbing mother disappeared years ago, and her older sisters are total brats—and delightful.
I want to give her a hug, and even more, I want to write a character with equal parts heart, smarts, and sass that readers will fall in love with. She might not be a professional detective, but she’ll give Miss Marple a run for her money, pedaling along on her trusty steed Gladys (who is a bicycle).
Meet Flavia: Mystery Solver. Master Poisoner. 11 Years Old.
England 1950. At Buckshaw, the crumbling country seat of the de Luce family, very-nearly-eleven-year-old Flavia is plotting revenge on her older sisters.
Then a dead bird is left on the doorstep, which has an extraordinary effect on Flavia's eccentric father, and a body is found in the garden. As the police descend on Buckshaw, Flavia decides to do some investigating of her own.
Praise for the historical Flavia de Luce mysteries: 'The Flavia de Luce novels are now a cult favourite' Mail on Sunday
Claudia Lin is lying to her family. They want her to have a steady job and marry a nice Chinese man—but Claudia’s interests don’t lie in either direction.
Instead she secretly takes a job at an online-dating detective agency, verifying the profiles people post on dating sites. This premise had me from page one, and as I read, Claudia and her journey turned out to be just as compelling. Readers will come for a good plot hook, but they’ll stay for a satisfying character arc—this was the biggest takeaway for me here.
Claudia is looking for truths, about both the book’s central mystery (investigating the death of one of her clients) and about herself.
Constance Kopp was a real person, one of the first female deputy sheriffs in the United States, and the inspiration for this book.
I love how Stewart plays off brief mentions in the historical record and brings her fully to life. Constance doesn’t fit the expectations of a proper lady in 1914 New Jersey—she’s too outspoken, too tall, too independent. This is a feminist story, a finding-your-purpose story, and a wonderful historical snapshot.
The next book in the series is called Lady Cop Makes Trouble, and if you haven’t figured it out yet, I love women who make trouble.
From the New York Times best-selling author of The Drunken Botanist comes an enthralling novel based on the forgotten, true story of one of the US's first female deputy sheriffs.
Constance Kopp doesn't quite fit the mould. She towers over most men, has no interest in marriage or domestic affairs, and has been isolated from the world since a family secret sent her and her sisters from the city to the country fifteen years before. When a powerful, ruthless factory owner runs down their buggy, a dispute over damages turns into a war of bricks, bullets, and threats as he…
Petal Woznewski is content with her introverted life in New York City, but her peace is shattered when her name appears on the dedication page of an anonymously written novel: “I know what you did, Petal Woznewski. And now everyone else will too.”
The novel’s plot is rooted in a secret she buried thirty years earlier, involving the tragic death of her friend, Megan. A secret that only one other person knows—their old friend, Jenny. Petal returns to her hometown of Madison, Wisconsin to find the author, but discovers more questions than answers. Sinister clues pile up, and Petal must confront her past and solve the mystery of who wrote the book—before her very real life ends as tragically as the novel.
My book is fantastical historical fiction about two characters who're wrestling with the monstrosity of their grief.
It takes you into London high society, where Ambrose tries to forget about how much he misses Bennett and how much he dreads becoming as cold as their Grandfather. It takes you to the family's country manor house, where Mattie isolates and old ghosts start to come out of the woodwork.
It's a story about loss and depression; it's a story about friends who don't let you walk through the valley of death alone.
Ambrose Bancroft returns to London society with his younger sister, hoping they'll leave ghosts of memory behind. They have only each other left. While Ambrose attempts to draw Mattie out, dragging her to balls and threatening to seek suitors for her, his sister recoils from his meddling. Finally, when Ambrose compels her to attend art class before she's ready, Mattie paints something horrific enough to banish them from society in public disgrace.
At Linwood Manor, Mattie and Ambrose aren't as alone as they think. Taking advantage of Mattie's desperate need to find freedom, a vanishing room lures Ambrose's sister into…
