The best books about women solving mysteries and seeking revenge

Is there a more appealing narrator in all of modern fiction than fourteen-year-old Mattie Ross, who sets out to avenge the death of her father in the company of U.S. Marshal Reuben “Rooster” Cogburn, for whom “fear don’t enter into his thinking”?

Although most people probably know Mattie’s adventures from the two feature films made from the book, the Western, told in simple, comically impassive prose, is a literary gem.

I loved being in Mattie’s head as she, Cogburn, and a Texas ranger known only as LeBoeuf tussle on their journey into Indian Territory to capture outlaw Tom Chaney, the man who killed Mattie’s father, robbing him “of his life and his horse and $150 in cash money plus two California gold pieces that he carried in his trouser band.”

As Mattie’s final showdown with Chaney proves, she’ll do anything to carry out her mission.

Woodrell’s novel tells the story of Ree Dolly, a sixteen-year-old girl in the Ozarks who in the middle of winter suddenly faces a week’s deadline to find her missing father, Jessup, a meth cooker, before a scheduled court date.

(With the book’s Ozarks setting, it’s hard not to see Ree as a distant, fiercer, more profane descendant of Mattie Ross.)

Unbeknownst to the family, Jessup put up their house as part of his bond. If Ree can’t find her father in time, her family—including her helpless mother and two young brothers—will lose everything and become homeless.

Woodrell uses sparse, lyrical prose—“Houses above looked caught on the scraggly hillsides like crumbs in a beard and apt to fall as suddenly”—to trace Ree’s dangerous search for her father, a discovery many hard and cruel people don’t want her to make.

Dionne’s book drew me in immediately with its provocative opening lines: “If I told you my mother’s name, you’d recognize it right away. My mother was famous, though she never wanted to be. Hers wasn’t the kind of fame anyone would wish for.”

Dionne divides the subsequent story between past and present, beginning with protagonist Helena’s hunt for her father after he escapes from prison, knowing he'll come for her. To track him, Helena uses the backwoods skills her father taught her as she grew up in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula wilderness.

Through flashbacks, we learn the bizarre details of Helena’s upbringing as the child of a woman her father abducted as a teenager and held captive for years. Totally gripping.

I’m a huge fan of Slaughter, both her Will Trent police procedurals and her stand-alone thrillers, which are deliciously dark and propulsive.

This novel goes deep into some shadowy corners of existence with its story of Claire Scott, an Atlanta woman who’s confronted with a shocking personal tragedy in the opening pages when her husband is murdered in front of her.

Compounding her devastation, Claire stumbles upon ugly secrets of her husband that help her solve the decades-old disappearance of her believed sister Julia. It’s impossible not to admire Claire’s resilience in the face of the horrors she uncovers and her will to survive them.

For my money, the brilliant but misanthropic Swedish computer hacker Lisbeth Salander is one of mystery fiction’s greatest female protagonists: fiercely independent, tough as nails, set on revenge, beholden to no one.

It’s hard not to stand in awe of Salander in this book and the other two in Larson’s original trilogy (published posthumously after his tragic early death).

The novels, relentlessly portraying Salander’s fights against violent misogyny, government conspiracies, and right-wing movements, feel over the top at times. But watching Salander at work makes them all worthwhile.