Women on the Case

by Sara Paretsky

These are stories of P.I.s who keep guns in their handbags--or their bras, of crime victims, homeless women, and housewives whose ordinary lives take a brutal, sometimes fatal twist. This collection brings several brilliant international authors to American readers for the first time, including Amel Benaboura, Irina Muravyova, and Helga Anderle. Mystery fans will also enjoy new works by familiar voices Sara Paretsky, Elizabeth George, Amanda Cross, Ruth Rendell, Antonia Fraser, Frances Fyfield, and many more contemporary masters.

Genres: Mystery, Short Stories, Fiction, Anthologies, Crime, Mystery Thriller

464 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Sara Paretsky is a modern American author of detective fiction. Paretsky was raised in Kansas, and graduated from the state university with a degree in political science. She did community service work on the south side of Chicago in 1966 and returned in 1968 to work there. She ultimately completed a Ph.D. in history at the University of Chicago, entitled The Breakdown of Moral Philosophy in New England Before the Civil War, and finally earned an MBA from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. Married to a professor of physics at the University of Chicago, she has lived in Chicago since 1968.

The protagonist of all but two of Paretsky's novels is V.I. Warshawski, a female private investigator. Warshawski's eclectic personality defies easy categorization. She drinks Johnnie Walker Black Label, breaks into houses looking for clues, and can hold her own in a street fight, but also she pays attention to her clothes, sings opera along with the radio, and enjoys her sex life.

Paretsky is credited with transforming the role and image of women in the crime novel. The Winter 2007 issue of Clues: A Journal of Detection is devoted to her work.

Her two books that are non-Warshawski novels are : Ghost Country (1998) and Bleeding Kansas (2008).

Reviews

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book Review
3 out of 5 stars to Women on the Case, a collection of short stories curated by Sara Paretsky in 1996. Each of the short stories focuses on a female detective or investigator, bringing to the forefront both female-driven crime stories and a woman's point of view. While I enjoyed a few of these stories, it wasn't as strong as A Woman's Eye, one of the other anthologies Paretsky took the lead on. I enjoy short stories, but this didn't seem to have the same quality or expanse of styles and characters. It fell short of being a fun read and rather got a little tedious at times. It was good to have a 20 page story to choose from, but I never felt compelled to finish the book. I did read each story, but some were half-skims and overviews, rather than truly digesting a meaty mystery punch. Might work for others, but didn't do too much for me. Oh well, can't win them all!

A Woman's Eye About Me
For those new to me or my reviews... here's the scoop: I read A LOT. I write A LOT. And now I blog A LOT. First the book review goes on Goodreads, and then I send it on over to my WordPress blog at https://thisismytruthnow.com, where you'll also find TV & Film reviews, the revealing and introspective 365 Daily Challenge and lots of blogging about places I've visited all over the world. And you can find all my social media profiles to get the details on the who/what/when/where and my pictures. Leave a comment and let me know what you think. Vote in the poll and ratings. Thanks for stopping by.

[Jerry B · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the second anthology of female crime writers hosted by the famous author Sara Paretsky – the first a similar collection entitled “A Woman’s Eye” (1991). We glommed onto “Women on the Case” when we learned one of our favorite authors, Linda Barnes, was among the 26 featured authors in this short-story mystery anthology. We have sometimes tired of Paretsky mounting her soapbox on various social issues in her VI Warshawski novels, but want to warn male readers that her introductory essay to this collection about the fate of “downtrodden” {our word} female American writers left us feeling downright wounded, not that we wouldn’t agree that females still get the short shrift in many facets of modern life. In our opinion, her rant seemed rather unnecessarily vitriolic.

Anyhow, as with most any collection of this ilk, there were both real pleasers as well as a few dogs among the 26 entries. Several notable authors are represented, including Paretsky herself, Ruth Rendell, Nevada Barr, Marcia Muller, and Elizabeth George – even included are two previously unpublished authors, Smith and Jackson. Our favorites included the tales by Pickard, Smith, and Cross; ironically we found the Barnes entry rather weak and quite short. Moreover, some of the stories, billed on the book cover as “by the best women crime writers of our time,” an outrageous claim in our opinion, were borderline fantasy or social rants rather than crime mysteries per se.
For sake of completeness, the following lists the 26 authors in order of appearance and a rough rating of our enthusiasm for their respective entry:

P. M. Carlson ★ Nancy Pickard ★★★★★ Liza Cody ★★
Ruth Rendell ★★ Irina Muravyova ★ Eleanor Taylor Bland ★★
Nevada Barr ★★★ Frances Fyfield ★★ Elizabeth George ★★★
Amel Benaboura ★ Dorothy Salisbury Davis ★★ Andrea Smith ★★★★
Linda Barnes ★★ Susan Geason ★★★ Amanda Cross ★★★★
Pieke Biermann ★ Susan Dunlap ★★ Helga Anderle ★★
Dicey Scroggins Jackson ★★★ Linda Grant ★ Myriam Laurini ★★★
Antonia Fraser ★★★ Barbara Wilson ★★★ Sara Paretsky ★★★
Marcia Muller ★★★ Lia Matera ★★

One hopes to possibly discover a new author of interest in such a reading – we definitely shall pursue at least Nancy Pickard from among those writers with whom we were previously unfamiliar – good luck to you! {2.5}

----------

We found it odd that both the book and all the stories lacked publishing attribution and copyright information. We finally learned that the book appeared in 1996 via Delacorte Press – and all the stories were apparently herein original (as claimed on the book cover) as they also were all copyrighted 1996 (except for the previously published Muravyova entry – 1993) …

[Jodi · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought this book, thinking that it would be a good mixture of mystery/detective short stories by female authors but was rather disappointed. The quality of the writing was inconsistent, as well as the fact that the plot of some wasn't a mystery or detective story at all.

[Boadicea · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting anthology of international sleuths of differing persuasions written by women; the occasional gem, 1 peculiar tale of a paranoid psychopath's stream of consciousness, the rest of varying ability.
For me, Linda Barnes and, of course, Ruth Rendell were the writers I 'found'. My pleasure at discovering V.I.Warshawski in this volume was moderated by the tale being somewhat slight & banal compared to her full-length novels.
However, Sara Paretsky's star, here as the editor, was elevated by her example of Eliabeth Barrett Browning as a poet & writer, with the following quotation from 'Aurora Leigh':

For me,
Perhaps I am not worthy, as you say,
Of work like this: perhaps a woman's soul
Aspires, and not creates: yet we aspire,
And yet I'll try out your perhapses, sir,
And if I fail...why, burn me up my straw
Like other false works - I'll not ask for grace:
....I
Who love my art, would never wish it lower
To suit my stature. I may love my art
You'll grant that even a woman may love art,
Seeing that to waste true love on anything
Is womanly, past question.

Reminder to self: read Elizabeth Barrett Browning!

[Jennifer Baldy · Rating 4 out of 5]

As with all books of short stories, some you'll like more than others, but a great collection, and introduction to a few new authors I would seek out in future reading.

[Elizabeth Ruth · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely group of female detectives and writers comes together nicely in this short story collection. It's very obviously curated by Sara Paretsky, in its earnest third-wave feminism, but it works out well for this book. I actually enjoyed stories by some authors whose books I haven't enjoyed, like Nevada Barr and Sharon McCone.

Most of the stories in this book aren't anything to write home about, but a few really knock it out of the park with the cultural issues they tackle. Some non-Western stories in the bunch are particularly good.

I'd recommend this to mystery readers, especially ladies who like being inspired by lady sleuths.

[Cybercrone · Rating 3 out of 5]

Seemed a bit uneven, but given that Paretsky tried to choose the widest variety of woman writers she could find, there was bound to be a large variance in types of stories.

On the whole, quite enjoyable.

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with most anthologies, the stories in this collection were a bit of a mixed bag. Some I really, really loved (the Nevada Barr, especially, was amazing, which I could've guessed), and others I disliked so much after starting that I completely skipped them (very out of character for me). Also, it wasn't entirely what I was expecting. I was anticipating stories of women solving mysteries. Some of the stories fit that bill, but others were more tangentially related. All had female POV, though, and all were related to crime in some way. Overall, it was a fun little read, but I didn't discover any new authors I would want to read more from.

[jules · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Women on the case" is a collection of 26 crime short stories written by women, and in which women are the main characters.
Even though not all the stories may be exactly classified as "crime fiction", each tale has a mystery that catches the reader's attention from the first lines and it is often solven only in the last ones.
The collection was edited by Sara Paretsky (who also wrote a beautiful introduction quoting one of my all time favorite, Aurora Leigh) and published in 1996.

[Pat · Rating 1 out of 5]

except for a few old favorites

I didn’t find anything worth reading in this anthology. It’s from 25-30 year ago. But still I love things from 100 years ago. It was detailed, long sentences that I couldn’t understand about ideas I found obscure, depressing and uninteresting. So Marcia Muller, Sara Paretsky, and a few others made sense to me. Not enough though for me to ever look at it again. Sadly.

[JodiP · Rating 2 out of 5]

For some reason I couldn't get past the fact that these were all written decades ago. I usually love delving into fiction written a while ago but I recall the feminist message seemed to be the primary goal of the first couple stories. There is a way to write highlighted liberation that also makes for great story-telling.

[Ellen Wilkinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Linda Prince]

Enjoyed these stories and especially the characters.

[Jayne Subwick · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Lisa Faye · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't read a lot of short stories or a lot of detective fiction or a lot of compilations. I guess it's kind of the nature of the beast that some of the mix will totally suck. Still, it was nice to just read a short story before bed. Also the writing style for most of the stories was really simple, so this was some of the most relaxing reading I've done in a long time. Really though, it was just ok.

[Bettie · Rating 2 out of 5]

The one I'm listening to here is called Publicity Stunts by Sara Paretsky.

VI Warshawski is accused of murder. With all eyes on her, she sets out to uncover the truth before the law closes in.

Pedestrian.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/...

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good anthology of short stories, all written by women, about women. The protagaists range from private investigators to murderers to ghosts. Some stories, naturally, are better than others, but as a whole, a good book to read in bits and pieces.

[Stephy · Rating 4 out of 5]

When it comes to Woman Writers, More is better.

[Tex · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't read much short story writing but used this as filler between books while flying. Most intrigued by "I'll get back to you" which has the unusual setting of Pergatory.

[Skyler]

To be perfectly honest, I just read the stories by my favorite mystery authors: Ruth Rendell, Elizabeth George, Liza Cody, Linda Barnes. Oddly, three of them had psychics in the plot line.

[Agnes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great variety of authors, many I've read, some never heard of before.