A Suitable Job for a Woman

by Val McDermid, Nevada Barr (Foreword by)

"But down these mean streets must go a man who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished or afraid." When Raymond Chandler wrote these words in his classic The Simple Art of Murder, he drew a blueprint for the male private eyes who descend from Philip Marlowe to populate the world of crime fiction.
But what if the private eye is a woman? And what if she is not a character in a novel but a real, working investigator testing not only the meanness but the absurdity of life on seamy streets? Who will tell her story?
Enter Manchester's Val McDermid, herself a skilled writer of the P.I. novel but for years a professional journalist. In an effort to plumb the real world of working women--and throw new light on her own craft--she has interviewed women private eyes from both sides of the Atlantic and assembled their stories with an eye for the absurd and a keen grasp of the gritty nuts and bolts of the profession.


As fascinating as fiction, A Suitable Job for a Woman is, in the words of Edgar-winning author Nevada Barr, "a concise and eye-opening trek through the competence, humor, and humanity of women."

Genres: Mystery, Nonfiction

302 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Val McDermid is a No. 1 bestseller whose novels have been translated into more than thirty languages, and have sold over eleven million copies.

She has won many awards internationally, including the CWA Gold Dagger for best crime novel of the year and the LA Times Book of the Year Award. She was inducted into the ITV3 Crime Thriller Awards Hall of Fame in 2009 and was the recipient of the CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger for 2010. In 2011 she received the Lambda Literary Foundation Pioneer Award.

She writes full time and divides her time between Cheshire and Edinburgh.

Reviews

[Kathrin Passig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Val McDermid hat in den 1990er Jahren in den USA und in Großbritannien Privatdetektivinnen interviewt. Ich glaube, ich hätte die Interviews lieber vollständig und nacheinander gelesen. Stattdessen sind sie hier zerlegt und auf thematisch gegliederte Kapitel verteilt worden, mit Überleitungstexten von Val McDermid. Das lässt alles etwas zäher wirken als nötig. Inhaltlich war es aber interessant, vor allem, wie desillusioniert schon zu dieser Zeit alle Interviewten die Arbeit und die Rolle der Polizei sehen.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderfully insightful look at the lives of women private investigators in the UK and USA, exploding some of the myths spun about women PIs in fiction. Written in 1995, I'd love to read an updated version to see how technology has changed their lives.

[Weasel · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting read (especially when consider it was written in the 90s and how things have changed...)

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Val McDermid mystery

[Jane Cairns]

Great read for women who've wondered what it's like to work as a private investigator.

[Hannah Gordner · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like some of this author’s other work, but this was a real snooze fest comparatively.

[Marsali Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this fascinating insider account of the life of a female PI, on both sides of the Atlantic - what keeps them doing a sometimes very dangerous job, interesting cases, ways of working. An absorbing read, and well worth getting hold of. Lovely cover too!

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

No doubt Val was a journalist as she looks at the real female PIs. Very interesting look at how different the life and work of real private investigators are in the UK from the US and even more different from the PIs in a crime novel.