A Suitable Job for a Woman: Inside the World of Female Private Eyes

by Val McDermid

This is an investigation into the real-life world of female private investigators.

Genres: Mystery, Nonfiction

252 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]

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]

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]

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

[Donna]

Val McDermid mystery

[Jane Cairns]

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

[Hannah Gordner]

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

[Marsali Taylor]

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]

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.