Great Mystery Series: Top Female Sleuths by 8 of the Best Women Mystery Writers

by Sara Paretsky (Narrator), Nancy Pickard, Liza Cody

Stories from eight of the best women mystery writers.

Genres: Mystery, Audiobook, Short Stories

Audio Cassette

First published January 1, 1993

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

[Bob Box · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read in 2004. Anthology of mysteries by female authors.

[Rhonda D. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked up this book for 2 authors that I knew -- Paretsky and Grafton -- and enjoyed extensions of their PI characters -- Warshawski and Milhone. But along the way I found some new authors to read. There are 21 short stories in this anthology (8 of which can also be found on tape (or maybe CD too). Not all of the mysteries are solved by detectives, but all are solved by women. I especially enjoyed PI Kiernan O'Shaughnessy in "Death and Diamonds" by Susan Dunlap, journalist Jemima Shore In Getting to Know You by Antonia Fraser and Annie Darling in "Her Good Name" by Carolyn Hart.

[Jaime · Rating 4 out of 5]

As with any anthology, there is a range in the quality of the stories presented but each was able to hold the attention, at the very least. There were two standouts that stick in the memory, in particular: Liza Cody's "Lucky Dip," about a London street urchin, and Sue Grafton's Kinsey Milhone entry.

[Deb · Rating 1 out of 5]

I could not get into this book, which is very disappointing considering I love Sue Grafton's books.

[Denise · Rating 3 out of 5]

I listened to this a couple of years ago and accidently picked it up again recently at the library. Not a bad effort overall.

[SeriouslyJerome · Rating 2 out of 5]

these were mysteries?