I enjoy reading short mystery stories, so I couldn’t resist this collection of 74 stories featuring female detectives. This is a robust collection of short stories ranging from cozy to hard-boiled from the last 150 years, written by both men and women. The stories are mainly grouped by era, with the exception of the last chapter called, “Bad Girls.” Each story includes an introduction with information about the author and the detective.

The collection includes many authors, mostly from the modern era, who have long been favorites of mine such as S.J. Rozan, Faye Kellerman, Anne Perry, Carolyn Hart, Sue Grafton, and Jeffery Deaver. This was my favorite chapter, because I enjoyed reading so many excellent stories by authors I have frequently read.

The collection includes a story by Agatha Christie, one of my all-time favorite authors, in the “Golden Age” chapter, but I was disappointed it featured Tommy and Tuppence instead of Miss Marple. I was happy to read some of the other stories in this chapter by authors I had heard of, such as Mignon G. Eberhart and Mary Roberts Rinehart, but hadn’t read before.

There were quite a few pleasant surprises in the collection. I really enjoyed a story by L.T. Meade and Robert Eustace, originally published in 1900, featuring Miss Florence Cusack, a female Sherlock Holmes. I’m not usually a fan of Pulp stories and didn’t realize some of them featured female detectives. I especially enjoyed “The Letters and The Law” by T.T. Flynn even though some parts of it were very dated.

With such as large collection, readers aren’t going to connect with every story, but there is something for everyone in this delightful book of short stories. It can be read from beginning to end or you can dive right into your favorite era and enjoy. I have read other collections edited by Otto Penzler, but this one is my favorite. “The Big Book of Female Detectives” gave me many hours of enjoyment and I highly recommend it to mystery fans, especially those who enjoy short stories.

I received this book from NetGalley, through the courtesy of Vintage Crime. The book was provided to me in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday, Vintage Crime/Black Lizard for a digital copy of this anthology.

This is an absolutely must-have collection for any reader who wants someone else to do all the hard research work for them. Otto Penzler has collected 74 short stories featuring a woman as the chief detective in a mystery from Victorian to modern times. Not every story will appeal to each reader, but there are so, so many fabulous stories included in this collection that it couldn't help but be a success for me. Penzler has included an introduction to the collection and then a short piece before each story to give the reader a sharper focus of the times and career of each author.

I started out reading one story from the earliest collections and then one from modern times. I enjoyed having such dynamic examples of how writing in this genre has advanced, but also to once again see how good the early writing was. With 74 authors covering such a wide time period it is probable that you will find yourself reading material from authors you aren't familiar with. I found some very good mystery stories from all the time periods and highly recommend this anthology.

All you really need to know is this book was put together by Otto Penzler and that is enough for me! It is hard to pick a favorite in this book but I was particularly drawn to the late Sue Grafton’s story. But I loved Jeff Deaver, Laura Lippman, SJ Rozans stories as well. This is a great book that I will definitely be adding a hard copy to my collection.

This is a fascinating history of the development of stories featuring female detectives, going back to the Victorian period, and continuing through the 20th century and beyond. There are both familiar authors like Mary Roberts Rinehart and Agatha Christie, and lesser known ones as well. The introductory material on the authors is well researched and helps place each author in his/her historical context.

The Afternoon I Met V.I. Warshawski

The air was humid, the cobblestones glistening during my lunch break as a psychotherapist. I stumbled on a little bookstore I’d not seen before on the South Side of Pittsburgh, where my ex and I had just moved for his job with Capitol Records.

Libraries and bookstores gave me solace those early days in the Iron City, where I knew no one but a little-seen cousin. But I remember that day as if it were yesterday, because that’s when I first met V.I.

As I picked up KILLING ORDERS and read the dust cover on Sara Paretsky, I found myself exhaling. It was if I’d been holding my breath since we’d moved, but now I could finally relax. For I’d found a new friend, one I could spend hours with over a good pinot. She’s been a bracing good companion for many years now.

All that to say I was thrilled when I found The Big Book of Female Detectives on NetGalley! In this fine anthology, Edgar Award-winning editor Otto Penzler assembles the best and the brightest of female sleuths in mystery fiction, representing 150 years of the detective canon.

The 74 handpicked stories introduce us to the most determined of gumshoes gals, from debutant detectives like Anna Katharine Green's Violet Strange to spinster sleuths like Mary Roberts Rinehart's Hilda Adams, from groundbreaking female cops like Baroness Orczy's Lady Molly to contemporary crime-fighting P.I.s like Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone, and include indelible tales from Agatha Christie, Carolyn Wells, Edgar Wallace, L. T. Meade and Robert Eustace, Nevada Barr, Linda Barnes, Laura Lippman, and my dear friend Sara Paretsky, among many more. To which Sara and I raise our glasses and say, “5/5!”

Pub Date 09 Oct 2018

Thanks to Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group and NetGalley for the review copy. Opinions are fully mine.

#TheBigBookOfFemaleDetectives #NetGalley

This is a collection of 74 short mystery stories featuring a female detective. These stories were grouped by when they were written and featured stories from the first fictional female detectives in the mid-1800s up to the modern day. Some of the stories were very short while a few seemed novella length, but most could be read in an hour or two.

Some were essentially the detective telling how she solved the crime. Many told events as they happened and provided clues for the reader to puzzle out. Many of the women were competent, clever private or amateur detectives. A few were criminals intrigued by solving the puzzle or were even the one committing the crime. A whole group of stories had the woman as basically the beautiful sidekick to the real detective. This collection was interesting to read and contained many fun stories. There was no sex. There was a fair amount of bad language, mostly found in the more modern stories.

Do you enjoy mysteries? Short stories? Female detectives? If yes, this book deserves a place on your bookshelf. It is filled with stories from different eras and covers 150 years of writing, beginning with the Victorians. My favorites sections are the Golden Age, Mid Century, the Modern Era and Bad Girls. Many, many of my favorite authors are to be found in this collection. At over 1000 pages, this will be a book to dip in and out of over time. Highly recommended!

The Big Book of Female Detectives is an absolute must for mystery lovers everywhere. An excellent compilation of 74 stories that will keep the reader enthralled for quite some time, with detectives and stories ranging over 150 years. Essential reading for fans of the genre! A+

Tremendous anthology in the BIg Book series, edited by the inimitable Otto Penzler. This one gives us great stories about female gum shoes(primarily but not exclusively written by women) from the invention of the detective story to date. I primarily read male authors and books starring male heroes but this compilation opened my eyes to the vast amount of stories involving women. Appropriate, edifying and entertaining!

This is a very thorough introduction to female detectives throughout literary history (starting with the Victorian era). Each entry gives a brief glimpse at the significance of that detective and her author and is followed with an excerpt of her story. This book would be a terrific reference for anyone wishing to read more from this particular subset genre. I'd heard of many of the detectives showcased, but most of them I had not. I'm sure this book is one I will continue to return to again and again.

Love how with Mr.Penzler books that he introduced you to new authors and their books and characters ,then gives you one of their stores to read ,so you can get an idea of that author's style of writing. With that said I want to think Netgalley for giving me the chance to read and review The Big Book Of Female Detectives in change for my honest opinion because with out them I would have never know about these authors at all .

Thank you Netgalley and Knopf Publishing for this read for my honest review.

Ponder has put together short stories (including a few chapters each) of multiple generations of famous women detectives. The stories start from the Victorian Era and travel all the way up to modern day “Bad Girls”. Ponder starts each story with a small history of what’s taking place in the story to help paint a picture in your mind of what is to come. It also describes details about the author and when the story was published. Each story includes a few chapters of mystery, suspense, and thrill to engage your mind and plop you into the world of crime.

I seriously am in heaven. This is such a wonderful piece of work! I am a huge mystery/crime buff when it comes to fiction, so this is my dream come true. I can’t believe something like this hasn’t been done sooner! I cannot WAIT to get my hands on the physical copy and share these stories every night with my daughter. I would highly encourage a male version of this too, just because the content is so rich and I’m sure fathers and sons would enjoy reading this together. Heck, I would LOVE to read it! Any mystery lover, short story lover, and history buff would love this book. A must read!

5/5 Stars

With over 1,500 pages and entires covering female literary detectives fro Victorian times to the present, this book has something for everyone. Each entry gives a brief bio of the author, and then a short piece of their work. I can't believe this hasn't been done before. A must for every mystery lover you know