Lori L. Lake, the wonderful resource diva that she is, pointed us to an article on crime novels and the women who write them. It is an interesting article, with good points and information. The article, and the writers, are UK based.
Murder, she wrote
Many of the most gruesome crime thrillers are written by women – and lots of us love to read them too. What attracts us to these violent stories, asks Julie Bindel
(snipped)
As a female author, says French, it makes complete sense to write crime novels, as they are a way of understanding the danger that lurks around us “every time you walk home alone at night, every time a stranger asks you for directions on a deserted street, every time you’re home on your own and there’s a strange breeze moving through the curtains”.
Then there’s the fact that, as Jo-Ann Goodwin points out, “women have historically done the dirty jobs, wiping the blood, snot and mucus of the wounded, sick and dying”. Goodwin is the author of the novel, Sweet Gum, which focuses on a serial killer who targets lap dancers. “Caring for the old, and coping with the physical and very visceral agonies of childbirth”, she continues, “we simply have stronger stomachs out of necessity, and far closer contact with the secrets of the body. Women can’t faint at the sight of blood. They would spend several days a month on the carpet.”
For her part, Cole believes that one of the reasons that women love her books is that they often feel excluded from the predominantly male world of organised and violent crime. “Women are usually on the periphery of the criminal underworld. I take them into the middle of it.” There is a 96-year-old woman who comes to her book signings each year, who tells her: “You give me criminals and prostitution from the comfort of my own home.”
And Cole’s stories often reflect the lives of the women who read them. She recalls a TV documentary about life in Soho, which featured a prostitute who lived in one of the walk-up brothels. When the camera panned around her living room, Cole noticed all her books on the shelf, and was thrilled. “I could just imagine her saying to a punter, ‘Go and get your trousers off, love, I’m just reading Martina’.”