Paige Hawthorne: Blog

Where are all the good girls?

Other readers have noted this too. Mystery World is dominated by men.

Oh, there are a few girls. Terrific ones too.

Sunny Randall via Robert B. Parker.

My all-time favorite, Jane Whitefield. Thank you, Thomas Perry.

Let's see … Stephanie Plum from the celebrated author, Janet Evanovich. Carol Starkey, L A bomb squad - - Robert Crais. Isabel Dalhousie by Alexander McCall Smith.

And best of all, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

It's understandable though, that men dominate the field. It's relatively recently that women began working. Let alone were allowed into law enforcement.

Still, it's refreshing to see a girl nabbing an occasional baddie.

Paige

I dipped into a story whose reader score was over 9.

I kept an open mind going into Chapter One. Then I forced myself to realize - - shit this guy is good! Way gooder than I am.

Well, guess what? Right hand over left boob, I shall try harder. I was working on my second Winter Jennings story and now I've basically started over. Of course that's no guarantee this work will be any better. Or even as good.

Mutter, mutter. Nothing against you superior writers. Sigh.

Paige

Radio interview. Andrew Vachss was explaining why he wrote novels in addition to toiling away at his career as a youth advocate - - an attorney specializing in juvenile justice.

And that congregation has continued to grow. The lead character, Burke, is as tough a tough guy as I've come across.

"I'm just preaching to a larger congregation."

I like me a preacher man.

Paige

One of my very favorite writers, an underrated one I believe, is Geoffrey Norman. His protagonist, Morgan Hunt, roams the Florida Panhandle, righting wrongs.

The quote from "Blue Chipper" is the diner cook responding to sheriff's lieutenant Tom Pine's post-breakfast comment, "Just great, Ray. I'd like to do it again."

"Well, if you're buying, I'm frying."

I've always liked men with appetites.

Paige

Alexander McCall Smith (McCall Smith is his surname) is best known for his No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, set in Botswana. That quote is from In the Company of Cheerful Ladies.

But my favorite series is Isabel Dalhousie / The Sunday Philosophy Club. Isabel is sort of a Edinburg Miss Marple but more real, more thoughtful, more vulnerable.

"A life without stories would be no life at all."

And, in a way, I guess that's why we're all here.

Paige