Comments on Biblio File: Super Spy!

I love Pippi and I love Lauren Child. I really wan...

2007-10-17T00:23:00.000-04:00

I love Pippi and I love Lauren Child. I really want a copy of this.

I'll have to check out Confessions of a Teen Sleuth

I was such a Pippi addict as a kid! I'm hyped on ...

2007-10-13T16:21:00.000-04:00

I was such a Pippi addict as a kid! I'm hyped on a new translation. And if you are on a Nancy Drew kick... Confessions of a Teen Sleuth is a great cheeky parody of the "real" Nancy Drew story. And a quick fun read.

- Abby

PS (It was me being hyped on Kiki too... I forgot to let you know, though you likely guessed!

I think one of the reasons I liked Judy Bolton bes...

2007-10-10T13:16:00.000-04:00

I think one of the reasons I liked Judy Bolton best, aside from the quality of writing (which I think is a direct result of the individual, non-syndicate author) is that she was so much more well-rounded as a character.

I don't read a lot of mystery, especially those written for adults, but Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next is married (at least in the later books) as is his Jack Spratt from the Nursery Crime books. But, in Well of Lost Plots, having Jack Spratt as part of a loving marriage was a conscious decision to make him stand away from the pack and not be a stock character.

Actually, now that I think about it, none of the m...

2007-10-10T12:49:00.000-04:00

Actually, now that I think about it, none of the male characters I read mysteries about are usually married either. Sometimes their sidekicks are, but usually that just serves as a foil to show how much more daring and risk-taking the main character can be by contrast. The lack of gender equality in mysteries is failing both kinds of characters! Darn the patriarchy! And, um, stuff.

The only series I can think of right now that has a husband and wife crime-solving team is Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody series, which definitely has a distinct feminist bent to it. But it's set in the early 1900s, so the characters really are trying to make a political statement.

First, a sort-of aside: I liked the Mason book for...

2007-10-10T12:36:00.000-04:00

First, a sort-of aside: I liked the Mason book for the way it overviewed a bunch of girl mystery series, from the practically the turn of the century through the 70s. I think I blocked out some of the more feminist arguments, because I was using the book as a source for a paper, and none of that stuff was relevant.

Back to what I was originally going to say: The interesting thing about the Judy Bolton books, which Mason points out and is the reason I bought that one, is that Judy is actually an adult and married. The Nancy Drew history book pointed out how much the Syndicate wanted to avoid that for Nancy, because her image as a carefree youth needed to be preserved, like the years between 16-18 were the only ones in which a bright but properly feminine girl detective could be independent enough to solve mysteries. Judy Bolton, who was not a Syndicate character, does start addressing some of those gender issues. Alas, she did not become as lastingly popular.

The woman-detective-cannot-be-married theme continues in a lot of more adult mysteries as well. None of the hard-boiled detective women from the 80s were married, and many of the women detectives who continue in that vein today, such as Robert Parker's Sunny Randall, Stuart Woods' Holly Barker, and (on a less serious note) Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum are all constantly prevented from having a permanent relationship. I guess this is because emotional turmoil is easier to work into an action-packed mystery than a concerned husband who feels he has the right to forbid his wife from doing her job, but it's not like those are the only two alternatives.

Some mysteries lately have been breaking out of this mold. The Diane Mott Davidson caterer mysteries feature a woman who is married, and Margaret Maron's Deborah Knott finally got married, too, but both of those characters are married to... cops. Who can conveniently feed them needed information. Where are the modern day Judy Boltons?