February MysteryCAT: Female Cop/Sleuth/Detective

Welcome to February where we celebrate the female keepers of law and order. Whether your tastes run towards the cozy genre where the sleuth happens to be thrown accidentally into solving a crime to the more realistic and gritty police procedurals, there are so many wonderful authors and characters to choose from this month. Below are are a couple of suggestion to help you get started.

Girl Waits With Gun by Amy Stewart - fictionalized account of one of the first female deputies in the US.
Cop Town by Karin Slaughter - set in Atlanta in the early 1970's, this thriller revolves around two women detectives trying to make their way in the predominately male police department.

Series featuring female detectives
Sue Grafton - Kinsey Millhone series
Deborah Crombie - Kincaid/James series
Tess Gerritsen - Rizzoli/Isles series
Agatha Christie - Miss Marple

Some links to help you with additional recommendations.

https://www.librarything.com/list/97/all/Best-Female-Detectives-and-%22Cozy-Myst...

https://www.librarything.com/tag/female+detective

Feel free to update the wiki with your choices.
https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/2018_MysteryCAT#February:_-_Female_Cop.2...

I'm planning on reading a couple of books at least for this challenge: Cop Town by Karin Slaughter and Death in D Minor by Alexia Gordon.

The Fiona Griffiths series by Harry Bingham also features a female detective. I plan on reading book three in that series - The Death of Fiona Griffiths.

I'm thinking of reading The Art Whisperer an Alix London Mystery by Charlotte Elkins

I've enjoyed the first two books in the series.

I'll be reading The Curious Case of the Copper Corpse which also works for ColorCAT

>3 Crazymamie: Yay!!! I love Fiona. :)

I've set aside Speak Ill of the Dead, by Mary Jane Maffini, for this challenge. Her sleuth in this one is lawyer Camilla MacPhee.

I've been wanting to get to the next Alex Morrow, Gods and Beasts. I also discovered that I hadn't read V is for Vengeance.

Two of my possibilities are:

The Copenhagen Connection by Elizabeth Peters (a stand alone)
Dream Boat by Marilyn Todd (Claudia Seferius series)

I have tons of options but need to see which ones I want to read first.

I've been meaning to read Naked in Death by J.D. Robb/Nora Roberts for ages, so that's my plan!

>6 rabbitprincess: The Camilla MacPhee series is fun, enjoy! I am sure that I will be able to find a few possibilities on the shelf.

I've only plugged in one so far for my Feb read - the next in the Tess Gerritsen Rizzoli & Isles series - The Keepsake.

I will also be reading about Fiona Griffiths next month, but I am only at book #2, Love Story, With Murders. I am really looking forward to this one.

I've got a few options, to just need to think about which I'll go with:
The 8th Confession / James Patterson
A Bone to Pick / Charlaine Harris
The Beekeeper's Apprentice / Laurie R. King
Murder on the Half Shelf / Lorna Barrett
Fatal Voyage / Kathy Reichs

Once I know which ones I get to this month (or might), I'll be able to narrow my options down.

I'll probably read either Ann Cleeves' The Crow Trap or Tana French's The Likeness.

A few I have on hand that I'd like to read include The Beekeeper's Apprentice and Lady Cop Makes Trouble as I really liked Girl Waits With Gun last year and planned to read the next one. Maybe it's time for a Phyrne Fisher book - I think Urn Burial is my next one.

I'm planning on at least two books for this CAT, The Incredible Crime by Lois Austen-Leigh and The Grave's a Fine and Private Place by Alan Bradley.

I'm planning to read a few Mrs Murphy mysteries by Rita Mae Brown and I hope to squeeze in a Flavia De Luce, can't remember right now where I'm at in the series...

This is probably one I could manage every month without really trying. I've got several lined up for February that will fit.

The Hunt Ball
Plum Lucky
Murder on Parade
And I always manage to read a Hannah Swenson or two. I'm reading The Sugar Cookie Murder at the moment so whichever comes after that one for sure.

I know I'll read Murder with Mirrors at least, but I think I also have Maisie Dobbs on the shelf too.

>11 Familyhistorian: This will be a re-read, so I'm sure I will! Being a "local", I like recognizing the places she visits :)

I will try and read one of the Sister Fidelma series (starts with Absolution by Murder) by Peter Tremayne. She's a 6th Century Irish nun who happens to be the sister of one of the Kings of Ireland and a trained lawyer. Really interesting series for the details of life and the fact that she has a sidekick who is from an entirely different tradition.

Also works for February's alphakit, based on the authors first name, giving you bingo square 1 as well. >:-)

>23 Helenliz: I've got The Monk Who Vanished on my virtual TBR shelf.

Here are my possibilities:

Case of Syrah, Syrah
Jury of One
Mummy Case
Peril in Paperback
Permanently Booked
Plantation Shudders
Plot is Murder
Proposal to Die For
Prose and Cons
Shadow of Death

Yes! I could also read all month with the titles I have on MT TBR. I plan on starting with Gwen Florio's Disgraced which is number 3 in the Lola Wicks series. They are western mysteries; this one is set in Yellowstone.

Whoops, although they were heading for Yellowstone, they spent very little time there.

I have a few possibilities on my shelves:
Murder on Mulberry Bend by Victoria Thompson
A Cold Day for Murder by Dana Stabenow
Miss Silver Comes to Stay by Patricia Wentworth

I'm still going to read Gods and Beasts, but then I decided to re-read the Kinsey Milhone series, so I will also be reading A is for Alibi, which will be a re-read for me, but I've lost track of how many years its been..

I've got Urn Burial with Phryne Fisher, and The Grave's a Fine and Private Place with Flavia deLuce on deck.

If I get to them, Lady Cop Makes Trouble or The Beekeeper's Apprentice.

Looking forward to sharing a read of The Grave's a Fine and Private Place (the latest Flavia de Luce novel) with @christina_reads! @raidergirl3 let us know what you think of it :)

I have tons of options. Not sure which ones will make it to the top of the to be read pile. Some of the ones I want are checked out by other persons. I guess I'll see if I get them at the right moment.

Quickly finished Death in D Minor which features a musician who once again finds herself involved with a murder. I do love this character - she's funny and strong.

Although Shifting Reality by Patty Jansen is billed as an SF book, the main character, Melati, does a fair bit of sleuthing, so I think it can count here.

I have so many books on my shelves that fit this category and have at least three, or is it four, out to start reading as soon as there is a space to add them to my reading mix.

Looking forward to diving into my copy of X by Sue Grafton and getting caught up with Kinsey.

>14 LibraryCin: >17 raidergirl3: >29 raidergirl3: oh, yes! The Beekeeper's Apprentice is a favorite of mine, enjoy!

I think I have another Mary Russell mystery I've not yet read, Pirate King, and will probably read it for this challenge.

>36 fuzzi: And as a bonus it works for this month's AlphaKIT too!

I have The Art of Detection on my Kindle which is one of her Kate Martinelli series. Maybe if time allows, I will get to it.

I am hoping to read the first Hildegard Withers book, The Penguin Pool Murder...

I just finished The Case of Missing Marquess by Nancy Springer. It’s protagonist is Enola Holmes, Sherlock Holmes’ much, much younger sister. She is 14 years old and she reminds me a little of Flavia De Luce.

It was a quick and easy read as it is aimed at much younger age group than me. Suitable for 12+ maybe. I have ordered the second book in the series from Book Depository.

>37 leslie.98: that's another reason I chose it, ha!

I finished Pay dirt where most of the sleuthing is done by Mary "Harry" Haristeen and her pets, the cat Mrs Murphy and her Corgi Tucker. Not much of a mystery, the identity of the mysterious woman was obvious from the first chapter.

Read Perish Twice by Robert B. Parker. Sunny Randall is an ex-cop turned PI. I didn't get into the mystery part of it too much. For me it was more about Sunny. I think I liked the first book in the series more.

I read the cozy mystery, Rest in Pieces by Rita Mae Brown (and her cat Sneaky Pie Brown). I enjoyed this Mrs. Murphy mystery which is set in Crozet, VA (near my home in Charlottesville) and has many of the same characters as the earlier Wish You Were Here although I felt the first dead body should have shown up earlier in the story.

Finished Naked in Death by J.D. Robb, the first in the In Death series featuring Police Lieutenant Eve Dallas, and I have to say I really enjoyed it! Full review written if you're interested, and meanwhile, I look forward to picking up the next in the series, so I'm glad the MysteryCat pushed me to finally get around to reading it!

I finished Murder, she meowed by Rita Mae Brown, and although I am not a horse person myself, the steeplechasing wasn't boring at all.

>43 whitewavedarling: I love the in Death series. It will keep you going for a while. I just read Apprentice in Death which was excellent. I enjoy finding out what the characters are doing. I think it is #43 in the series which is still going strong. Every once in a while I reread Naked in Death just to remind myself how it all began.

>45 Familyhistorian: 43 books! Holy cow. I knew there were a lot, but I didn't realize there were that many. I am looking forward to picking up the next few, though :)

And meanwhile, last night I didn't have the eye energy to read the other novel I'm reading (which has Really small print) or the mental energy to read the nonfiction I'm reading, so I ended up picking up a second book for this challenge. It's one of Gregg Olsen's Emily Kenyon thrillers, called A Cold Dark Place. I haven't read anything from this series, but I adored another stand-alone book by him that I read last year, and happened to have this one on hand. I devoured the first 50 pages last night :)

I ended up reading the next book for me in the Aunt Bessie series - Aunt Bessie Enjoys by Diana Xarissa. It's always delightful to spend time with Aunt Bessie and friends. I enjoy her sleuthing and weekly excursions to buy books.

I read The Curious Case of the Copper Corpse. Not really enough Flavia in 28 pp but there you have it.

>48 majkia: I felt the same way - rather insubstantial. I must check where I am in the series. I hope I haven't read them ALL!

I have just finished the first book in a new-to-me Golden Age series - The Penguin Pool Murder by Stuart Palmer. It was quite entertaining even though I did figure out whodunit about halfway through (though that may have been a subconscious recollection from the 1932 film version with Edna May Oliver). Hildegarde Withers is a lot of fun!

I've read another Mrs. Murphy mystery, Murder at Monticello by Rita Mae Brown which fits both this CAT and the ColorCAT. I enjoyed the solving of the modern day murders more than the 1803 murder at Monticello. This book contains a lot of history which I also enjoyed reading.

Just finished Sugar and Iced in the Cupcake Bakery series by Jenn McKinlay. Amateur sleuth is Mel Cooper, one of the bakery owners. (Mel is female.)

I read The Lost Spy by Kate Moira Ryan, which is set right after World war two in Paris. I wouldn't really recommend it though. The writing was okay, but the detection involved nothing but talking to people and sitting around.

I finished my audiobook read of X by Sue Grafton this afternoon. Always a delight to pay a visit to Kinsey, to late 1980's California and get involved "armchair detective style" in her cases, but rather bittersweet as I only have two more Grafton books unread. *sniff*

Only one to go. Sue Grafton died recently and there will never be a Z.

I finished Disgraced by Gwen Florio. This is the third one in her Lola Wicks mystery series. Lola is a small Montana town journalist, whose last job was a reporter in Afghanistan.

While all of her mysteries have embraced aspects of social justice, I found this one much darker than her previous entries.

It addresses an army patrol unit gone wrong, a woman soldier, and, as usual in Ms Florio's books, racism against Indians.

3.8 stars. Not quite what I was expecting, but I was certainly drawn right in and couldn't put it down. This one could work as a stand alone since there is a six year gap between this and the last novel.

Oooh, I have a lot on TBR for this one, but this is a good nudge to catch up on the Flavia de Luce series and read the latest, The Grave's a Fine and Private Place.

I read The Circle by Peter Lovesey from the Hen Mallin series.

Lovesey mildly lampoons would-be writers in this mystery about a writer's circle whose members all take themselves much too seriously. Chief Inspector Hen (Henrietta) Mallin didn't make an appearance until the second half of the book. It was OK, had a good ending, but not my favourite Lovesey.

>57 Tafadhali: Yaaaay! :)

>55 Zozette: - Actually, two to go as I have not read Kinsey and Me. I am hoarding that one, let me tell you!

Not that we all need even more books to search out, but if anyone's interested in finding a suspense series focused on a female detective, A Cold Dark Place is turning out to be Really good, and it's the first in Olsen's Emily Kenyon series. I devoured about 200 pages last night...

I read They Do It With Mirrors, which has Miss Marple, along with a local detective named Curry, working out who shot a man in a house full of witnesses/suspects. I place it right in the middle of her books with 3.5 stars. It has a bit of uniqueness with a school for criminal young men on the grounds providing a large pool of suspects, but there was still the "beautiful, callous young woman whom every man is in love with" character. She seems to find her way into so many Christies.

I just read The Chalk Pit by Elly Griffiths. I am now up to date on the Ruth Galloway series, ready for the next book which will be published later this year.

Just finished Written Off. Interesting premise, and fun read. This was the first in a series, and I will look to see if there are more. (The female sleuth is an amateur who writes crime fiction and her creation seems to have come to life.)

>64 owlie13: - I have that one on loan from the library, can't wait to read it!

March thread is up:
https://www.librarything.com/topic/286810

I have completed Love Story, With Murders by Harry Bingham and featuring DC Fiona Griffiths. This series just keeps getting better!

So far, I've completed for this challenge:
Cocaine Blues by Kerry Greenwood
They Do It With Mirrors by Agatha Christie
Murder on Mulberry Bend by Victoria Thompson
These were all enjoyable, if not especially remarkable, cozy mysteries.

I have finished Der Altmann ist tot where two Berlin school teachers investigate the death of one of their colleagues. It offers an entertaining glimpse at life in a Berlin school where nearly all the kids have a "migration background", as officialese calls it.

I just finished As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust by Alan Bradley, number 7 in the Flavia de Luce series. It was good, but I didn't enjoy it quite as much as the others in the series.

The Beekeeper's Apprentice / Laurie R. King
2.5 stars

Mary Russell is 15-years old when she meets a “retired” Sherlock Holmes. They find they have similar styles in deduction, so they team up to solve mysteries. At some point, it seems that someone is trying to kill people associated with Holmes (or maybe Holmes, himself?)

I listened to the audio (though I’m not sure reading it would have made a difference) and I often lost interest. I just didn’t find it very interesting, but that seems to be par for the course for me and Sherlock Holmes. I really should give up on him (Conan Doyle’s Holmes or otherwise), but I think I have a book in print that features him, so I’ll probably read that, but that may be the end of my trying Holmes, as I just don’t seem to enjoy any of his stories, including this one.

Just finished A Cold Dark Place by Gregg Olsen, which is the first in his Emily Kenyon suspense/thriller series. It was just what I needed, and simply, I'd certainly recommend it to anyone who likes this sort of book. Full review written.

The 8th Confession / James Patterson, Maxine Paetro
4 stars

A school bus blows up, taking innocent lives with it. A homeless man is found violently murdered. A rich, well-known couple are found dead in their beds… and the cause of death is a mystery, even after full autopsies.

Reporter Cindy found the homeless man, so when the police (including friend Lindsay) don’t want to spend time or resources on solving it, Cindy turns it into a story to force them to look into it. Lawyer Yuki is trying a case where a girl murdered her father – the pressure is on to get a conviction. All three are in various stages of relationships.

I really liked this one. More than some of the others in the series, but that may (at least in part) be due to usually listening to the audios. The audios aren’t bad, but maybe I’m liking it just a bit better in print. Even the relationship interactions were enjoyable, though I can’t say I liked either Lindsay or Yuki’s reactions to various relationship “twists”. However, still really enjoyed the book!

Finished two books featuring amateur sleuths - Silent in the Grave featuring Lady Julia and Fundraising the Dead by Sheila Connolly with Nell, the head of fundraising for a museum, both compelled to solve a mystery.

I've finished The Sinner by Tess Gerritsen, book 3 in the Rizzoli & Isles series. I'm really enjoying this series which features two strong female leads, detective and medical examiner. Looking forward to more.

Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore is definitely a mystery with a female sleuth, but it leans a little further toward the literary end of fiction that I prefer. It was a bit dark for me and I was put off by the coincidences. Meh. Most readers seemed to enjoyed it far more than I did.

Design for Dying, the first in a series about the fictional Lillian Frost and the very real Edith Head in 1930s Hollywood was much more entertaining for me. It definitely helps that I'm an old movie buff.....

A while back on the planning thread, there was a discussion of the many 'girl sleuth' series out there. I doubt I've read a Nancy Drew book since before I was a teenager, but I picked up The Secret of Red Gate Farm and I was reminded of why I never liked Nancy as much as I did Nurse Cherry Ames. Oh well. I may get to By the Light of the Study Lamp, the first of the Dana Girls' mysteries, before the end of the month.

I've also read a few urban fantasy books this month which arguably fit this CAT - women in some sort of official or semi-official capacity investigating things (a drowning, a theft, mysterious disappearances). Does anyone have a strong feeling about including that kind of book in this CAT?

Currently reading The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins. I didn't know much about it going in as it's a book club choice, but I think Rachel in it would count as a female sleuth.

I read the most recent Harry Bingham a week or so ago, and forgot to list it. The Deepest Grave is pretty good, although I wouldn't say the best in this series. But it ends with an interesting cliffhanger that has little to do with the actual plot but a lot to do with Fiona and her father. Can't wait for the next one!

>78 ffortsa: Eeeee! I have to wait for the library or my mum to get that one. I love Fiona. My favourite is probably The Strange Death of Fiona Griffiths.

I read The Grave's a Fine and Private Place. I had forgotten it was being released this month. Yay Flavia!

Finished The Harlequin in the Anita Black Vampire Hunter series, and I think she does enough hunting/detecting/investigating for it to count :) I hadn't read anything in this series in a while, and this one reminded me why I always enjoyed it so much. I'll be reading more sooner than later, but new readers should definitely start with the early books!

>71 LibraryCin: well, rats. I love that book, have reread it probably at least four times.

Someone else wrote about how they disliked a book I loved, and it was the audio/reading that seemed to cause the dislike.

Does anyone here have experience with disliking a book in audio but loving it in print?

>71 LibraryCin: >82 fuzzi: I love The Beekeeper's Apprentice - and I'm sure I've read it at least four times, too!

I don't listen to much audio, although I've been doing a little more lately. I did a combo listen/read of The Boys in the Boat and was very happy with both versions. The author read Abraham: A Journey to the Heart of Three Faiths and I suspect I would have been happier with another reader or the print version. Right now I'm attempting Coriolanus via audio, and it's not working well for me. I doubt I'll love it in print, but at least I'll follow it better.

I meant to read the next one in Tess Gerritsen’s Rizzoli and Isles series, but I pulled the wrong one off the shelf and had one of her stand-alone novels. So I’m going to count Keepsake Crimes by Laura Childs instead. It’s a cozy Mystery with a scrapbook shop owner Carmella who needs to find a killer because her soon-to-be ex is suspected of a murder.

>82 fuzzi: >83 Dejah_Thoris: I'm sure I'd seen that lots of people loved the book and that's likely why I added to to my tbr. Sorry!

I am reading Playing With Poison, a Kindle freebie I picked up back in Dec. 2012. I have had some bad reactions to "humorous and romantic" cozy mysteries (mostly having to do with too much romance and not enough attention to the mystery part) so fingers crossed that this one is better than average.

I must admit I like the fact that the female protagonist is in her fifties like me!

Seems like I've been in Exile for a while while I returned to the further adventures of Maureen o'Donnell as supplied by Denise Mina. A review will be done at some point but don't have time right now. Bleak but very good if you don't mind them dark.

I read The Incredible Crime by Lois Austen-Leigh, expecting it to work for this CAT, but protagonist Prudence Pinsent doesn't actually do much sleuthing! Luckily I also read The Grave's a Fine and Private Place, a return to form for the Flavia de Luce series.

I finished Cop Town by Karin Slaughter about two women in Atlanta during the 1970's trying to make it on the police force.

Flying too high by Kerry Greenwood
Phryne Fisher's investigations are always fun, although I wouldn't have enjoyed this as much if I hadn't seen Essie Davis play the part on the tv series. It was easy to visualize Davis in the part wearing the gorgeous fashion of the 1920s and brandishing her pearl-handled revolver. This is a series that may have remained in relative obscurity without the talent of Essie Davis.

>87 AHS-Wolfy: Someday I will get around to the Garnethill trilogy! It is a challenge to find just the right mood for.

One last book for this challenge - Delivering the Truth by Edith Maxwell. Rose is a Quaker mid-wife in the late 1800's in Massachusetts who ends up helping the police catch a killer and arsonist.

I finished In the Shadow of the Glacier, the first in the series featuring Constable Molly Smith. Vicki Delany wrote it.

I read The Widows of Malabar Hill which is the first in a mystery series set in 1920's Bombay. The female protagonist is the first female lawyer in Bombay and she does a lot of her own sleuthing as she works to represent her clients. This was a good read and I will likely follow the series as it comes out.

>95 Dejah_Thoris: I just checked The Widows of Malabar Hill out from the library thinking it would be a good fit for March. I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it!

Finished Suffer Little Children featuring Sister Fidelma as sleuth.

I finally finished Pirate King last night, not the best of the Russell/Holmes series, but not bad.

I think I'm about caught up with her works.

I finished the month with Latter End, a Miss Silver mystery.

>98 hailelib: The Miss Silver mysteries are good. I think I need a reread.

I finished Books, Cooks and Crooks one of the books in the A Novel Idea series. I also read American Blonde which was a mystery set in Hollywood just after WWII when the studio system was still in place. It was interesting for the mystery and the history.

I started Deja Dead but won't finish in Feb. But I was surprised by how different Temperance Brennan is in the book compared to the TV show Bones!

>98 hailelib: & >99 Familyhistorian: I think I need a reread of some Miss Silver books too!

I finished one more for this month, Conviction by Julia Dahl. This is book 3 in the Rebekah Roberts series. She is a reporter who gets drawn into investigations involving the Hasidic Jewish community in NY. I've really enjoyed this series so far and hope there will be more.

I read Celine by Peter Heller for this challenge. The mystery was ok, not a real page turner, but I did enjoy Celine!