Pistols and Petticoats: 175 Years of Lady Detectives in Fact and Fiction

In the 1980s and 1990s, an explosion of female detectives hit the bookstores in works written by women authors. There were so many new authors and new "lady detectives" (as author Erika Janik refers to them), that it was hard to keep up with them all. They created a unique genre within a genre. Friends were reading quickly, passing books on to others, and sharing notes about their favorite female sleuths. An entire book could be written about women authors and the female detectives of their creations. As Janik has so painstakingly pointed out, the genre has been around since at least the 1860s if not earlier. There is a great deal of material to cover here - historical, sociological, and literary - and it would take an entire book to show more flesh it all out properly. In many ways, that is the problem with Janik's PISTOLS AND PETTICOATS: she took on too wide a field for one book.

The other part of PISTOLS AND PETTICOATS is devoted to the sociological history of real-life women working within the criminal justice systems, as prison wardens in the early days up through to patrol officers and yes, on to detectives. Perhaps Janik thought that analyzing the literature of crime fiction through female detectives would be too dry a subject. Perhaps she thought that exploring how women came to work in prisons and police systems would be too wide an area to explore. It is likely that she thought the two made for a nice coupling, and hence - PISTOLS AND PETTICOATS.

Although well-written and factual, Janik's book can best be described as a primer for someone who knows very little about women authors and their fictional female detectives or very little about the growth of the criminal justice system and the role women played in it. For an overview of either, PISTOLS AND PETTICOATS is good. However, for anyone who has a deep interest in either field or who has studied one side of the other (or both), there is going to be very little new to learn. Still, one must give kudos to Janik for acknowledging the connection and addressing crime and detection through a decent book on women's studies. show less

Fascinating read on both history of women detecting and their rise in the police as well as their fictional counterparts. I have to say I enjoyed reading about the fictional detectives more; I was surprised that real-life women still have been so far behind in advancing. Great read in how far we’ve come yet still need to go. My only upset was wishing there was a “Spoiler Alert” note in some sections as I’d love to find some of the original novels mentioned, yet we were told the whole story about the crime and who turned out to be the villains.

With clear and lively pose, Erika Janik takes the reader through the tempestuous history of women solving crime. Loosely chronological, Janik starts in late 1700s, with the Gothic novel – the forerunner of mystery novels. Her research is excellent, bringing the historical and fictional characters to life. Non-fiction historical writing can be dull, even with a lively subject, but Janik deftly dodges that trap and creates a book that is amusing, intriguing, and easy to read. She didn’t get bogged down in a plethora of details, adding just the right amount to draw the reader into the world.
In particular, I enjoy how she compared the women in fiction to those in real life. As often occurs, the female detectives in fiction lived show more exciting, glamorous lives, solving strange and wild mysteries. In contrast, the women in real life where usually relegated to being social workers with badges or moral keepers, shepherding vulnerable girls away from dance halls and malt shops. Janik did an excellent job of tracing how women moved from these background positions to where they are today – chief of police, head detectives, and women on patrol, with all the duties, power, and responsibilities of their male counterparts.
The prose repeats itself occasionally, but that doesn’t detract from the book. It’s inevitable when writing about any historical subject – it gets tangled.
I had a similar emotional response to her work that I often have to books about the history of women – a deep annoyance at the ignorance of men (and some women) regarding the capabilities of women. The arguments used to keep women out of certain professions, the unfair treatment, the rigged standards, and the sexual harassment. It burns me up.
To conclude, I would recommend Janik’s book to many people. This is perfect as an overview of the subject, and an excellent place to start reading about the topic. It will be of particular interest to those lovers of crime fiction, women’s history in the United States, and anyone who is looking for an enjoyable non-fiction read. This would make an excellent beach book, even if just to give you ideas of excellent crime novels to read!

Note: I received this book free through LibraryThing's Early Reviewer's Program, in exchange for my fair and honest opinion. show less

I thought this book was wonderful on all levels. Some reviewers have been a bit disappointed in that they were expecting perhaps a lighter romp through the history of fictional female private detectives/police officers and real female private detectives/police officers(a reading situation that I have found myself in before, as well). However, the book to me was exactly what I was expecting, and what I wanted it to be. It was a well-researched, well-thought out, and well-written scholarly history of the evolution of both real women detectives and fictional women detectives, and the interplay between the two. It introduced me to some fiction I definitely want to read, taught me about some real-life women to admire, and made me think about show more the role of women in society, both our fictional one and our real one. Highly recommended. show less

With a somewhat frivolous title, readers may believe Pistols and Petticoats is a somewhat frivolous book. It’s not. It’s a serious survey of the headway women have made in law enforcement since the mid-1800s … plus a look at how women detectives have been portrayed in crime fiction (books and television shows) during the same period. It took me awhile to wrap my head around the idea of mixing fact and fiction in such a way, but after two chapters, I caught onto the rhythm of the writing and after that it was smooth sailing.

It’s very obvious Erika Janik has done her homework and lots of it. She also does a great job of taking a boatload of facts and weaving them into a concise, coherent story in a way that doesn’t overwhelm show more readers. It was amazing to see how the American view of women police officers has evolved over the years and how far they still have to go to gain equality and respect.

Pistols and Petticoats has two of the three elements I expect in serious non-fiction: index and great footnotes. It lacks, however, a bibliography, which I would have like to see.

Review based on publisher-provided copy of the book. show less

I found this history of women detectives very uneven. Janik is at her best when talking about fictional women. Her account of some of the lesser known early fiction such as books by Anna Katharine Green has not been written about in other books I have read. (P. D. James' "Talking About Detective Fictions" and Lucy Worsley's "The Art of the English Murder", specifically.) She made me want to find copies of some of the older fiction. But I didn't find her history of real life women detectives as compelling although linking women to social work was excellent.

The growth of women is police work is now taken as a given, but women are still only 12 to 13 % of all officers and a much smaller percentage of detectives. Women have come a lot show more further along in fiction. I think that "Pistols and Petticoats" suffers from trying to do too much, but it is an interesting read. I like very much the fact that the book is footnoted - important in any good nonfiction. show less

Pistols and Petticoats from Erika Janik is an interesting overview of women in sleuthing, so to speak, in both fact and fiction. This includes police, private detectives and even the popular unofficial detectives who seem to always stumble into murder mysteries.

This is not meant to be an exhaustive detailed history, not sure one could be done in a single volume. This is meant more as a thematically structured look at the history of women in both real life and fiction who solve crimes. While the thematic structure seems to have thrown some, it makes perfect sense when showing how there was a play between what was transpiring in real life and in fiction.

If you're looking for a detailed account of each person, writer, or character not only show more will you be disappointed in this volume but you will never find that information in a single volume, sorry. If all you want is "facts" isolated from sociological context, you may be disappointed also. But if you want a nice overview of the topic and a perspective from which to understand the changing nature of both fictional "lady detectives" and real life women in law enforcement, you will likely find much to interest you. Because the net is cast so wide you may well find some people or characters you'd like to learn more about. Nothing is stopping you from doing so and this book can easily serve as a springboard into such interesting topics rather than expecting this to be some kind of all-inclusive tome which would have to extend to the thousands of pages to do so. In other words, I recommend this to those who want to perhaps pick up some perspective, learn some new names to explore, and aren't expecting the impossible from a book of about 250 pages.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via Edelweiss. show less