Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

Audio books suggestions - is there such a thing as feminist crime fiction?

35 replies

TopTaxisOfSmalltown · 18/09/2024 10:27

I love a police procedural, but I hate a) gratuitously horrible things happening to women and b) anything that's actually a romance disguised as any other sort of book. I don't GAF about the love lives of the detectives (some incidental mentions is fine but spare me the rest).

I'm embarrassingly non-literary and don't like supernatural elements or anything too ridiculously complicated or things described as "lyrical" etc Blush

OP posts:
QuestionableMouse · 18/09/2024 23:30

You might like https://www.amazon.co.uk/Even-Though-I-Knew-End/dp/125037510X

BrokenSushiLook · 18/09/2024 23:48

Not overtly feminist but the Ben Aaronovitch Rivers Of London series is a great Police Procedural with a twist (there's magic and gods etc, but it's all in a very real modern-day london) - but it meets your criteria that the women aren't just there to be gory victims and characterless supporters for the Real Men. It's pretty rounded and diverse from an equalities perspective and although there's a small amount of relationship stuff it's not lovey-dovey.

ApolloandDaphne · 18/09/2024 23:51

Some interesting books. Thanks for the recommendations.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

echt · 18/09/2024 23:51

The Bryant and May series by Christopher Fowler. Not written by a woman, but all the female characters in the entire series are believably strong and portrayed without being patronising.

You don't have to begin at the beginning, but I did; "Full Dark House".

Also the Thursday Murder Club series by Richard Osman, for the same reasons.

Justlovedogs · 18/09/2024 23:59

I'd recommend the Shaye Archer series by Jana DeLeon. A dark story line in the background, but a strong female survivor PI in the lead.

Kirstyshine · 19/09/2024 00:02

Susie Steiner

SkiingIsHeaven · 19/09/2024 00:05

DCI Hanlon series

RobinEllacotStrike · 19/09/2024 09:13

@PaperBee I agree Career of Evil
Is difficult. I'm "rereading" the whole series via audiobooks and I'm on CoE now. It's my "least favourite" though we get a huge amount of backstory about Robin & Strike, which is fair compensation

PaperBee · 19/09/2024 16:42

RobinEllacotStrike · 19/09/2024 09:13

@PaperBee I agree Career of Evil
Is difficult. I'm "rereading" the whole series via audiobooks and I'm on CoE now. It's my "least favourite" though we get a huge amount of backstory about Robin & Strike, which is fair compensation

I actually wish there were edited versions with the most disturbing parts removed or reduced as there are friends who I think would love the books but not be able to get past some particular passages. I trust JKR enough to feel that whatever is in there is there for a reason, and I do think it always pays off and the whole series is very clever and feminist, but in any other book it would definitely be enough to turn me immediately off. I also have the audiobook versions for rereads and it’s definitely not a good idea to fall asleep listening to some of them!

MarkWithaC · 19/09/2024 16:55

A little left-field, but there's a series set in the 12th century called Mistress Of The Art Of Death, by Ariana Franklin, with a protagonist who's, unusually, a woman trained as a doctor. She specialises in the study of corpses to find out what happened to them, so she's basically a proto-forensic pathologist.
Not sure they're feminist exactly but they are an interesting look at the life of even a quite privileged woman of that time (she has to walk a very fine line so she isn't accused of witchcraft.)
They're also good page-turning murder mysteries, and quite funny and with good characters.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page