Tana French's new novel The Secret Place - is this a first?

[traviata]

I haven't read this yet, only the reviews.

But is it possible this is the first mainstream detective novel where:

i) the sole victim is male, and

ii) the characters are predominantly female, save for one of the chief protagonists.

I am so sick of books and films where the (female) victim is just the vehicle for demonstrating the skills, devotion to duty and all-round amazingness of the male protagonist. (See in particular 'The Pledge', and many,many others). It isn't sufficient to also have a good female protagonist (eg 'The Bridge').

are there other examples redressing the balance that I have missed?

i have read it, got it as an MN freebie advance copy, which made me feel very important

you're right, it is a refreshing change. i was a bit about the "male gaze" aspect of the first-person narrative of the male detective, but it perhaps balanced as an outsider view compared with the insider view you got from the point of view of the girls in the "flashback" narrative

i don't want to post any spoilers, but i thought that most of the girls had good, rounded characters, but some of them weren't so successful (there was a rather stereotypical cardboard cut-out mean girl), but that wasn't too problematic

I will look it up, thank you!