Women In Crime

Barry Forshaw

The current Agatha Christie anniversary celebrations prompt the questions: why are women so conspicuously good at writing crime fiction? And why do so many women read it? Barry Forshaw conducted a straw poll among some key female practitioners, and put the above to them…and other gender-based questions such as whether or not their own reading lists were mixed-sex...

Macmillan's crime queen Minette Walters (who has a persuasive claim to being the third member of Britain's Holy Trinity of women crime writers along with Rendell and James) is not persuaded that sexual differences are a key factor in the genre.

"Before I knew anything about P D James, I read her books thinking she was a man. I really think the writer's personality can be androgynous. And in my own book The Echo, I had some welcome compliments on my use of the male protagonists. But then, I live with a husband and two sons, so male thinking is very much a part of my life - and shouldn't a good writer be constantly observing people, whatever their sex?

"In America, people often say to me it's amazing how well women are doing in the British crime novel, so this is seen to be a geographical thing as much as anything else. It should also be remembered that there was a time when male writers couldn't get published in Britain, so great was the grip of the three main female crime writers: Christie, Marsh and Sayers. So whichever sex is doing well, the success of crime writers is both a temporal and a geographical thing."

Considerably more spiky is the irrepressible Sparkle Hayter (published in the UK by No Exit Press), whose American perspective is as unbuttoned as most of her views - as her website, tartcity.com, unblushingly conveys.

"If we didn't read and write murder mysteries, there would be far more of us in prison. The pressure to be good girls makes us sublimate most hostility and crap, and murder mysteries are a great way to do this and make it moderately profitable to boot. Maybe if we played rugby or had more outlets to exercise our power (and more experience in exercising it), it would be different.

"I am not the most feminine of women. I can understand men up to a point, but there are some things that baffle me, like many men's willingness to copulate with any willing female. Even the wildest women I know are somewhat discriminating about who they have sex with, though they're often just as shallow as men. Of course, lots of women baffle me too. I've heard it said that it's easier for a woman to write a male protagonist than the other way around. I disagree. I know men who write credible females, but can't think of any women who write fully-rounded male protagonists I believe in. Odd."

With just two novels from Headline (much praised for their vivid Istanbul settings), Barbara Nadel has swiftly established herself as a contender. Does she think that male and female crime writers possess signally different identities?

"Not as much, I believe, as they did in the past. Having said that, I am not one of those who subscribe to the belief that women were gentler and men more manly in days gone by. The fact that male and female crime is more homogenous now has far more to do with social changes. Women are now permitted, for want of a better word, to explore violence without attracting negative comments. Men, similarly, may tackle romantic issues. I still believe however, that we (women) have the edge where psychological issues are concerned. We are just that little bit more subtle. But then I would say that, wouldn't I? (I'm a psychology graduate!) Perhaps because, from a very young age, women are primed to expect fear. How many young men, for instance, are advised to be careful in case their girlfriends 'knock them about'? Some, yes. But in the quantities that women are? I think not. We are told to be careful if we are going out alone and if we wander at night we are told that it is better we do so either in a group or with a man. So maybe it is this intimate relationship we have with the prospect of danger that allows us to write about it so well. That and, of course, the thrill of straying into the previously forbidden and traditionally male dominated terrain of violence. Possibly people even buy our books simply in order to see how we, odd creatures that we are, tackle that."

Lynda LaPlante's TV success with her Prime Suspect movies has given her a clout in the genre that is the envy of many. And she's a believer in Girl Power...

"Women writers are successful in every genre! With regard to crime, I think the success of female novelists such as Christie, Rendell and Patricia Cornwell is partly due to the many years women were forced to write under a male pseudonym in order to get published (hawking back to Restoration playwrights). As a result, I think many women turned to crime fiction not to prove any specific point but simply because they were more difficult to 'detect'!

"Crime writing requires a complex structure which involves establishing both the police inquiry and the details of the victim whilst developing many plot twists, to hook the readers and keep them guessing. It is a complicated structure to keep on the boil, and requires strong character development as well as (in some cases) an ability to portray horror and the deviousness of the killer. The crime novel therefore has many interesting avenues for research, from the psychological aspect to the forensic science developments that are constantly advancing. To my mind, many of the great romance novelists such as Jane Austin and the Brontes were skilled writers of the thriller element, whether it was attached to Rochester and his wife or to Catherine and Heathcliff."