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Hoping the stars will align...

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: It's just happened, almost overnight. Something's in the air here in Boston--change, and potential, and the fabulous blue sky with that waft of salt air, and in the evenings the crickets going crazy. (And a special gift for you! Read on.)  I cannot believe it's almost fall!  Jonathan and I got blankets and flattened ourselves on our driveway, after midnight of course, and watched the Perseid meteor shower. Which turned out to be less than a shower, but still fabulous, and inspiring--it's the perfect moment, isn't it, to realize the endless wonder of the universe we inhabit.  And I made a big wish.

 You know, the night Jonathan and I met was also the night of the Perseids. And I'll never forget the wish I made that night. (I can't tell you that one...) 

 I wish I could tell you the wish I made back then was for you to buy the brand new just-released today paperback version of TRUTH BE TOLD. That would have been cool, and impressive, since that falling star wish was twenty years go (in our time at least) and TRUTH BE TOLD was not even a glimmer in my head.

 But here in the light of day, I'm wishing like crazy. TRUTH BE TOLD won the Agatha Award (hurray! that's amazing) for Best Contemporary novel, and was named a Library Journal Best Book of 2014.  Two of my favorite starred reviews ever: from Booklist: "In Ryan's adroit hands, even foreclosures can be sexy!"  From Library Journal, "Drop everything and binge read!"  

 So yes, hurray, it's in paperback now! Today! And I do wish you'd look for it. It's the perfect beach-airplane-vacation-weekend thriller! (Click here if you're interested…)

 And here's a special offer: if you send me proof of purchase of TRUTH BE TOLD here, (just click on contact, it comes right to me) I'll send you an autographed paperback of THE OTHER WOMAN.  Whoa.

(US only, please, and while supplies last!)

 
There’s nothing like the relentlessly moving days until a new book, you know? WHAT YOU SEE already got a starred review from Library Journal, and a coveted TOP PICK from RTBook Reviews, which calls it "exceptional suspense!'   (PREORDER here.)

 
And hey. With every TRUTH BE TOLD or WHAT YOU SEE you buy--you get another special gift from me and the Perseids. One of your wishes will come true. Yup, it will. And I cannot wait to hear about it.

 Thank you, Femmes and friends of Femmes, you've already made my wishes come true.

A Life Well Lived

by Donna Andrews.

I was saddened this weekend by the news that Dr. Oliver Sacks died. It wasn't a surprise, since he'd announced his terminal cancer diagnosis very publicly some months ago. And I suppose there's nothing inherently tragic about dying at the reasonably advanced age of 82, especially since by all reports he died at home, surrounded by friends and family and in full possession of his considerable mental faculties. But still. I will miss him.

I'm shocked to realize that I don't recall when I first read one of Sacks's books, or which one. Might have been An Anthropologist on Mars, because it contained an essay on Temple Grandin, whose life and work interest me. Or Migraine, because I've always wondered if the terrible headaches I sometimes suffer from were migraines or merely terrible headaches. Or Island of the Colorblind—my grandfather was red/green colorblind, and the subject has always interested me. Or maybe even The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, because of the cool title or--

You get the idea. I didn't start reading Dr. Sacks because I'd heard of the eminent neurologist whom the New York Times has called “the poet laureate of contemporary medicine” and wanted to read something by him. I stumbled over him because he wrote fascinating books about subjects I was interested in. And then I figured out that even if the topic he was writing about wasn't one that already interested me, it would be by the time I finished the book. So I began seeking out his books. And then I discovered, on his website, that he had a newsletter, that gave not only news about upcoming books but also links to articles. Articles that might, in the course of time, turn into books or parts of books, but shortly after I found the newsletter, I heard the news of Dr. Sacks's cancer diagnosis, with its grim prognoses of only months live—so I eagerly devoured the articles that might now never grow into books.

And there was something particularly delightful about seeing a message from Dr. Sacks arrive in my email inbox. Yes, I knew it was the mass mailing of his newsletter, but still.

I will particularly miss Dr. Sacks because he had become one of my go-to writers for those times when I'm immersed in writing a book and cannot easily enjoy reading fiction. And no, it's not for fear of being influenced. Reading fiction and writing it seem to occupy much the same space in my brain, so either I don't surrender to the book I'm reading and immerse myself in it—which is half of the enjoyment of a really good read—or I do immerse myself, and shortchange the book I'm writing on. Rather than risk that, I read nonfiction at those stages—because not reading is not an option!

I may have to reread some of his books in future periods of intense composition. I already know they'll hold up well. And since he could only finish so many books in the time left to him, I'm grateful that one of them was his autobiography, On the Move: A Life, and that he lived to see it published to great acclaim.

And there may be more new work posthumously released. Yesterday afternoon another email arrived in my inbox—not, this time from Oliver Sacks, M.D., but from The Oliver Sacks Foundation. The Foundation reports that Dr. Sacks “also left several nearly completed books and a vast archive of correspondence, manuscripts, and journals” and adds that its mission includes “making Dr. Sacks’s published and yet-unpublished writings available to the broadest possible audience.” I like that “yet-unpublished” part.

Still. I miss having him in the world. It will be a less interesting place without him.

 

 

Sleuthy Sleuths

 

by Mary Saums

 

Out-of-the-ordinary mystery sleuths have made August such a great reading month for me. Two series, three wonderful, unusual investigators.

Set in an alternative steampunk Victorian London, A STUDY IN DARKNESS by Emma Jane Holloway is Book 2 in The Baskerville Affair series. Yes, THAT Baskerville. Or at least, one with quite a few different twists. The young heroine, Evalina Cooper, is the niece of Sherlock Holmes. She wants to be an investigator like him. But first, she must get through her London season and be presented to the Queen before heading off to college.

So that's the normal part. The bigger reality for Evalina is that the powers inherited from her father's side of the family are becoming more evident. Not good. Magic is strictly forbidden in a London ruled by powerful steam barons who make everybody's lives miserable. Evalina and friends must navigate carefully to stay alive. 

What I enjoyed most about this and A STUDY IN ASHES, the 3rd book in the series, is the way the author developed each character in the story. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole cast and all the trouble they got into. Really looking forward to more from this author.

 

Those were hard books to follow. After being in London so long, no other setting could hold my attention. So I re-read an old favorite, BRYANT AND MAY ON THE LOOSE by Christopher Fowler.

Oh my goodness, how I love this series. Mr. Fowler is so clever and funny. Arthur Bryant and John May are the city's most senior detectives. The "on the loose" in this title refers to the fact that the Peculiar Crimes Unit have been kicked out of their office. Higher-Ups are trying to close them down after the Unit exposed certain wrong-doings in the government in the previous book.

Hah. They can't keep the old dogs down. When a headless body is found in an abandoned Kings Cross building, Detective May convinces the Met to give the case to the PCU. Meanwhile, another body is found, also headless. Nearby, people report late-night sightings of a stag man, a guy with antlers and cloven hoof prints.

Arthur Bryant lives for this stuff. He may be old as the hills, but his memory of British legends and history and all kinds of possibly unrelated tidbits will ultimately help catch the perp.

I'm currently reading the latest in the series, THE BURNING MAN. Yay! Maybe if I stretch it and read real slow, another new one will be out when I finish. :)

 

What about you? Share your latest "good book" with us!

 

 

A Peach of a Recipe

 

By Elaine Viets

I scan recipes the same way pimply teenage boys drool over centerfolds. We know we don’t have a hope of ever enjoying these airbrushed delights.

But I have my fantasies. I look at recipes that begin "take two sticks of butter and eight ounces of dark chocolate . . ."

I know I have a better chance of being signed by the Miami Heat than cooking a complicated recipe. A pretty good scrambled egg and decent cup of tea are my culinary limits.

Until the peach. My husband Don bought peaches at the supermarket. On the ride home, one rolled out of the bag and end up on his car's backseat.

I found it two days later. "Looks okay," Don said.

"It’s been baked," I said. "Your car can get as hot as 170 degrees when it sits in the sun."

"I’ll eat it," he said.

I should add that he also eats Hot 'n Spicy Chex Mix, which comes in colors not found in nature.

Later, we were talking about desserts and Don said, "You know, that baked peach was really good."

I did some research and found a recipe for baked peaches It’s sort of like the Peach Melba recipe in "Eat Carbs, Lose Weight" cookbook by Denise Austin. It tastes like peach pie without the crust.

It’s so simple even I can make it:

 

                                    Easy Baked Peach

Slice a peach in half and remove the stone and nubbly stuff in the center.

Put a dab of butter and 1/4th teaspoon of white sugar in each half.

Bake in a glass baking dish at 450 degrees for about 30 minutes, until the peaches are tender.

Remove the peach halves  from the dish and put a half teaspoon of strawberry or raspberry jam in the center.

That's it!

If you use a sugar-free jam, Denise Austin says this dessert is 90 calories per peach half. Real jam adds maybe another 30 calories. If you want to pile it on, add ice cream. 

Enjoy the last recipe you’ll probably see from me. Unless you want to know how to fix braised dragon tongues.

                                         *****

A peach of an offer: Read about the secrets of trophy wives in HALF-PRICE HOMICIDE. Click on Contests to win my ninth Dead-End Job mystery at www.elaineviets.com

Back to Byerly

by Toni L.P. Kelner

Back in 1993, I started publishing my Laura Fleming mysteries about a young woman who left home to to go to college, married a Yankee, and moved up North. On her vacations, she came back to Byerly, North Carolina to solve mysteries. (A lot of this was true about me, too, except I lived in Charlotte, NC. And I never got into solving mysteries.) The series ran for eight books, all of which are still available as ebooks and Audible downloads. But those eight books don't tell you everything that happened in Byerly.

As I was writing the series, and for a few years after, I'd go back to Byerly for short stories. There were seven all together, and they were published in magazines and anthologies that are long since out of print. A friend -- and she knows who I'm talking about -- kept pushing me to produce an electronic collection, but I was hesitant. I'd never done a project quite like this and, of course, I was worried that nobody would want to read the stories except the one friend. But she's persistent, and after republishing the eight Laura Fleming novels, I decided to take a shot at collecting those Byerly stories.

Getting ready for publication wasn't as easy as I'd expected. I had the original story files, but it took help from the family tech specialist -- my husband Steve -- to get them opened because the programs in which they were written are obsolete. After that, I had to compare them with the published versions, since the galleys back then were on actual paper, and re-make all the corrections the anthology and magazine editors made. Then I had to proofread them, along with help from the persistent friend and Femmes Charlaine and Dana. But that was all details. The real tough part was reading them again.

Folks, I was scared to death of rereading stories that were written so long ago. What if I hated them? What if I was embarrassed by them? What if I was just bored? But it turned out not to be so terrible. Okay, there are places I wish either I or previous editors had been more vicious with red pencils, and sections I'd never write like that today. I even found some out-and-out errors that I could now fix. But overall, I'm happy with the result.

"Gift of the Murderer" was my first published short story. My editor of the time, John Scognamiglio of Kensington, called one day and said, "You write short stories, don't you?" "Yes," I lied. Honestly, it wasn't easy to make myself write short instead of novel-length, but I guess he liked it, because he asked for another story for an anthology the next year. "Marley's Ghost" is an homage to Dickens, and some of the issues raised in it led me to write the novel Mad as the Dickens years later. Those two stories are the only ones in the collection to actually include Laura Fleming and her Shakespeare-quoting husband Richard.

"The Death of Erik the Redneck" was an Agatha nominee, and features Byerly's Chief of Police Junior Norton investigating a kind of Viking funeral. "An Unmentionable Crime" is about Sue, one of Laura's cousins, and was inspired by admiration for women who really understand how to fit customers with bras. "Bible Belt" isn't actually in Byerly, but is set in the neighboring town of Rocky Shoals, and characters from it show up in Byerly later on. It was published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, and through oddities of timing and the mail service, I found out about the sale when I met editor Janet Hutchings at the Malice Domestic banquet. That story was nominated for the  Anthony and the Macavity awards.

"Old Dog Days" has Junior Norton's father. It was originally written for a book that never happened, which just goes to show that writers never throw anything away. With "Lying-in-the-Road Death," it was back to Junior again. I had that title floating around in my head for years before I finally wrote the story to go with it.

After all was said and done, I rather enjoyed going back to Byerly, and Crooked as a Dog's Hind Leg will be published on September 8, 2015. I hope people will want to come back to Byerly, and maybe some newcomers will want to visit, too.

 

Snaps for Eileen!

Catriona writes: It's always an enormous pleasure to have national best-selling author Eileen Rendahl visit Fatal Acres. (Even better when she offers a giveaway - see below!) But I picked the title for this blog and that means she might never come back.  Read on . . .

Eileen writes: This past June, I graduated from the Antioch University in Los Angeles Creative Writing Program with a Masters in Fine Art. It took me two years (three if you count the planning and the applying and the agonizing). It was fun and challenging and frustrating and demanding and inspiring. I learned many of the things I expected to learn about the craft and art of writing, about how to be a more discerning and critical reader, and about how to teach writing. I also learned a few things I didn’t expect to learn such as better ways to do my eye make-up, basic sexting techniques, interesting slang, and a dance move or two.

The best part of the whole experience might well be the people I met during those two years. I made writer friends who I now can’t imagine living without. They’re great at critiquing and encouraging and generally having each others’ backs. Seriously, they’re the best kind of people. I also, however, occasionally wanted to sneak into the rooms of some of my fellow students and hold pillows over their faces just so they’d stop talking for one hot second.

I get that the program was full of people who love words and were probably -- in their regular lives -- often the best person with words in the room. I get that they wanted their words to be heard. Why else write, right? But seriously it seemed like some of them could never stop running their mouths or doing that fingersnapping thing. Where did that come from, by the way? Does anyone know?

[Catriona: Do you mean the thing the Reese Witherspoone character brought to her office in Legally Blonde 2? Yes, I did. And Miss Congeniality 2, too.] 

As a result, one of the things I learned from the program was when to shut my mouth, when to listen rather than expound, when to step back and take in the experience rather than stepping in to try to make the experience about me.

It’s an important lesson for a writer. While I often say that all writers should be readers first, it is just as important that we be observers, that includes being an observer of my fellow students, even the ones who made my left eye twitch during what seemed like hostile takeovers of seminars. I get so focused on deadlines and getting words on paper, I forget that none of those words matter unless they illuminate something that’s true, especially something that people might not have taken the time to slow down and think about.

It’s served me well when I teach now as well. I’ve been working with high school students in a continuation high school and some teens in the foster care system. We write together and when they feel comfortable, they’ll share their work with me. It’s taken a lot of those listening skills to hear their stories and come up with feedback on the fly.

I’m really proud that I get to put those three letters after my name (although my family has turned it into something vaguely obscene). I’m proud of what it says about me as a writer. I may be even prouder, however, of what it says about me as a listener.

Eileen Rendahl writes urban fantasy and romantic comedy. Her alter ego writes romantic suspense and women’s fiction as Eileen Carr. To keep things interesting, she also writes cozy mysteries as Kristi Abbott.

Catriona writes again: Eileen is giving away a free download of her latest book - Veiled Intentions - to one lucky commenter today. It's a finalist for the Colorado Romance Writers' Award of Excellence and for the Orange County California Romance Writers' Book Buyers' Best Awards and it's fab - I've read it.

 

   

PUZZLES

Countless detectives, fictional and otherwise, have compared solving mysteries (also fictional and otherwise) to putting together a puzzle. Since I’ve been slowly piecing together a Ravensburger thousand piece ocean puzzle, I’ve been feeling the likeness, myself.

In our family, it’s my practice to give my husband a jigsaw puzzle every year. And lately, he’s been ‘forgetting’ to work them in favor of computer games. So rather than let the puzzle go to waste – or stay pristine in its box – I work them. I don’t know why I can’t admit that I want to work a jigsaw, and simply go buy one. But they have to be ‘for Hal.’

Since this particular one is about the ocean, it has plenty of bright fish, and those patterns are easy to match. But it also has a bunch of sky and a lot of water in about seventy-five shades of blue. I bet Hercule Poirot never had to deal with that. And after looking for three pieces in particular, which remained blank long after I’d finished the top third of the puzzle, I found two of them still in the original plastic bag, and one of them under a cross-beam on the table. Also not a typical detective problem.

However, in general, it’s a good analogy, if quite overused. The puzzle-maker gives you all the pieces, so unless you forget to unbag them or lose them, you do have all the elements necessary to solve the murder – woops, complete the picture. And you know when there’s a missing piece, for sure. The blank space cries out at you.

I’m convinced this exercise of putting pieces together in a manner that makes them fit is really good for me. My brain is as creaky as my knees, some days, and getting it to work on the elements of a crime (in my case, fictional) seems to lubricate the process. I’m hoping the jigsaw puzzle is doing the same thing. In no time at all, I will be really smart!

What do you do to jump-start your brain? Sudoku? Crosswords? Chess?

Charlaine Harris

Porch envy. And garden envy.

by Donna Andrews.

One of the reasons I love going over to Oxford, Maryland to Mystery Loves Company--as if the store itself wasn't enough of a magnet!--is the chance to wander around taking pictures and giving way to a serious case of garden envy.  And porch envy.  I don't have a sunny yard, so it's no use dreaming of acres of black-eyed Susans.  I don't have a front porch, so the choice of wicker armchairs or Adirondack chairs is a theoretical one. Here are a few of the porches and gardens I've been envying this summer. And a few just because.

 

 

Treasures on My Shelves #4

I've written here before about discovering mysteries with Nancy Drew when I was around ten. A couple of years later, I read my first adult mystery, a copy of The Shivering Sands by Victoria Holt that one of my aunts had received from a book club. Holt's books are more usually classified as "romantic suspense" or "historical fiction," and they are both. But they are also often mysteries as well, not detective stories, but they often feature crimes that will somehow affect the heroine and her chances for a happily-ever-after.

The Shivering Sands was also, as far as I can recall, the first historical fiction of any kind that I ever read, and as I went on to read other Holt novels, most of which are set in the Victorian era, I became more interested in English history. My fascination with medieval England didn't start, however, until I had read Anya Seton's Katherine and Robert Gellis's Bond of Blood a few years later. But I digress...

I began to buy Holt books whenever I found one, at first in paperback, but then of course my collecting bug took over. I looked for them when we went shopping in a town with a bookstore, and I waited eagerly each year for the newest book to be published. I also discovered that Victoria Holt wrote under other names, chiefly Philippa Carr and Jean Plaidy. The Plaidy name was actually a more established pseudonym. Victoria Holt was born around 1960, with Mistress of Mellyn, influenced of course by Daphne du Maurier. In fact, many thought it could be Du Maurier writing under a pseudonym.

Holt, Plaidy, and Carr were all pseudonyms of Eleanor Burford Hibbert (1906-1993), who also wrote under her own names as well as the pseudonyms Elbur Ford, Ellalice Tate, Anna Percival, and Kathleen Kellow. I didn't find out about these other pseudonyms until much later, and most of the books published under these names were out-of-print and hard to find, though some of the Kellow and Tate books were reprinted later under the Plaidy pseudonym. I digress slightly again...

Jean Plaidy wrote historical novels about England, chiefly, including a long series about the Plantagenet kings, a trilogy on the Norman kings, and many others covering the amazing pageant of English history. As Philippa Carr, she started out with The Miracle at St. Bruno's, set during the reign of Henry VIII, and penned a series of historical romantic suspense novels that followed a line of women from that time to nearly the present. (The heroine of the second book was the daughter of the heroine of the first book, and it went on from there.)

Until I went to college and became a history major, I have to confess that most of what I knew about English history I learned from Jean Plaidy, along with a few other writers like the aforementioned Anya Seton and Roberta Gellis. Plaidy always told an interesting story, chiefly about the royals, and although I later realized that some of her interpretations of persons and events were no longer accepted, she yet gave me a good foundation so that I didn't enter those college courses a complete newbie.

From Victoria Holt and The Shivering Sands, I went on to discover many other writers of romantic suspense: Barbara Michaels/Elizabeth Peters (my all-time favorite), Velda Johnston, Jane Aiken Hodge, Anne Maybury, Madeline Brent (who later turned out to be Peter O'Donnell, author of Modesty Blaise), Phyllis A. Whitney, and Mary Stewart. I have always considered these mysteries, and some of them are darned good ones, too, but of course the popularity (and sales) of Holt, Whitney, and Stewart prompted publishers to flood the market in the 1960s, into the mid-1980s, with many imitations that were nowhere near as good. Because there was always a romance and a certain formula to be followed, the books were derided by many, but for those willing to look at the best of them with clear eyes, there is a lot to be admired.

Holt readers, for example, couldn't always count on a happily-ever-after romance for some of her heroines. They weren't all pliant, inexperienced young misses who willingly fell into the arms of the handsome and brooding hero. These young women often went through terrible things to survive at the end of the book, and my young self was entranced and transported by the excitement of it all. I re-read some of my favorites from time to time and usually discover that they are still great fun to spend time with.

Terrific TV! (Seriously!)

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Today’s guest author, Stephanie Gayle, is the author of My Summer of Southern Discomfort and Idyll Threats. She’s the co-founder of the Boston reading Series, Craft on Draft. When not writing, she works at the MIT Media Lab doing “mathy things.” (That's what she calls 'em.)  

 Her newest, Idyll Threats (Seventh Street Books) is out September 8th.  As Stephanie sets the scene:  It’s summer 1997 and Thomas Lynch is a former NYPD homicide cop turned small town police chief.

Then a young woman is murdered, her body left on a golf course. Lynch met her hours before her death, but he can’t tell his detectives because it threatens to expose his biggest secret: he’s gay. So he secretly pursues leads on his own and withholds information, trying to stay one step ahead of everyone, including the killer.

 

But today, we’re talking about TV. And Stephanie has chosen her faves—three of which I adore, and two of which are new to me. HURRAY! How about you?

 

 

 

Women “Killing It” In Crime Television

                   By Stephanie Gayle

 

Some people don’t like television. I’m not one of them. And while I would, in a Sophie’s Choice style decision, choose books over television I happily live in a world where that isn’t a choice I must make. My go to for TV enjoyment are criminal dramas: police procedurals, legal dramas, forensic investigations, or mystery novel mini-series. I watch them all.

And I’m happy to report that crime TV is getting better, in terms of story, character and cinematography. It’s also not uncommon for ladies to rule the roost. Below are some of my favorite crime TV shows that feature women in charge and have a woman writing and/or directing.

 

 

 Blue Murder (2003-2009)

Available on Hulu and Netflix

 

This series opens with a pregnant Janine Lewis (Caroline Quentin) getting her promotion to Detective Chief Inspector. The show never pretends she doesn’t have trouble juggling four kids, an ex-husband, and leading a team of detectives to solve murders. You can feel the opposing forces in her life tugging at her, but DCI Lewis is a copper through and through. The creator, Cath Staincliffe, also wrote several of the episodes.

 

 

Happy Valley (2014)

Available on Netflix

 Sergeant Cawood (Sarah Lancashire) is a policewoman raising her dead daughter’s young son. Ms. Lancashire is flawless in her portrayal of Sarah as a matter-of-fact cop obsessed with the rapist she holds accountable for her daughter’s death. The villain, played by James Norton, gave me the shivers. Sally Wainwright earned a Best TV Episode Edgar Award for this series.

(HANK says: This series is SO great!)

 

Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries (2012-2014)

Available on PBS, Netflix

  Based on Kerry Greenwood’s novels, this series follows the antics of Phryne Fisher (Essie Davis), a glamorous detective in 1920s Melbourne. Lighter in tone, the show features amazing costumes and plenty of hot men. Miss Fisher is an anachronism: an independent woman of means who takes lovers and doesn’t take guff. Worth watching.

 

 

 

 

 

Scott & Bailey (2011-2014)

Available on Hulu

Finally, decades after Cagney & Lacey, we have a series featuring two female detectives. Created and written by Sally Wainwright (of Happy Valley fame) and Diane Taylor, the series follows DC Janet Scott (Lesley Sharp) and DC Rachel Bailey (Suranne Jones) through personal and professional ups and downs. Scott is the married mother and Bailey the emotionally stunted alcoholic. The two women connect and fight in authentic ways, both on and outside their jobs.

 

 

 

 

The Bletchley Circle (2012-2014)

Available on PBS, Netflix

 

Four women (Anna Maxwell Martin, Julie Graham, Sophie Rundle and Rachel Stirling) who worked as code breakers at Bletchley Park find life after the war restrictive and frankly, boring. In the first series, they team up to catch a serial killer in 1952 London. They use their pattern recognition, logic, and reasoning skills to outsmart the male police force and the killer. The second series finds them trying to exonerate a former colleague of murder. Great portrayal of how women valued during the war were forced to give up the freedom and recognition they enjoyed during that dark time.

(HANK agrees--one of the best ever! What terrific idea…)

 

The Killing  (2011-2014)

Available on Netflix

 

The sole American entry, created by Venna Sud, follows Sarah Linden (Mireille Enos) as she investigates the murder of a 16-year-old girl. Detective Linden should be up for a worst mother award. I’m a big fan of flawed characters, so this is a plus, not a minus. The series is compelling and the story keeps you guessing.

 (HANK says: Morose! And it rained the WHOLE TIME. But we were hooked.)

 

Women are creating some of the most compulsively watchable crime TV out there. What are some of your favorite TV recommendations featuring women investigators or created/written/directed by women?

 

HANK: I'm sure our brilliant Charlaine will have some ideas here, right?? What's the latest, Charlaine?  And what are you all watching?

And I'll give a copy of IDYLL THREATS to one lucky commenter!