A Woman's Eye

Sara Paretsky

Women have been writing strong mystery fiction throughout the twentieth century. By the second half of the century, there was an explosion of the mystery genre and women authors took a major role in that. A Woman's Eye is a collection of 21 short stories by different women mystery writers. A least one of the authors has been writing since the 1940's. Most of them have won awards for their mystery writing.

This anthology was published in 1991, so includes quthors who were publishing in the 1980's and earlier. It includes stories by some of my often recommended authors like Margaret Maron and Sue Grafton. There are also authors who are new to me like Carolyn Wheat and Nancy Pickard. Not all the authors are English or American, such as Maria Antonia Oliver, although some have moved to those countries since such as Gillian Slovo. Some of these women started mystery series in the 1970's and 1980's that are still going strong, for example Carolyn Hart and Marcia Muller.

Then there are the different types of stories included. There are the true murder mysteries like the ones by Liza Cody and Amanda Cross. There are stories about the people who disappear including ones by Dorothy B. Hughes and Dorothy Salisbury Davis. There are stories about theft like the stories by Susan Dunlop and Barbara Wilson. Many of these are short stories about characters in a successful series, such as the ones by Julie Smith and Antonia Fraser. How about the one that I didn't quite get by Mary Wings. There are the personal family mysteries that don't include a "detective" like the one by Marilyn Wallace. Faye Kellerman and Shelley Singer provide good, solid mysteries in this anthology. It was edited and introduced by Sara Paretsky and one of her stories is also included.

This is a good and varied collection of some masters (mistresses?) of the genre. Enjoy.