The Big Book of Female Detectives by Otto Penzler, Editor

The Big Book of Female Detectives by Otto Penzler, Editor ISBN-13: 9780525434740 Paperback: 1136 pages Publisher: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard Released: Oct. 9, 2018

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
Edgar Award-winning editor Otto Penzler's new anthology brings together the most cunning, resourceful, and brilliant female sleuths in mystery fiction. A Vintage Crime/Black Lizard Original.

For the first time ever, Otto Penzler gathers the most iconic women of the detective canon over the past 150 years, captivating and surprising readers in equal measure. The 74 handpicked stories in this collection introduce us to the most determined of gumshoe gals, from debutant detectives like Anna Katharine Green's Violet Strange to spinster sleuths like Mary Roberts Rinehart's Hilda Adams, from groundbreaking female cops like Baroness Orczy's Lady Molly to contemporary crime-fighting P.I.s like Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone, and include indelible tales from Agatha Christie, Carolyn Wells, Edgar Wallace, L. T. Meade and Robert Eustace, Sara Paretsky, Nevada Barr, Linda Barnes, Laura Lippman, and many more.


My Review:
The Big Book of Female Detectives is a collection of 74 short mystery stories featuring a female detective. These stories were grouped by when they were written and featured stories from the first fictional female detectives in the mid-1800s up to the modern day. Some of the stories were very short while a few seemed novella length, but most could be read in an hour or two.

Some were essentially the detective telling how she solved the crime. Many told events as they happened and provided clues for the reader to puzzle out. Many of the women were competent, clever private or amateur detectives. A few were criminals intrigued by solving the puzzle or were even the one committing the crime. A whole group of stories had the woman as basically the beautiful sidekick to the real detective. This collection was interesting to read and contained many fun stories. There was no sex. There was a fair amount of bad language, mostly found in the more modern stories.

The Victorians And Edwardians
THE MYSTERIOUS COUNTESS by Anonymous
THE UNRAVELED MYSTERY by Andrew Forrester, Jr.
THE REDHILL SISTERHOOD by C. L. Pirkis
THE DIAMOND LIZARD by George R. Sims
THE STIR OUTSIDE THE CAFÉ ROYAL by Clarence Rook
THE MANDARIN by Fergus Hume
THE OUTSIDE LEDGE: A CABLEGRAM MYSTERY by L. T. Meade and Robert Eustace
THE FREWIN MINIATURES by Emmuska Orczy
CONSCIENCE by Richard Marsh
THE HIDDEN VIOLINby M. McDonell Bodkin


Before World War I
CHRISTABEL’S CRYSTAL by Carolyn Wells
THE BULLET FROM NOWHERE by Hugh C. Weir
AN INTANGIBLE CLEW by Anna Katharine Green
PLANTED by James Oppenheim


The Pulp Era
THE WIZARD’S SAFE by Valentine
THE MADAME GOES DRAMATIC by Perry Paul
RED HOT by Frederick Nebel
THE DOMINO LADY COLLECTS by Lars Anderson
THE LETTERS AND THE LAW by T. T. Flynn
THE OLD MAIDS DIE by Whitman Chambers
TOO MANY CLIENTS by D. B. McCandless
RAT RUNAROUND by Roger Torrey
MURDER WITH MUSIC AND COKE FOR CO-EDS by Adolphe Barreaux
CHILLER-DILLER by Richard Sale


The Golden Age
THE SECRET ADVERSARY by Agatha Christie
DIAMOND CUT DIAMOND by Frederic Arnold Kummer
LOCKED DOORS by Mary Roberts Rinehart
THE TEA-LEAF by Edgar Jepson and Robert Eustace
THE ALMOST PERFECT MURDER by Hulbert Footner
THE LOVER OF ST. LYS by F. Tennyson Jesse
MISOGYNY AT MOUGINS by Gilbert Frankau
INTRODUCING SUSAN DARE by Mignon G. Eberhart
THE BLOODY CRESCENDO by Vincent Starrett
THE WOMAN FROM THE EAST by Edgar Wallace
BURGLARS MUST DINE E. by Phillips Oppenheim
THE MISSING CHARACTER by Phyllis Bentley
MURDER IN THE MOVIES by Karl Detzer
THE GILDED PUPIL by Ethel Lina White
THE CASE OF THE HUNDRED CATS by Gladys Mitchell


Mid-Century
MURDER WITH FLOWERS by Q. Patrick
VACANCY WITH CORPSE by H. H. Holmes
THE RIDDLE OF THE BLACK MUSEUM by Stuart Palmer
MEREDITH’S MURDER by Charlotte Armstrong
FLOWERS FOR AN ANGEL by Nigel Morland
THERE’S DEATH FOR REMEMBRANCE by Frances and Richard Lockridge
MOM SINGS AN ARIA by James Yaffe


The Modern Era
ALL THE LONELY PEOPLE by Marcia Muller
BLOOD TYPES by Julie Smith
A POISON THAT LEAVES NO TRACE by Sue Grafton
DISCARDS by Faye Kellerman
SPOOKED by Carolyn Hart
MAKING LEMONADE by Barbara Paul
LOUISE by Max Allan Collins
STRUNG OUT by Sara Paretsky
BENEATH THE LILACS by Nevada Barr
MISS GIBSON by Linda Barnes
HEADACHES AND BAD DREAMS by Lawrence Block
AN AFFAIR OF INCONVENIENCE by Anne Perry
BEAUBIEN by Deborah Morgan
DOUBLE-CROSSING DELANCEY by S. J. Rozan
THE SHOESHINE MAN’S REGRETS by Laura Lippman
DUST UP by Wendy Hornsby
THE CASE OF THE PARR CHILDREN by Antonia Fraser
FAST by Jeffery Deaver


Bad Girls
THE WINGED ASSASSIN by L. T. Meade & Robert Eustace
THE BLOOD-RED CROSS by L. T. Meade & Robert Eustace
HE ADVENTURE OF THE CARNEGIE LIBRARY by John Kendrick Bangs
SHE KNEW WHAT TO DO by Joseph Shearing
THE FORGERS by Arthur B. Reeve
THE MEANEST MAN IN EUROPE by David Durham
FOUR SQUARE JANE UNMASKED by Edgar Wallace
THE ADVENTURE OF THE HEADLESS STATUE by Eugene Thomas
THE PASSING OF ANNE MARSH by Arthur Leo Zagat
EXTENUATING CIRCUMSTANCES by Joyce Carol Oates



If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.