Review: Another in the flood of New Woman Amateur Detectives
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 02 8, 2014
Of course, there are several varieties of New Woman crime-solvers of which the law enforcement agents, coroners, profilers, policewomen, are one prominent example. Another type, which this book exemplifies, is the ordinary young woman, who, goes her own way, ignores all expert advice, has a policeman boy friend (or hoped for one), so attached to her magnetism as to forgive her for the dangerous, foolish things she does, despite knowing that he and every other responsible person will think it foolish. Naturally she proves all of them to be wrong by having it turn out right. What is new in this stereotype is the knowledge that she is doing somethng she shouldn't be doing. We have had "scatter-brained" females before, but it seems to me this is a new variety. Two examples come to mind, Gracie Allen ( The Gracie Allen Murder Case-Van Dine) and the heroine of the long running Mr. and Mrs. North series, Pam North (Mr. and Mrs. North series by Frances and Richard Lockridge). As her husband and partner, George Burns, has pointed out, Gracie never knew that what she was saying or doing was foolish, quite the contrary, she was always doing the sensible thing: it was just that the logic which made it seem sensible, wasn't the logic of her husband (boy-friend for much of their career) but her own twisted logic. The same is true of Pam North. She always does the logical thing; but, in Detective Mullen's words, what is natural to her is always "screwy". (Of course, there are other overlapping characteristics, such as knowing how to deflect the husband's ire into bewildered acquiescence. The difference between the old and the new is that the man (husband or boy-friend) is now angry but helpless in the face of the woman's manipulations and his love; in the earlier characters, the man is more often only anxious that the outcome not harm the loved one, who doesn't know that what she is doing is dangerous.At any rate, whatever may be the differences from older woman crime-solvers, this book follows closely the model made very  popular in the last 20-30 years. In fact, for a constant reader of what are now called "cozy" mysteries, almost every element of character is familiar from one contemporary source or another. I am not knocking the author for lack of originality; she uses the models well, probably successfully filling the need of readers of this genre for that stereotyped character and her stereotyped relationships to the 'other'. The book is a quick and easy read, mostly entertaining and lively (despite the stereotyped patterns ). For those who have liked other books in this genre, it should be satisfying.