Two Top Female Sleuths~ Sue Grafton and Tess Gerritsen

 

I loved reading Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone Alphabet series with Kinsey Millhone as her "Female Sleuth". My mother-in-law introduced me to her and for years she, my sister-in-law and my self, read the series and always talked about the ones we were reading or had just finished. As soon as Grafton released a new book we were at the store getting our copy and rushing home to devour it. Needless to say we enjoyed the camaraderie these books gave us, especially since they were in Wisconsin and I was in Tennessee. 

Sue Grafton, New York Times-bestselling author is published in twenty-eight countries and twenty-six languages--including Estonian, Bulgarian, and Indonesian. Books in her alphabet series, begun in 1982, are international bestsellers with readership in the millions. And like Raymond Chandler and Ross Macdonald, Grafton has earned new respect for the mystery form. Readers appreciate her buoyant style, her eye for detail, her deft hand with character, her acute social observances, and her abundant storytelling prowess. She has been named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America (2009) and is a recipient of the Ross Macdonald Literary Award (2004). 

Tess Gerritsen, Internationally bestselling author is known for her pulse-pounding medical thrillers such as Harvest, as well as her bestselling Rizzoli and Isles mystery series, Tess Gerritsen started out as a physician before becoming a full-time writer. Her novels featuring homicide detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles inspired the TNT television series "Rizzoli & Isles" starring Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander. With over 30 million copies of her books sold, Gerritsen has appeared on bestseller lists worldwide. Some of her top titles are The Surgeon, Die Again, and The Sinner.

Here are two more of the ten "Female Sleuths."

 

Boston detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles are the "Female Sleuths" in this series by Tess Gerritsen. I am sure we all watched the television series of Rizzoli and Isles.

Have you read books by Grafton or Gerritsen? If so, what do you remember most about the "Female Sleuths" in their books? 

Have you read books from either of these authors? What do you remember most about the "Female Sleuths"?

Kinsey Millhone is the "Female Sleuth" in Sue Grafton's Alphabet Series. She is definitely a female to be dealt with. Every book takes you on an exciting adventure. Newsweek said, "Grafton has created a woman we feel we know, a tough cookie with a soft center, a gregarious loner...smart, well paced, and very funny."  

How to Write What You Don’t Know

By Becky Muth

One bit of advice every author hears in his or her lifetime is write what you know. That’s great, but what happens when you feel inspired to write about something you don’t know? What happens when characters take us to the places we’ve never been and situations we’ve yet to experience? You don’t have to be a science fiction or fantasy writer to build new worlds or put your characters in unfamiliar situations.

Authors write what they don’t know every day. Cozy mystery author Susan Boyer, unlike the main character in her Liz Talbot series, isn’t a private investigator who carries her Sig 9 in her Kate Spade handbag. Elizabeth Spann Craig isn’t an octogenarian retired schoolteacher, but the titular character of her Myrtle Clover Series is. And unlike Vanessa, one of the main characters in my novelette, Screaming Jenny, I’m not a history buff with a dislike for technology.

The more I write, the more I learn to sit back and enjoy the ride when my characters drag me into the great unknown. In the beginning, I fought the characters of my work in progress (WIP) on this to the point where I would stop writing for weeks at a time. Having learned my lesson, now learning new things is one of my favorite parts of the writing process.

When writing what I don’t know, I like to follow my imagination as far as I can. I’ve never run through the woods while clutching a human heart, been buried alive, or hired the Pinkertons. This didn’t stop me from writing about those situations. When I reached the part I didn’t know, then I did the research.

Here are some tips to help you write what you don’t know:

Go to the library. American comic book writer Stan Lee says the library card is the most important card in his wallet. It should be the most important card in every writer’s wallet. Although Google and Wikipedia offer endless amounts of information, for me there’s nothing like cracking open a book and jotting notes down in a journal within the hushed confines of my local library.

Talk to experts who have the information you need. Talking to an expert will often give you more than enough information to add realistic details to your WIP. At the 2015 Mid-Atlantic Fiction Writers Institute conference, keynote speaker Tess Gerritsen spoke about researching her novel, GRAVITY, which included talking with NASA scientists.

Read random Wikipedia articles. Have you ever used the “Random article” feature on Wikipedia? I’m a little A.D.D. so for me, this feature is good and bad. The good news is, you can learn all sorts of things you don’t know. On the downside, you can waste hours learning all sorts of things that are useless for enhancing your current WIP, but that may inspire future plots.

A final word of advice is that if you don’t know something and are unable to research it, don’t lie about it. Authors often walk a fine line between fiction and falsehood. It’s better to omit something you don’t know than to mislead your readers. After all, a reader who loves your book will tell others about it. Word-of-mouth is always more genuine than any type of social media advertisement.

The next time a character drags you into a situation you don’t know, strap into your seat because you’re in for roller coaster ride of twists and turns into new literary territory. What you learn along the way could mean the difference between a mediocre plot and a blockbuster storyline.

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Becky Muth lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains with her husband and their two sons. She loves attending events where she can interact with other writers and readers. When she's not writing or reading, Becky enjoys spending time with her family, knitting, and drawing pet portraits. You can visit her blog at beckymuth.com or follow her on most social media networks under Author Becky Muth. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorbeckymuth/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/authorbeckymuth/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authorbeckymuth/ Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/authorbeckymuth/