Val McDermid: A Suitable Job for a Woman (USA 1999)

From the Publisher:
"But down these mean streets must go a man who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished or afraid.." When Raymond Chandler wrote these words in his classic The Simple Art of Murder, he drew a blueprint for the male private eyes who descend from Philip Marlowe to populate the world of crime fiction.

But what if the private eye is a woman? And what if she is not a character in a novel but a real, working investigator testing not only the meanness but the absurdity of life on seamy streets? Who will tell her story?

Enter Manchester's Val McDermid, herself a skilled writer of the P.I. novel but for years a professional journalist. In an effort to plumb the real world of working women - and throw new light on her own craft - she has interviewed women private eyes from both sides of the Atlantic and assembled their stories with an eye for the absurd and a keen grasp of the gritty nuts and bolts of the profession.

As fascinating as fiction, A Suitable Job for a Woman is, in the words of Edgar-winning author Nevada Barr, "a concise and eye-opening trek through the competence, humor, and humanity of women."

Val McDermid: A Suitable Job for a Woman. Inside the World of Women Private Eyes. Poisoned Pen Press, ISBN 1890208159 (November, 1999), 302 p., $14.95.

Val McDermid: A Suitable Job for a Woman (UK 1995)

From the Publisher:
The female private eye is one of the sexiest and most exciting of fictional creations. But who are the real women who pound the mean streets? How do they get into this seemingly unladylike profession and what makes them stay, despite the risks they encounter? What qualities does it take to survive in this harshest of male worlds?

From the elegant manager of a successful all-women investigation agency in Merseyside to the Californian woman who spends her days working for murderers, crime writer Val McDermid has spoken to female private eyes on both sides of the Atlantic, heard their most terrifying stories and learned how they work – whether it’s going undercover to bust drug barons or serving injunctions on violent offenders.

What she discovered is a group of women who are every bit as tough and fascinating as their fictional counterparts, with lives that few could even imagine.

A Suitable Job for a Woman is a riveting insight into the women who fight crime on their own terms and beat men at their own game.

Val McDermid: A Suitable Job for a Woman. Inside the World of Women Private Eyes. HarperCollins, ISBN 0006384323 (September, 1995), 278 p., £5.99.