This is an ongoing discussion and one that fascinates me. Mystery writer, Laura Lippman weighs in with her thoughts and here are a few brief excerpts of Writer Request: Is It Just Me?:
Sometimes, I feel that the primary position for women in crime fiction is prone
and this:
But there is still a lot of crime fiction where women show up only to die, although preferably after having sex with the protagonist. It happens in a lot of bad books, but it happens in some otherwise good books, too.
I need to pay more attention as I don’t think I’ve come across that myself. Aside from that, I am debating on reading John Sandford’s latest entry in his Lucas Davenport series, that’s been getting excellent reviews of late. I read Rules of Prey many, many years ago and was put off by the protagonist and his womanizing ways. Not even touching on his wealth or his love for muscle cars. Now, I hear Lucas is married but still has a roving eye. Despite the mysteries being good reads, the protagonist actions were really so off-putting that I set aside the books for a long time.
I jumped back in with Certain Prey a few years later which rocked from start to finish, btw. The antagonist was a woman and what a memorable one at that. Anyway, whatever point I was making got lost in all my rambling, sorry. I realize that this is just fiction but how women are treated and depicted in crime fiction is worth examining with some writers (not all). I’ve never read James Patterson’s entire list of works but it sounds like his books are guilty of that sort of thing mentioned by Lippman. I am related to someone who does read his books on a continual basis (don’t judge) so that’s where I’ve come up with my theory. If you read the article, read the comments too. This is an ever evolving issue.
I don’t agree with Lippman’s assessment. Maybe I’m reading a different type of mystery, but that seems to be an outdated generalization similar to the impression that all romances are bodice rippers with rapey heroes.
There are a lot of female protags in mysteries these days, though. And a lot more women writers. I think some old school writers might still assign empty romantic interests who later get killed off, but that’s a slim minority.
The only place I see more female victims who show up only to be killed are in books about serial killers. And given that serial killers are more often men who kill women, it makes sense for the bodies to be primarily female in gender.
Yes. I haven’t experienced that either .
I try to stay away from books where I think that is likely to be the scenario but I think it is probably still happening, though probably to a lesser extent than in the past. The last book I finished where it was a notable feature was something by Lisa Gardner – I can’t remember the name of it now but it was written within the last 5-6 years – the only women in the book were victims of one sort or another – either dead bodies or soon to be dead bodies who first had sex with someone clearly a psychopath.
Karin Slaughter would be the closest. Almost all the women in her books are victims even the leads. No one is safe in a Karin Slaughter book
I do think there are lots of these books, often in the “bestselling” category. The number of times I pick up a crime book in a real-world bookshop, or see a blurb on Amazon for a book I might consider, to see that it trades on women being killed……of course, I don’t read them so I don’t retain their names. But the “woman killer” theme is definitely thriving, sadly. Luckily, there is plenty of intelligent crime fiction so one can avoid it easily enough. Just makes me sad that there are people who like reading this stuff.