A Woman's Eye - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 038530000X ISBN 13: 9780385300001

Publisher: Delacorte Press, 1991

Synopsis

Crime is common ground for the twenty-one women  writers in this extraordinary collection of  contemporary mystery fiction. The voices here include  professional crime solvers who take you from the mean  streets of V.I. Warshawski's  Chicago in a case of music and murder... to the  California freeway where Kinsey Millhone's beloved VW  skids into a shooting... to the gang-held turf of  Sharon says mum's the word. And then there are  mothers, grandmothers, battered wives, and social  workers -- ordinary women in extraordinary situations  whose voices reveal contemporary life as seen  through a woman's eye. From the opening tale of a girl  down-and-out in London and what she steals from a  corpse... to the final story of a summer vacation  in the Berkshires, complete with romance and  sudden death... this unique collection brings us great  mystery writing that engages both our intellects  and our hearts.


From the Paperback edition.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

mon ground for the twenty-one women writers in this extraordinary collection of contemporary mystery fiction. The voices here include professional crime solvers who take you from the mean streets of V.I. Warshawski's Chicago in a case of music and murder... to the California freeway where Kinsey Millhone's beloved VW skids into a shooting... to the gang-held turf of Sharon says mum's the word. And then there are mothers, grandmothers, battered wives, and social workers -- ordinary women in extraordinary situations whose voices reveal contemporary life as seen through a woman's eye. From the opening tale of a girl down-and-out in London and what she steals from a corpse... to the final story of a summer vacation in the Berkshires, complete with romance and sudden death... this unique collection brings us great mystery

Reviews

YA-- A solid collection of 21 short stories by known and lesser-known female mystery writers. From the sweet revenge of ``Kill the Man for Me'' by Mary Wings, to the terror of ``Getting to Know You'' by Antonia Fraser, and on to the ancient ritual of Nancy Pickard's ``The Scar,'' there's not a weak story in the lot. A great way to introduce the mystery genre and some outstanding contemporary writers.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Anomalous no more, the female sleuth proves once and for all in this fabulous anthology that testosterone is no prerequisite for success in criminology. Despite the abundance of familiar themes--squabbles over inherited wealth, the missing person, good love gone bad--each story here features an independent heroine whose approach to the case is, by virtue of her gender, unique to the genre. In "Benny's Space" by Marcia Muller, Sharon McCone finds that her empathy with a mother protecting her son provides the key to solving a murder; PI Kiernan O'Shaughnessy in "Death and Diamonds" by Susan Dunlap knows just enough about what makes a man tick to set a clever trap for one; and patrol officer Laura DeLeuse in Mary Wings's "Kill the Man for Me" contemplates wife abuse as she grapples with the murky moral issues surrounding an apparent revenge killing. Familiar sleuths in appearance are Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone, Sara Paretsky's V. I. Warshawski and Antonia Fraser's Jemima Shore (in one of the collection's best stories). Headed for equally wide followings are the heroines of Julie Smith, Carolyn G. Hart, Margaret Maron and Carolyn Wheat. Readers of either sex will be enthralled . Mystery Guild selection; Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Clubs alternate.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Twenty-one all-new stories, mostly a somber, let's-take- ourselves-too-seriously collection featuring female protagonists from such women writers as old-timers Dorothy B. Hughes and Dorothy Salisbury Davis; England's Antonia Fraser; academe's Amanda Cross; a California pileup including Sue Grafton, Marcia Muller, Faye Kellerman, Julie Smith, Susan Dunlap, Mary Wings, Marilyn Wallace, and Shelley Singer, the unique Maria Antonia Oliver, and Paretsky herself, whose sluggishly belabored case for V.I. Warshawski and introduction here (``there is no one way to view women'') hardly represent her best work. The one standout: Liza Cody's ``Lucky Dip,'' about a tough pair of sisters on the street. Series characters Kinsey Millhone (in Grafton's moderately successful what-goes-around-comes-around story), Sharon McCone (in Muller's foray into gang rivalry) and Kiernan O'Shaughnessy (in Dunlap's all-too-predictable break-a-leg story) will win no new fans here, though Kate Fansler and her nephew (in Cross's droll, class act) just might. Overall, though, disappointing. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: Delacorte Press
• Publication date: 1991
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 038530000X
• ISBN 13: 9780385300001
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 448
• Editor: Sara Paretsky