Both these mystery writers have created female protagonists that solve cases as private eyes, but they also have a serious social conscience that gets illustrated by the causes that get highlighted in their novels. And both of these ladies have an understanding of the realities of the politics of the 1980s and following decades.
Marcia Muller became the first American woman to launch a hardboiled P.I. series with a female detective in 1977 with Sharon McCone in Edwin of the Iron Shoes (5 years before Grafton & Paretsky). Introduced as an investigator for San Francisco’s All Souls Legal Cooperative, McCone later forms her own agency and learns to fly. In book 6, Double (1984), Muller teams up with her husband Bill Pronzini’s Nameless detective to solve a murder at a San Diego P.I. convention. Muller’s other two characters were always only intended to make three appearances each in their series run: Hispanic museum curator, Elena Oliverez and international art director, Joanna Stark. A Detroit native and University of Michigan graduate, Muller lives in the San Francisco Bay area. She has won countless mystery honors including a Life Achievement award by Private Eye Writers of America in 1993.
Sara Paretsky’s V.I. (Victoria Iphegenia) is a former public defender turned P.I. in Chicago. The cast of characters in her novels add to the dimension of both plot and character development. Each of her books reflect a social problem which allows her character to exercise both her anger and frustration at injustice. Born in Iowa, Paretsky attended the University of Kansas and holds a Ph.D in medieval history and an MBA from the University of Chicago. Paretsky was the founding president of Sisters in Crime.
(Heising, Willetta L., Detecting Women. 3rd ed., 2000 & Swanson & James, By a Woman’s Hand, 1994)
The following is a list of titles by both Marcia Muller & Sara Paretsky. Whenever possible, the series is in order of publication date. This may not be an exhaustive list, so please let us know if you feel that a title should be here. Please read the first Sharon McCone, Edwin of the Iron Shoes, and the first V.I. Warshawski's Indemnity Only, as well as at least one more title of each author, and come prepared to discuss your impressions of them with the group.