Sisters Are Doin' It For Themselves:
A Dozen Great Female Eyes

"If it's that delicate, maybe you need a lady detective."'
-- Philip Marlowe in The Little Sister (1949)

Despite various bimbo eyes, usually written by men, whose "pulchritudinous assets often far outweighed their mental equipment" (to paraphrase one critic/wag), competent women eyes have been around for a long time now. That they've finally come into their own has rejuvenated the entire genre. It's about time.

Here are some of the best and most influential ones of the last twenty years of the twentieth century, arguably the Golden Age of the Female Eye, all written by women, all worth checking out.

• Kate Brannigan by Val McDermid
• Anna Lee by Liza Cody
• Cordelia Gray by P.D. James
• Sharon McCone by Marcia Muller
• Kinsey Milhone by Sue Grafton
• Tess Monaghan by Laura Lippman
• Stephanie Plum by Janet Evanovich
• V.I. Warshawski by Sara Paretsky
• Delilah West by Maxine O'Callahan
• Devon MacDonald by Nancy Baker Jacobs
• Lauren Laurano by Sandra Scoppettone