Sample of authors
Reilly, Helen
Critics often regard Helen Reilly as one of the most important female American crime writers of the 1930s. One reason for this distinction is that most of her peers at the time dedicated themselves to romantic suspense, while Reilly instead wrote a series of realistic stories about police work, told from the perspective of the cops themselves. Her main protagonist is inspector McKee of the...
Theme article
History of crime fiction
By: Johan Wopenka
Literary figures
Sharon McCone
Gender: Female
She grew up in an area with social problems in the city of San Diego, but after some difficult teenage years she took a hold of her life, studied at university, became engaged in politics and eventually became a detective in a cooperative of lawyers. Author Marcia Muller describes Sharon McCone as dark and attractive, but also tough and stubborn – and she is regarded as the first hard-boiled f...