SinC25 – Sisters in Crime Book Bloggers Challenge (Spain)

This information has been taken mainly from The Spanish Female Detective: A study of Petra Delicado and the evolution of a professional sleuth by Tracy Rutledge, M.A.

1. Emilia Pardo Bazán can be considered the first Spanish female crime fiction writer. Her short novel, La gota de sangre (The Drop of Blood) was published in 1911.
2. Mercé Rodoreda is the author of the first detective novel in Catalan, Crim (Crime) published in 1936.
3. Lourdes Ortiz penned the first Spanish female sleuth in her 1979 novel Picadura mortal (Deadly Sting), although not her best book.
4. Maria-Antònia Oliver published in 1985 her first novel-length detective story, Estudi en lila (Study in Lilac, Intrigue Press 2001), “bringing her feminist point of view to the genre, she addresses the problems of crimes against women and shows their struggles to go beyond victimization”
5. Elements of detective novels can be found in some books by female writers like Carme Riera, Rosa Montero, Isabel Clara Simó, Cristina Fernández Cubas, Adelaida García Morales, Carmen Martín Gaite, and Marina Mayoral, among others.
6. Lola Van Guardia, whose real name is Isabel Franc, published Plumas de doble filo (Double-edged Feathers) in 1999, a multifaceted detective novel in which a professional detective as well as a group of amateurs investigate the murder of an important lesbian political leader, Laura Mayo.
7.  And, last but not least, Alicia Giménez Bartlett, and her Petra Delicado series.

More recently Teresa Solana is, probably the best known Spanish female crime fiction writer. She has two books published in translation by Bitter Lemon Press. It is also worth mentioning Rosa Ribas, Mercedes Castro, Marta Sanz and Cristina Fallarás whose last novel Las niñas perdidas (The Lost Girls) won the Premio L’H Confidencial 2011, the first chapter in Spanish is available in the link above. Unfortunately their books have not been translated into English at this stage.

SinC25 – Sisters in Crime Book Bloggers Challenge

This challenge is Barbara Fister’s idea to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Sisters in Crime, an international organization founded in 1986 to promote the professional development and advancement of women writing crime fiction.

Easy challenge: write a blog post about a work of crime fiction by a woman author; list five more women authors who you recommend.

Moderate challenge: write five blog posts about works of crime fiction by women authors. For each, mention another woman authorwho writes in a similar vein.

Expert challenge: write ten blog posts about works of crime fiction by women authors. For each, mention three similar women authorswhose works you would recommend.

Deadline: whenever. Another one of the joys of reading for pleasure is not having deadlines. Also, feel free to recycle previous reviews. I’m all about recycling.

Without further ado I will try, wherever possible, to combine my participation on Crime Fiction on a Euro Pass with this challenge. Consequently, after my previous posts about France and Dominique Manotti, I just need to list five other French female crime fiction writers. Here they are: Fred Vargas, Cara Black, Brigitte Aubert, Chantal Pelletier, and Alice Ferney.

Now, to be quite honest I must admit I have only read Fred Vargas and Dominique Manotti. And I really like them both, in their quite different styles. I have Cara Black on my waiting list and I have recently discovered Brigitte Aubert, Chantal Pelletier, and Alice Ferney. Any other suggestions?

Understand from Philip’s comment Alice Ferney, published by Bitter Lemon Press in translation, is not a crime fictiion writer. I’m sorry for that.

Another suggestion will be Andrea H. Japp.

Another blunder, Cara Black (Chicago, Illinois) is American, although her novels are set in Paris.