Women Mystery Authors #ChooseToChallenge

 Women Mystery Authors

#ChooseToChallenge

A celebration of women, their work and their talents, a theme celebrated everyday, but in particular it's appropriate we're talking about this topic this month. March 8th is international women's day. The theme for International Women's Day 2021 is 'Choose To Challenge'. A challenged world is an alert world. And from challenge comes change. Women Mystery Authors write characters who don't walk away from a challenge. Their readers share this trait.

There are way too many intriguing and talented, skilled female mystery authors to spotlight them all. The four generations of female characters from my own mystery novel, Kat Out of the Bag by Wendy Kendall, each character chooses one favorite author to recommend - 

Amber - College student and gift shop manager at Katherine Watson's Women's History Purse Museum. In Kat Out of the Bag I play a critical role in the investigation as I pursue a clue that I find in a donated vintage purse.

My recommendation is to enter the contemporary L.A. Noir scene with award winning author Steph Cha. A quote from this author - "You meet a new person, you go with him and suddenly you get a whole new city . . . you go down new streets, you see houses you never saw before, pass places you didn't even know were there. Everything changes."

Find out more on her website

Hear from the author herself on YouTube's Kendall & Cooper Talk Mysteries with Steph Cha

Katherine - Celebrated international purse designer, and owner of the Purse-onality Women's History Purse Museum. I've recently discovered that I also have a talent for solving mysteries. In Kat Out of the Bag I was challenged to find the mayor's killer. And word is only getting out now about the mystery I solved before that, a prequel as they say, of a chilling cold case Purse-stachio Makes A Splash.

My recommendation is award winning writer Kellye Garrett, especially her Hollywood Homicide. She knows her Hollywood setting well and her characters are fun reading. This is cozy, gone glam, gone great!

Find out more on her website

Hear from the author herself on YouTube's Kendall & Cooper Talk Mysteries with Kellye Garrett

Moonjava - Joyfully experiencing everyday with the visions and meditations of positive vibes from mother earth. I'm inspired by the free-spirited flower children of the ancient 1960's. I am Katherine's groovy momma, and for now I'm  her museum historian, you never know where the winds may blow me. 

I'm enthralled by award winning author Val McDermid, one of the biggest names in crime writing. She has four primary book series, and two tv series. How about these tantalizing quotes from this author, "A society gets the criminals it deserves." and "I think that crime is a good vehicle for looking at society in general because the nature of the crime novel means that you draw on a wide group of social possibilities."

Find out more on her website

Hear from the author herself on YouTube's Kendall & Cooper Talk Mysteries with Val McDermid

Pam - Well, I'm the old lady of the group. Dear Katherine is my grand daughter. I was very involved with her growing years in Bayside, Washington. When she started solving mysteries I was very happy to give my advice and to add my suspicions.

I'm a big thriller reader, and one of my very favorites is the incredible author KJ Howe. Her research into the international kidnapping and ransom intrigue, blends with her incredibly talented writing and results in a truly thrilling mix of fact with fiction. The suspense in the plot gives me sweaty palms as I turn the pages. Scary to think how very closely fiction resembles real life.

Find out more on her website

Hear from the author herself on YouTube's Kendall & Cooper Talk Mysteries with KJ Howe

The Ladies of the Round Table (Peggy, Winifred, Margaret, Judy, Liz) - Hello there! We're Pam's group of best friends in Bayside and we love dear Katherine. I'm Peggy, speaking for the group today, oh stop mumbling girls. The highlight of each week is our early bird special dinner that we all get together for. Al Perez holds our table for us at his restaurant on Main St. We sit at the big round table in the middle of the room. We see all that's going on, and talk about it too. We love it when Katherine consults us on her mysteries. That actually started us all reading mysteries again and so now we're also a reading group. We'd like to chime in with our favorite.

We all enjoy the cozy mysteries by New York Times best selling author Laura Childs. She's such an inspiring author and so prolific. She has several wonderful, puzzling mystery series for readers to try to solve. The ladies and I get worked up sometimes over our theories and suspects. It's so much fun.

Here's a quote from one of her characters, "Always remember a friend is someone who understands your past, believes in your future, and accepts you just the way you are . . . and a friend stands by you no matter what it costs her."

Find out more on her website

Hear from the author herself on YouTube's Kendall & Cooper Talk Mysteries with Laura Childs

And find out more about the In Purse-Suit series including Kat Out of the Bag

Happy Reading! Happy International Women's Day! #ChooseToChallenge!