Santa Fe Public Library
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This is a reproduction of a handout from the San Francisco Mystery Bookstore. Many thanks to them for permission to turn it into a Web document. Actually, the paper product is FAR superior, one handy sheet of paper with the (mostly) women writers and protagonists on one side and (mostly) men writers and protagonists on the other...

• Mostly women
  • If you like strong female leads a la SUE GRAFTON, SARA PARETSY and MARCIA MULLER, try:
  • If you like female leads in a lighter or more domestic vein, try:
  • If you like the English police mysteries of MARTHA GRIMES or ELIZABETH GEORGE, try:
  • If you like the classic English mystery similar to AGATHA CHRISTIE and DOROTHY SAYERS, try:
  • If you like the Really Funny, try:
• Mostly men
  • If you like the standard private eye novel in the style of HAMMETT and CHANDLER, try:
  • If you like male leads of the amateur persuasion such as DICK FRANCIS, you might like:
  • If you like the tough crime novels of JAMES LEE BURKE and ELMORE LEONARD, try:
  • If you like gritty (and often unpleasant) such as JAMES ELROY or JIM THOMPSON, try:
  • If you like big lawyer books (BLBs) along the lines of SCOTT TUROW and JOHN GRISHAM, try
  • REALLY GOOD WRITERS that we feel have been undeservedly neglected in recent years:

Thanks to F. N. Trujillo for steering us to this resource.
Updated December 19, 2001.
Santa Fe Public Library, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
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