The deadlier of the species? Let's celebrate 25 years of Sisters in Crime!

This year brings the celebrations of the 25th anniversary of the creation of Sisters in Crime, an international organisation that now spans 48 chapters worldwide; more than 3,000 members. Founded in a Soho loft, Sisters in Crime promotes the professional development and advancement of women writing crime fiction.

According to its website, Sisters in Crime grew out of a growing sense that female mystery writers were being overlooked; legendary American crime writer Sara Paretsky spoke at the first-ever conference on Women in the Mystery in March 1986, talking about the growing use of graphic sadism against women in mysteries. "Remarks I made at the conference set off a firestorm around the mystery world," Paretsky recalls. "Women began calling me from all over the country with their personal histories of treatment/mistreatment."

Phyllis Whitney wrote a letter to the Mystery Writers of America, pointing out that female authors weren't being nominated for awards, and then by the time the Bouchercon event occurred in October 1986, the movement was well and truly getting up to speed. "I convened the initial meeting of interested women at the Baltimore Bouchercon in October 1986," Paretsky says. At that meeting, she noted that books by woman mystery writers also weren't being reviewed at a percentage equal to their participation in the field. At the annual Edgars Week in 1987, interested women writers were invited to Sandra Scoppettone's SoHo loft for breakfast, to meet each other and discuss the situation. At that meeting, Sisters in Crime was formed.

New Zealand has quite a good tradition when it comes to female crime writers - the doyenne of our mystery-writing world is of course Dame Ngaio Marsh, one of the four Queens of Crime of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction. In contemporary times, two of the five authors who've been finalists for the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel are women (Vanda Symon and Paddy Richardson), and several other female Kiwi crime writers have been published in recent times, such as Lindy Kelly, Donna Malane, Dorothy Fowler, Trish McCormack, Cat Connor, Bev Robitai, Joan Druett, and others.

Historically, although New Zealand wasn't thought to have much of a crime or mystery writing tradition, outside of Dame Ngaio, amongst the crime writers we did have, many were women, for example: Dorothy Eden, Mary Scott and Joyce West, Freda Bream, Carol Dawber, Laurie Mantell, and others. In fact, many, perhaps even most, of the crime writers New Zealand had, from the 1950s-1990s, that wrote more than a book or two (ie a longer series of five, seven, ten books etc) seem to be women.

In the coming weeks I will be sharing more about many of these great Kiwi women crime writers, along with some of the international female crime writers I read and enjoy, or have had the privilege to meet, as part of a terrific Sisters in Crime blogging challenge being run by mystery writer, reviewer and blogger Barbara Fister.

Fister is a member of Sisters in Crime, and currently serves on the board. Here is the challenge she has created:

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 author who 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 authors whose 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. Fister says she is all about recycling.

If you tag your posts with “SinC25", Fister will compile them on her blog.  And if you tweet, use the hashtag #SinC25.

Although I'm a little 'challenged-out' lately, I will be joining in, because I think it is a terrific thing to celebrate all that is good and great about female crime writers - and perhaps give more publicity to some who deserve it. I will be updating some of my 'encyclopaedia-style' posts about Kiwi crime writers, republishing some reviews and interviews of Kiwi and international authors, and much more.

If you have any suggestions, or requests, in terms of what you'd like to see from me in the coming weeks - which authors you'd like me to feature/highlight/interview etc, please do let me know. To start with, how about answering this question: who are some of your favourite female crime writers?

M is for MURDER AND CHIPS by Laurie Mantell

For my second go around at the Crime Fiction Alphabet (read my 2010 posts here), I've set myself the challenging task of focusing not only just on New Zealand-themed posts, but just on Kiwi crime fiction books (ie I won't do any author profiles etc this time around) - although sometimes it may be the author's name that is relevant to the letter of the week.

This week I'm featuring MURDER AND CHIPS by Laurie Mantell. From 1978-1984, Mantell wrote five Wellington-set murder mysteries featuring Detective Sergeant Steve Arrow of the New Zealand Police - her books were published in the UK and the US as well, I understand. She also wrote a sixth crime novel, the standalone MATES, in the late 1990s. Unfortunattely Mantell passed away at the age of 93 last year.

MURDER AND CHIPS (1981) was Mantell's third murder mystery, following on from her debut MURDER IN FANCY DRESS (1978) and A MURDER OR THREE (1980). Although 'Fish'n'chips' have always been a very popular takeaway in New Zealand, and the title is probably a play on that, in the novel the chips in questions are actually wood, not potato.

MURDER AND CHIPS continues the adventures of Detective Sergeant Steve Arrow and his wife’s uncle, Chief Inspector Peacock. Here’s the blurb from the inside flap: “First, Cody Pyke is found smothered in a wood chip pile... Accidental death? Steve Arrow doesn’t think so, but that’s what the coroner, under pressure, decides. And then Carter Ancell is bashed to death. No doubt that it’s murder this time; but is the robbery - of no more than some costume jewellery - merely a cover for what the police call a ‘domestic’ crime? The investigations of the two deaths become most cunningly interwoven, and it might be said that each crime leads to the solution of the other. It’s a beautifully dovetailed plot, and another bright feather in Laurie Mantell’s hat.”

After her funeral last year, her family sent me some rembrances of Mantell. At her funeral service, Ray Mantell spoke of how his mother took everything she saw in, and often used it later in her mystery stories: "When I was young I set up my 8mm movie camera to take time motion of flowers opening & closing etc. One day I set it up on the roof to film cloud movements and thought mum did not even know what I was doing. Then in one of her books there it was a boy who set up a camera with time motion on the roof of his house to film a possum in the tree next door and in one of the frame he had the killer on film... [Another time], Linda & Barry took Mum & Dad down to Nelson and Mum saw the wood chips piles waiting to be shipped so she came up with MURDER AND CHIPS."

Some copies of MURDER AND CHIPS can still be found in secondhand stores (physical and online) and libraries, although the book does unfortunately fall into the 'out of print and hard to find' category. I have sourced a copy, thanks to the family, and I'm looking forward to reading this one. I enjoyed Mantell's Steve Arrow books A MURDER OR THREE and MURDER TO BURN last year.

Have you read Laurie Mantell? Do you like trying some out of print crime fiction from days gone by, from libraries or secondhand stores, to go with the modern stuff on booksellers' shelves?