Powerful Female Characters in Crime Fiction

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I love crime fiction for its versatility, how it can incorporate well-realized characters, a wide range of tones and styles, and social commentary all within propulsive plots. A crime sets up an immediate conflict: a wrong is committed, and someone tries to address it and restore order. Crime fiction can include a wide range of stakes, from “Who stole Grandma’s award-winning pie recipe?” to “How do we catch the Pigface serial killer?” It offers a window into the dark recesses of the human soul while also celebrating the better angels of our nature. As a genre, it’s one of the most accommodating forms of storytelling. 

That being said, when I look at the crime novels on my shelf, the majority of them focus on male protagonists. Nothing intrinsically wrong with that—Chandler’s Philip Marlowe is an iconic private eye, and Martin Cruz Smith’s Arkady Renko is my favorite investigator in literature. But all too often, women in crime fiction are relegated to the role of femme fatale or sidekick or victim in need of rescue. 

In Never Turn Back, my first Faulkner Family Thriller book, I introduce Susannah Faulkner, the sister of that book’s protagonist, Ethan. Both are victims of a violent home invasion that leaves them orphaned as children, and while Ethan grows up with a job and a house and a “normal” life, Suzie becomes a wild and dangerous young woman. Early on, though, Suzie refused to remain a side character, and as I dug deeper into her character, she became the protagonist and narrator of the next two books in the series.

Can I do this? I remember asking myself as I set out to write Suzie Faulkner. Can I, a middle-aged heterosexual guy, write a strong, engaging, sexually fluid female character in her twenties? Fortunately, I am lucky enough to have lots of strong women in my life, and they and the women in the crime novels below inspire me to create powerful, complicated, and compelling female characters in my own fiction.

Cop Town by Karin Slaughter (2014)

Slaughter’s standalone is set in 1970s Atlanta. Kate Murphy is a brand-new police officer on a force that recently hired women but doesn’t want them there; being an attractive blond makes her harassment worse. On the surface Kate seems like a pretty, rich girl playing cop, and before her first day is over she wants to quit. But she is also a recent widow and Jewish, both of which deepen her character and her fortitude—most of her white male co-workers are misogynistic racists who are also suspicious of Jews, and an openly antisemitic cop killer roams the city streets. Kate gets partnered with Maggie Lawson, whose brother and uncle are also cops, although unhappy that Maggie wants to continue the family tradition. Both women must contend with colleagues who despise their presence, the aforementioned cop killer, and a shifting social and cultural landscape. Details like the uniforms the women are given—all deliberately too big, even the shoes—ground the story in a gritty realism. Cop Town is as much about Kate and Maggie’s growth and acceptance of themselves as police officers as it is a gripping thriller, and Kate’s journey especially makes for compelling reading.

Everybody Knows by Jordan Harper (2023)

Mae Pruett is a “black bag” publicist for LA’s elite; when they have problems, they call her to make them go away. A trifle world-weary, Mae recognizes some of her clients are scumbags but willingly cleans up their crises for a paycheck and the prestige her successes bring. When her boss is gunned down in what seems to be a random attack, Mae investigates on her own and runs into a conglomeration of personal assistants, lawyers, crooked cops, fixers, social media influencers, and private security thugs—the retinue of today’s rich and powerful. The more Mae descends into the underbelly of a world she thought she knew, the more depravity she uncovers, and she is forced to come to a reckoning with her own conscience. Mae is not immediately likable as a character, but having a ringside seat to her realization that she needs to save her own life, both figuratively and literally, is enthralling. This is a thrill ride that does not let up.

Gods of Howl Mountain by Taylor Brown (2018)

If Raymond Price, Charles Frazier, and Cormac McCarthy had written a crime novel set in 1950s North Carolina, they might have written this. The protagonist, Rory Docherty, is a bootlegger dodging both federal agents and rival whiskey-runners while haunted by his service in the Korean War, which left him with a wooden leg. Rory is a compelling protagonist, but the standout character is his grandmother, Granny May, a former prostitute turned folk healer. In an atmospheric world of moonshiners, snake healers, and corrupt sheriffs, Granny May is a formidable presence, forging her own way in a violent world that is not bereft of hope. She also gets some of the best lines: “‘Christ’s father let him die on that cross,’ she said. ‘I understand why he done it.’ She leaned closer, whispering: ‘But Christ never had no granny like me.’”

Twentymile by C. Matthew Smith (2021)

Smith’s debut novel is, on the surface, a thriller. Tsula Walker, a special agent with the National Park Service’s Investigative Services Branch, is assigned a case concerning the death of a wildlife biologist inside Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Soon a villain is revealed, Harlan Miles, whose family was forced off their farmland in the 1930s when the federal government sought to create the park. Harlan is a great antagonist, not least because his grievances have some merit. But Tsula, a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, has her own complicated perspective on the park land that was taken from her ancestors. Smith examines the troubled history of the park and the very nature of land ownership, all within the taut confines of an atmospheric thriller. Tsula is a fresh, dynamic character, and Smith writes her with grace and strength. 

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Additional Reading: Strong Women in Crime Fiction

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No Home for Killers by E. A. Aymar

Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley

Burying the Honeysuckle Girls by Emily Carpenter

The Paragon Hotel by Lyndsay Faye

In the Woods by Tara French

She Rides Shotgun by Jordan Harper 

Things We Do in the Dark by Jennifer Hillier

Never Have I Ever by Joshilyn Jackson

The Beekeeper’s Apprentice by Laurie R. King

Like Lions by Brian Panowich

Don’t Talk to Strangers by Amanda Kyle Williams

Winter’s Bone by Daniel Woodrell

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