THEn the beginning was Sherlock Holmes. Then came Nero Wolfe, Ellery Queen, and can we talk about Commissioner Maigret? All men, both detectives and writers: Arthur Conan Doyle, Rex Stout, cousins Frederick Dannay and Manfred Bennington Lee and of course George Simenon. It took Agatha
Christie to break the male monopoly with Hercule Poirot and the nosy Miss Marple (but this was an exception and in every investigation
regularly teased, an amateur). It took a good half century (and 264 episodes of Murder, She Wrote) to reach investigative parity, but women have made it, in books before real life. Female detectives have won an audience and in more recent cases, a body.
Investigators on TV, Lolita Lobosco and the others
For The investigations of Lolita Loboscothe Apulian deputy commissioner in Louboutin was embodied in the sweet Mediterranean physique of Luisa Ranieri. The author, Gabriella Genisi, he always had the anti-Montalbano in mind and combination, to get on Lolita’s heels is the wife of Luca Zingaretti, beloved commissioner of Vigata. In the second season, twelve episodes on Rai 1 from 8 January, everything gets complicated. Investigations into her father’s death, team moods, and sentimental matters fill Lolita’s days. Her boyfriend accepts a job abroad, her first love suddenly appears.
As they say now, lots of stuff.
Yellow-pink shades for Imma Tataranni
Even Imma Tataranni, deputy prosecutor in Matera, in the transfer from paper to meat had a upgrade not recently in Vanessa Scalera: Mariolina Venezia didn’t draw her so pretty, but then she liked it. His interlayer, “ecchecavolo”, has become a pop catchphrase. We will also see her in 2023 around the corner: the third season is arriving on Rai 1 with the usual yellow-pink shades and, for now, a mystery: will she survive the bullet that hit the handsome marshal Calogiuri?
From Elena Sofia Ricci to Paola Cortellesi
Elena Sofia Ricci will instead be the mournful Teresa Battagliano longer young, with the first signs of Alzheimer’s, yet brilliant profiler in Flowers above hell (always Rai 1), from novel by Ilaria Tuti set in the Friulian Dolomites.
While Sky has yet to decide on the third season of Petrawith Paola Cortellesi, which moved the crime scenes from Barcelona to Genoa. Petra Delicado, eccentric, ironic and unsettling creature of Alicia Giménez Bartlett, progenitor of the “social” yellow, is the praise of imperfection and intelligence. She got married three times going from a husband-father (Hugo) to a husband-son (Pepe), to finally have a husband-husband (Marcos). In short, she is one who does not give up, in marriage as in investigations.
Le detectives, the series on newsstands with iO Donna
You will find a nice detective patrol in the necklace The detectives, twenty novels on newsstands with iO Donna every week from 29 December. An opportunity to discover them all: complicated women, not always nice, often stubborn. Ironic, sulky, curious, reckless.
Camilla Lackberg and the others
The first is one of the most famous, Erika Falck, a writer married to a policeman, protagonist of Camilla Läckberg’s bestsellers, Swedish, three marriages, four children and almost thirty million copies. Just think, he drew his first thriller when he was four years old, even before learning to write. Santa Claus killed Mother Christmas… Oh God! He has a very Nordic sense of humour: «My first husband used to joke with his friends: “If one day you don’t see me
further around, dig in the garden!”. Actually I would never bury a body in the garden – too easy to find.’
Crime writers and feminists
Another unmissable queen of Swedish crime is Lisa Marklund, who dedicated eleven novels to reporter Annika Bengtzon (the series was broadcast on Fox Crime). The red wolf, his fifth adventure, very topical, talks about the links between politics and terrorism. Thanks to the royalties and film rights, Marklund has left the freezing winters and the amazing northern lights to move to Marbella. She prefers the sun to the long night in Pålmark, where she was born, near the Arctic Circle. But it seems that the northern sky is a particular inspiration to write about crimes and punishments.
Åsa Larsson, former tax consultant, sets in Kiruna (Lapland), on the border with Norway, The blood spilled, in which Mildred Nilsson, a Protestant pastor, is found dead, disfigured, hanging in her ice church. What is special about these ladies who handle all shades of yellow?
Writers with (a lot) experience in the field
Marklund, Giménez-Bartlett, Läckberg, fight personally against ill-treatment and have a feminist vein that makes their gaze unique. Entered the judiciary, police and forensic medicine laboratories, they found material for their stories and their investigators. Forensic anthropologist Kathy Reichs has Dr. Temperance Brennan as an alter ego, known as Bones, “the lady of the bones”. Alafair Burke, former assistant attorney in Portland, specializing in cases of domestic violence, set his first novel right in the office where he worked. Angela Marson, now a former security guard in an English shopping mall, drew on her experience for the sixteen novels dedicated to Kim Stone, and her imagination did the rest.
The points in common between the authors and their investigators
The animal rights activist Charlotte Link, queen of German psychothriller, shares with detective Kate Linville, Scotland Yard policewoman, uncommon empathy and psychological skills. The intuition of Alice Basso merges into the very nice ghostwriter Vani Sarca, while Alessandra Carnevali has Commissioner Adalgisa Calligaris deal with crimes and Camorra. And Barbara Baraldi doesn’t make life easy for Aurora Scalviati, a great profiler despite the troubles: she has lost her colleague and partner, the child she was expecting, she has the splinter of a bullet in her brain, bipolar disorder and a certain intolerance for the rules.
Also the Sicilian Giovanna Guarrasi, known as Vanina (homage to Stendhal)which Cristina Cassar Scalia promoted to deputy commissioner in Catania, lives together
with a secret bitterness: the father murdered by the mafia, the broken love story with a magistrate threatened with death. But when smoke Gauloises, eat (and don’t cook) and solves cases, we come to the conclusion that, as with others, pain has honed its skills, therefore it could not
be different.
Investigators, not bartenders
Perhaps for this mix of pride, hardness, fragility, writers chased women writers. Maurice DeGiovanniafter Commissioner Ricciardi, he dedicates himself to the social worker Mina Settembre and to the retired policewoman Sara Morozzi who deciphers body language with absolute precision.
Gian Mauro Costa is tired (perhaps) of Enzo Baiamonte, a radio technician with a passion for investigations and has welcomed Angela Mazzola, a policewoman from Palermo with very specific tastes in terms of wines and music, into his pages. Roberto Costantini tells us about Aba Abate, code name “Ice”, multitasking from a TV series: daughter of a general, almost perfect mother and wife, very cold Intelligence agent. Inspector Grazia Negro, who consecrated him as a successful author, Carlo Lucarelli arrived in 1997, after Commissioner De Luca and Inspector Coliandro.
This is how she describes herself in the film Almost bluesame title as the novel. “So, my father had a bar and he wanted me to be a bartender too. I am a policeman and I like this profession. I like to do it right. And then he will never become Chief Commissioner because I don’t have a degree ». Toast, right?
The books in the Investigatrici series sold with iO Donna
The books sold with iO Donna and Oggi (at 8.90 euros + the price of the weekly and Oggi at 8.90 euros + the price of the weekly) are.
DECEMBER 29 Camilla Läckberg, The secret childErica Falck
5 JANUARY Maurizio De Giovanni, Sarah’s wordsSara Morozzi
12 JANUARY Ilaria Tuti, Sleeping nymphTheresa Battaglia
JANUARY 19, Cristina Cassar Scalia, The man of the portGiovanna Guarrasi
26 JANUARY Carlo Lucarelli, The dream of flyingGrace Negro
FEBRUARY 2 Alicia Gimenez-Bartlett, The honoursPetra Delicado
FEBRUARY 9 Robert Bryndza, The Ice WomanErika Foster
1 6 FEBRUARY Angela Marsons, Scream in the silenceKim Stone
FEBRUARY 23 Mariolina Venice, Like plants among the stonesImma Tataranni
MARCH 2 Roberto Costantini, A normal womanAba Abbot
MARCH 9 Barbara Baraldi Aurora in the dark Aurora Scalviati
MARCH 16 Liza Marklund, The red wolfAnnika Bengtzon
MARCH 23 Asa Larsson, The blood spilledRebecca Martinsson
MARCH 30 Gian Mauro Costa, Star or crossAngela Mazzola
6 APRIL Alice Basso, Writing is a dangerous profession Vani Sarca
1 3 APRIL Charlotte Link, The deception Kate Linville
APRIL 20 Alafair Burke, Don’t tell a lieEllie Hatcher
APRIL 27 Patricia Gibney, The unexpected guestLottie Parker
4 MAY Alessandra Carnevali, A strange case for Commissioner Calligaris Adalgisa Calligaris
MAY 11 Linda Castillo, The soul of evilKate Burkholder
iO Woman © REPRODUCTION RESERVED