The Private Eye: The Rise of the Female Investigator 1975-1990

By Russ Gifford

As the world changed in the 1970s, so did the American Private Eye. The harsh, vengeance driven hit man of the 1950s and '60s owned the movie screens, on the way to creating the 'Action Hero' genre of the theatres. In the books, the PI returned to his roots in the 1970s. More of an investigator who needed to be tough, but no longer limited in his ability to show emotion as the decades changed. Robert B. Parker gives us Spenser, clearly Philip Marlowe in all but name. But Spenser, given more time than Philip Marlowe had, would evolve as the world changed.

But as the 1970s were saying it was no longer just a man's world, Marcia Muller proved it - and gave the world Sharon McCone, a female private eye. While she was not the first (paging Nancy Drew!) she certainly was the first created in the mold of the male PI. She didn't stumble on the body and get drawn in – she was hired to investigate crimes, and carries that investigation through to the usually sad and sordid finale.

What also makes McCone and the others important to our talks, is like Spade, like Marlow, like Hammer, McCone is certainly the reflection of her era. We see San Franscisco in the 1970s, still the city associated with the hippie movement and the concern for the welfare of others. McCone's early days are populated with storefront lawyers believing everyone, even the poor, deserves legal representation. It is a world of San Francisco of old money and new ideas, wealth in high places, and yet street theatre, social consciousness, and gritty truth as crime and various corruptions grind the hippie hopefulness into the pavement.

McCone and Muller are only the first, however. In the next decade, Linda Barnes brings Carlotta Carlyle to life in Boston, and Sara Paretsky launches V.I. Warshawski on the very mean streets of Chicago. And most successful of all, Sue Grafton brings Kinsey Millhone to life. What makes these women P.I.'s different? Their interests and perspectives are on display in every story. Especially in the early stories, all these women are dealing with issues that involve women on levels not dealt with in the male stories. Women, who as the 1970s and 1980s are unfolding, are trying to make it in a male dominated world, be that the workplace, or the home, and how the other issues affecting those women plays out. They are no longer just the victim, the cause, or the love interest - but a complete person involved and invested in the outcome.

The other point of interest is 'what differences are there for a female Private Eye?' How does that work out in the books? Join me to see examples of how and why! The result is fascinating and has led to the world we live in today, where females all but dominate the world of the investigator on TV!