Can “girls” write crime novels?

It’s 9:30 am and still dark out, and my backdrop includes red smoke from a volcano that’s casually erupting not far from here. Yup, I’m in Reykjavik, wrapping up my third year at the Iceland Noir book festival. And I can’t let go of one topic that swiftly came and went during a short panel in the blur of panels that make up this jam-packed celebration of crime fiction.

A female author told the crowd that she is bombarded with emails telling her she shouldn’t have such a dark mind and needed to stop writing her (successful) mystery novels. The men on the panel? Tongue-tied because nope, they had never received anything of the sort. She then escalated the audience’s fury: One of these messages was sent to her from a man who writes especially gory crime fiction himself. So he wasn’t against the genre—he just didn’t think a “girl” should be doing it.

Making this especially infuriating is that women are the prime audience for anything crime-related, meaning that this author is experiencing what I call the “little lady” life. This man is virtually patting her on the head, signifying that he will tell her what we women want to read.

If I were the type who didn’t cringe at audience participation, I would have asked if the rest of the emails came from only men, or women, too. Because we just learned (yes, I’m talking November 5, people) that women can be as misogynistic as men. I can’t be the only one who remembers that study that showed both men and women the same resume with only one key difference: one had a male name, the other female. Feedback on the man’s CV: shows great leadership, blah blah. The woman’s? “Bossy,” doesn’t sound like a team player. <eye roll>

But I digress.

@hersport

Saoirse Ronan Just Said What Every Woman Feels 👏🏼 During a recent Graham Norton episode, self-defence became the topic of conversation. S... See more

Since we’re on the topic of gender and crime, I’d also like to share why women are so obsessed with crime stories to begin with. Men commit violent crime at three times the rate of women. Yet, men always show surprise upon hearing that we women worry about our safety all the time—walking through a parking garage at night, driving down an empty road and worrying about our car breaking down, being home alone after watching Dateline… (That last part is part of a vicious cycle, I know.)

**Don’t believe me? Scroll back up and watch Saoirse Ronan shut it down on The Graham Norton Show.**

I live alone and own pepper spray, an emergency whistle and even a shiv disguised as a pen—all gifts from a concerned neighbor after I received a novel’s worth of terrifying messages from a former employee at my last job. (I’m such a wimp, that if I ever tried to use the shiv, my attacker would just take it and use it on me. But the whistle is comforting, more my speed, and I’m now going to re-locate it.)

Because of all that, it is commonly said that women read crime fiction and watch true crime TV and podcasts because we’re curious about it, since we think about it so much.

That never seemed whole to me. And someone at the book festival at last came up with the missing piece: consuming crime stories is closure for all that fear—because we get to do it from a safe place, our homes.

I greatly enjoyed hearing from all the authors at Iceland Noir—men and women, small and super-famous, Americans and Brits and Icelanders. Like every other rabid reader at the festival, my Kindle is packed with books, and I’ve never even thought to judge the story based on the author’s gender. I just hope that the people trolling that female author also join us in 2024 and stop worrying about the name on the cover—and instead escape into the world brought to life within its pages.

How did all this start? Read my intro post here!