Women and history mysteries

I commented in September about the Women in World History Curriculum's Web site and its advocacy of crime fiction as a teaching tool. More recently, I’ve reflected that the Crime Writers Association award for historical crime fiction, probably the leading prize in the field, is named for a woman, Ellis Peters.

I wondered, then, if female authors are or were drawn to historical crime fiction in greater proportion than male authors and if so, why. It would be easy to imagine that until recent decades, female authors (and readers, for that matter) interested in criminal investigation, and finding few female police officers and investigators in their own worlds, might turn to the past, where they could give their imaginations freer rein.

What do you think?

© Peter Rozovsky 2008

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historical crime fiction
historical mysteries
Ellis Peters