The first female detective is generally agreed to have been "G", the hero of "The Female Detective," an 1864 novel soon to be republished by the British Library. However, the author was a man, James Redding Ware; it took another twenty years or so before female writers of mystery fiction started to make waves, with Anna Katharine Green one of the most prominent early figures in the field.
Now, female mystery writers are not only established names, but often lead the genre. Here's a list of some of the English language's most talented female exponents of crime fiction.
