Women of mystery

From the pages of the world's two most acclaimed mystery magazines Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, here are fifteen stories of women sleuths--stories that helped transform the conventions of a genre. Best-selling, award-winning authors and up-and-coming new writers complement each other in this entertaining collection, much of which is appearing for the first time in book form. From cops to private eyes to ordinary people caught. Up in extraordinary situations, these heroines face danger and solve crimes with daring and panache. Some of them will be old friends, others are introduced here for the first time. Amanda Cross' Kate Fansler looks into the disappearance of a fellow professor; Antonia Fraser's Jemima Shore, TV journalist and investigator, is hired by a newlywed to find his missing bride; Patricia McGerr's Selena Mead, government agent, plays the dual role of victim and level-headed. Operative in an exciting thriller; Sara Paretsky's widely renowned V.I. Warshawski gets involved in a complicated game--literally. Ruth Rendell's heroine undergoes a liberation from her former self; Mary Higgins Clark highlights the heroic side of womank