Maura, you want to see some visceral fortitude in a
hard-boiled woman protagonist, by a woman writer? Try Laurell
K. Hamilton. OK, I know I've said it before, and I try to say
it only every few months, but her Anita Blake character is as
tough, aggressive and business-like as any fictional guy PI
when she pulls out her tykki and starts blasting. To wit
(from the latest book, Obsidian Butterfly):
I'd settled on the Hornady Custom XTP handgun ammo. To be
exact, the 9 mm Luger, 147 JHP/XTP, silver-coated of course.
There were other hollow point bullets that will expand to a
bigger mass, but some of them don't penetrate nearly as far
into a body mass...If I emptied 13 of the XTPs into something
and it didn't go down, all bets were off. I'd worry about
murder charges later, after I survived. Survival first. Try
to stay out of jail second. My priorities straight, I headed
off...
All in the name of good over evil, of course. As for the
sexual aspects of Ms. Blake's particular brand of
testosterone, she's involved with not one, but two men, but
keeps a cynical eye on their intentions while pondering the
lust vs. love question. Hamilton said in an interview that
she wanted to write a female character who could do and be
everything that had become the provence of the traditional
pulp fiction PI male character. By gum, she has.
Martha
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