Three of my favorite female heroines…
Yeah, I’m a bit old-fashioned. I know I’m supposed to be more PC and use “hero” for both male and female characters as if they were neutered zombies, but what’s wrong with implying that a smart, kick-ass character has female charm as well? Screw any naysayers out there who complain, I say. At least I’m not a pervert like a certain newly re-elected orange devil! (What’s wrong with people?)
In any case, onward: Among my many novels, there are three female characters who are my favorites. Before I describe them (somewhat repetitive, I suppose, if you’ve read my prose), let me make a confession: I’m not a misogynistic ass like many men (especially certain politicians whom many of us, like half the American voters, love to hate). I admire brainy women of strong character and have often said in mixed groups that include supposedly macho men that the world would most likely be better off if such women were in control. (I don’t know why the US can’t be like other countries in that sense: Angela Merkel would have done a much better job than Donald Trump, Margaret Thatcher than Ronald Reagan, and so forth. I might not agree with their political positions, but I don’t agree with any of Trump or his sycophants’—zero, zilch, nada!)
That said, all three of my favorite female heroines I’ll describe are indeed brainy women of strong character (in contrast to any of the female toadies the orange devil will put in his administration). Let’s take them in descending order of age:
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Esther Brookstone. Throughout the nine-novel “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series, this older English lady belies the nickname Miss Marple that her colleagues in Scotland Yard gave her. My Esther is a lot sprier than Christie’s character, also sexier and more sagacious. I liked her best in the mystery/thriller Son of Thunder where, despite having a third husband (she loved them all!) who was an atheist Swiss banker, this daughter of a vicar strives to prove that the Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli—he most likely painted the “Birth of Venus” with Amerigo Vespucci’s nude daughter serving as model—never traveled to Turkey and consequently couldn’t have found St. John the Divine’s tomb.
Does she fail? You’ll have to read the novel to find out. (The reader can think of this novel as Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code done correctly…because there are no historical errors!) Her Dutch boyfriend from the first novel Rembrandt’s Angel, Interpol agent Bastiann van Coevorden, is along for part of the adventures in Son of Thunder, but the story is mostly hers, as she becomes a thoughtful female Sherlock in comparison to the first novel.
Mary Jo Melendez. This ass-kicking lady gets involved in all kinds of trouble in the sci-fi thriller Muddlin’ Through (as well as in the other two novels that follow in the “Mary Jo Melendez Mysteries” trilogy). She is framed for the murders of her sister and brother-in-law and the stealing of some “secret weapons” from the defense lab where the ex-USN Master-of-Arms works as a security guard. Her adventures are motivated by her desire to prove her innocence and revenge her relatives’ murders; they take her around the US, Europe, and South America. Despite her toughness, she can be a bit fragile…but I think that just makes her more human and caring.
Penny Castro. This ex-USN SAR sailor and LA County forensics diver fights to survive in the post-apocalyptic sci-fi thriller The Last Humans, the first novel in yet another trilogy. She’s intelligent, creative, and resourceful and survives when most macho men would throw in the towel. She’s not the last human on Earth, but she initially thinks she is; yet she fights on, even against the fascist remains of the US government.
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I created Esther Brookstone and Bastiann van Coevorden as an answer to the question: Why didn’t Agatha Christie ever put Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot together to solve a mystery? (Bastiann looks like the actor who played Poirot so often for the BBC.) That’s kind of a whimsical reason, especially considering that Esther Brookstone isn’t anything like the fragile old Miss Marple. (She’s younger at the beginning of the series and a stunner when she was earlier working as an MI6 spy in East Germany.)
Mary Jo Melendez in Muddlin’ Through and Penny Castro in The Last Humans gave me an opportunity to revisit some of my haunts when I was younger—Penny in SoCal and Mary Jo in Colombia. Esther Brookstone in Rembrandt’s Angel and Son of Thunder allowed me to revisit some others (Peru, Germany, Italy, and a few other European countries). Although you might have some doubts by now, I lived or worked in or visited none of these places where my kick-ass femme fatale characters strutted their stuff! I let my characters have rough-and-tumble adventures they endured as they saved the world as I sat back in my desk chair at my laptop enjoying their escapades…just as much as you will!
Happy Thanksgiving to all my readers!
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Comments are always welcome. (Please follow the rules on the “Join the Conversation” web page.)
“Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series. Esther and Bastiann have a lot more adventures than those described here. This is a nine-book series where two of the novels are free PDF downloads (see the “Free Stuff & Contests” web page). This series is a spin-off from the “Detectives Chen & Castilblanco” series and spins off to the “Inspector Steve Morgan” trilogy, That’s a lot of mystery/thriller stories for you to enjoy!
Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!
