Irma Venter, author of Red Tide, on Women Characters in Crime Novels

Irma Venter, author of Red Tide, on Women Characters in Crime Novels

What does a strong female character in a crime novel look like? 

This question has intrigued me since I was a teenager scouring the library for my next read. 

Often the female characters were one of two things – the (often passing) love interest, or the victim. In other words, the pretty girl in bed, or the pretty girl dead on the floor.

(Oh, we do love it when the pretty (white) girls die, don’t we? The same is true for the media – these victims often garner more attention than any other. But perhaps that is a topic for another day.)

Back to the library…

And then it happened. 

I discovered Sara Paretsky’s books, with the indomitable VI Warshawski as their heroine. Finally, a series with a strong female character. 

Since then, I have come across many other writers and their female leads – some truly strong, while others can only pretend to be strong, for whatever reason that may be. Perhaps it is to sell more books; a construct of what an author or publisher believe will sell. Perhaps these characters are simply so tinted by the more traditional male gaze of their creators that they reflect what women should be, rather than what they truly are/can be.

Often these characters are pushed out to sea, so to speak, only to be reined in and returned home in the final pages to the care of more traditional forces. (I have nothing against traditional settings, as long as women choose to be there.)

Whatever the case may be – after a lifetime of reading some brilliant thrillers and writing ten crime novels in my native Afrikaans language, I have learned some important lessons about what strong female characters look like in storytelling of any kind.

I can summarise it as follows: The writer assembles all of their characters in a pre-writing room. They deliberately give their female lead the biggest weapon – in other words, the most power out of their entire cast. 

In Neanderthal terms: the female gets the biggest club.

The writer then allows this character to wield that weapon freely – and, yes, with consequences, some dire, also to themselves. (All forms of power have consequences.)

And then, lastly, they do not take that weapon away. That character holds onto that weapon/power till the last page and beyond.

This is more scary to most people than it may sound: Giving a woman power and letting her wield it. Strangely enough, in many cultures – some very advanced ones too – this is a foreign concept. 

And I’m not talking about caped-and-masked superhero stuff. Nothing outlandish and out-of-this world. Nothing unnecessarily saturated with violence and blood.  I’m talking about true power that moves the pieces on the chess board, instead of the female character continuously reacting to the acts of others. The female character is no longer the victim of time, her age, other people, and circumstances, even if it may take a significant part of the storyline to reach that point.

Also, when it comes to women, power sometimes lies in considering others less; in not being the good little girl constantly placing others first. In not obliging, but in committing the great societal sins of getting even and growing angry. To be bold in fighting an injustice and ensuring the guilty are punished – things we so adore in our male leads.

True power cannot be faked. As women we are attuned acutely to the lay of the land. We walk into a room and instinctively know who holds power here.

More than often, it is not us.

That can change.
Books can help.

That is why writing well-rounded, strong female characters matter.

—

RED TIDE

Irma Venter is a bestselling South African crime fiction writer and a journalist at a media company in Johannesburg. She writes books about strong women, interesting men, and that fascinating space between right and wrong.

From the two-time winner of the ATKV Prize for Best Suspense Fiction comes Red Tide…

Deep in the South African Karoo, a small desert town runs red with old grudges and deadly secrets.

Three years after his niece is found dead the week of her wedding, Jaap Reyneke, a retired detective, is still doggedly looking for answers. Why was her body displayed so carefully, like a macabre art installation? Who erased all correspondence from her devices? But the townspeople of Carnarvon seem content to let dead bodies lie.

Desperate for help, Jaap turns to Sarah Fourie, a convicted hacker seeking reprieve from her own demons. Together, they sniff out the truth of Janien’s death, setting in motion a chain of events that will tear the town apart from within.

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Category: Contemporary Women Writers, How To and Tips