5 Kick-Ass Women Who Inspired Clare Carlson

My sequence character Clare Carlson, a TV journalist who stars within the newest e book Broadcast Blues, is a reasonably terrific, fairly cool lady—if I do say so myself.

I primarily based her largely on lots of the fairly terrific, fairly cool actual life lady journalists that I’ve labored with myself over time within the New York Metropolis media world.

However Clare wouldn’t exist at present with out the enter I acquired from different locations—most notably a few of the nice kick-ass ladies characters I’ve learn in different thriller novels since I began writing them myself. 

Certain, there’s plenty of nice male characters I’ve drawn on for creating Clare—Philip Marlowe, Spenser, Harry Bosch, Matt Scudder and plenty of extra. 

Nonetheless, it’s the ladies characters I’ve learn in thriller novels—and there are plenty of them lately— that basically helped me make Clare come alive. 

Listed here are 5 of them: 

KINSEY MILLHONE—I fell in love with Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone all the way in which again in the beginning of the alphabet. You solely should learn the opening traces of A Is For Alibi to know what a compelling character she is: “My title is Kinsey Millhone. I’m a personal investigator, licensed by the state of California. I’m thirty-two years previous, twice divorced, no youngsters. The day earlier than yesterday I killed somebody and the actual fact weighs closely on my thoughts.” We acquired 24 extra books – all the way in which to Y is for Yesterday – earlier than Sue Grafton’s premature loss of life. However Kinsey Millhone lives on for us. 

V.I. WARSHAWSKI—Sara Paretsky’s V.I. Warshawski, a tricky speaking, all the time prepared for motion, non-public investigator from Chicago—like Kinsey—just about pioneered the way in which for ladies investigators in thriller novels. Till then, a lot of the heroes had been males. I had the chance to interview Paretsky not way back and she or he defined how her inspiration for Warshawski got here from seeing how ladies had been being portrayed on the time in male-dominated books. “A girl in fiction then was a virgin, a vamp, or a sufferer—by no means an individual who may clear up issues. I needed to create that form of lady. The large factor V. I. does is have a voice and pressure folks to pay attention. She doesn’t go right into a diner and say, ‘make my day.’ However she enrages folks with energy and that’s what causes violence—her voice, not her actions.” However sure, V.I. handles herself fairly properly in bodily confrontations too!

STEPHANIE PLUM—There’ve been loads of bounty hunters in books, however not feminine bounty hunters—till Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum got here alongside. That is one robust lady. She’s been described as a “bounty hunter with angle.” As “a mix of Nancy Drew and Soiled Harry.” The outcome has been greater than 100 million copies bought of the Stephanie Plum books thus far. I ought to add a private observe right here. My first revealed novel in 1985 was known as One for the Cash. That was additionally the title for the primary Stephanie Plum e book that got here out a number of years later. Once I noticed that, I puzzled who this writer was utilizing the identical title as me? Effectively, let’s simply say she did quite a bit higher with it than me!

TEMPERANCE BRENNAN—It’s onerous not to consider Temperance Brennan with out imagining her as Emily Deschanel, who performs Kathy Reichs’ forensic anthropologist on the long-running TV sequence Bones. But it surely all started with the favored lengthy operating e book sequence from Reichs. 

Temperance Brennan—or Tempe, as she is known as—is a superb, robust and no-nonsense medical knowledgeable introduced into crime scenes to unravel the most important and most baffling instances. Many have in contrast the fascinating Temperance Brennan character to Reichs herself, who’s a forensic anthropologist herself in actual life who has labored on quite a few crime scenes. Regardless of how she was created, Temperance (Tempe) Brennan is without doubt one of the hottest and interesting characters in thriller fiction at present. 

JANE RIZZOLI—Like Temperance Brennan, hard-driving Boston detective Jane Rizzoli is well-known to us from a TV present, Rizzoli and Isles—the place she’s performed splendidly by Angie Harmon—in addition to the best-selling e book sequence by Tess Gerritsen.  However make no mistake about it, the Gerritsen books are the true deal if you wish to know to get to know Jane Rizzoli (in addition to her fascinating lady associate, medical expert Maura Isles). Gerritsen has revealed that she truly deliberate to kill off Rizzoli in her first e book as a result of she thought she was too “annoying”—however then modified her thoughts. “I acquired to love her. She’s much like me, an outsider who by no means seems like she matches in. … I recognized together with her a lot that when it got here time to kill her it appeared fallacious.” 

Kinsey Millhone. V.I. Warshawski. Stephanie Plum. Temperance Brennan. Jane Rizzoli. 5 ladies thriller characters that readers love. I like them too. And I prefer to assume that if my Clare Carlson ever attached with these ladies in some way…properly, they’d all get alongside fairly properly!

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