The genre has been characterised and indeed dominated by “Queens of Crime” Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, Margery Allingham and Josephine Tey since the interwar years who nevertheless contended with constant critique as to the value of their writing.

Both female writers and fictional female detectives (amateur and professional) have had a steady and often controversial role in the genre more widely. Long before women were granted prosecuting powers and official status within the police force, Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison’s predecessors took the form of “lady” detectives who emerged at various points of the Victorian period to do the jobs their male counterparts could not – disguising themselves, facing dangerous enemies, crawling through sewers, and battling the stereotypes and misguided expectations of their clients by proving their intelligence and resourcefulness.

Such feats echoed, according to a number of nineteenth-century newspaper articles, the real exploits of consulting female detectives in both Britain and America. The success of La Plante’s writing, its televisual adaptation, and its well-deserved award demonstrates that women can thrive in these overtly masculinised professions (crime writing and policing) but her work continues to highlight the price for such success.