Maybe it’s the water?
“The West Coast has the sunshine
And the girls all get so tanned…”
— The Beach Boys
Following the success of Sue Grafton and Marcia Muller (and Sara Paretsky in Chicago and Liza Cody over in the U.K.) in the early eighties, there was an explosion of female eyes, and most of them seemed to live in California. Coincidence, or what? And there seemed to be an inordinate amount of attractive young sun-kissed ladies jogging up and down the beach, most with dating issues and hunky cop boyfriends.
At the time, it seemed significant, though. The trend has petered out since, so maybe it was just me imaging things. But here’s a snapshot of (mostly) that time…
- Caley Burke by Bridget McKenna (Northern California)
- Kat Colorado by Karen Kijewski (Sacramento)
- Claire Conrad & Maggie Hill by Melodie Johnson Howe (Los Angeles)
- Maggie Garrett by Jean Taylor (San Francisco)
- Jeri Howard by Janet Dawson (Berkeley)
- R.A. Huber by Alice Zogg (Pasadena)
- Rae Kelleher by Marcia Muller (San Francisco)
- Sharon McCone by Marcia Muller (San Francisco)
- Kinsey Millhone by Sue Grafton (Santa Theresa)
- Kiernan O’Shaughnessy by Susan Dunlap (La Jolla)
- Lorraine Page by Lynda LaPlante (Los Angeles)
- Savannah Reid by G.A. McKevett
- Catherine Sayler by Linda Grant
- Ronnie Ventana by Gloria White (San Francisco)
- Deliah West by Maxine O’Callaghan (Orange County)
Respectfully compiled by Kevin Burton Smith. Any suggestion or additions will be most welcome. And don’t get all excited by the photo — it’s not from a PI novel, but a 2019 romance novel by Susan Mallery.
