"If the great male detectives are archetypically loners, female detectives are doubly so. They are alienated both by entrenched male hierarchies at work and the Janus-like disjunction between their formidable professional personas and their vulnerable private lives. They have a special sensitivity to victims and a repressed compassion that fuels their zeal to see justice done. This multi-dimensionality makes for good writing and good reading. The dramatic potential is heightened because female detectives, without the physical strength of their male counterparts, have to be more resourceful, intelligent, and tactical to solve the case. The stories tend to focus as much on their character as on the whodunit."

--Anne Holt, Norwegian crime writer