Today’s Female Crime-Fighters: Not Nancy Enough?

She’s tough. She’s violent. And mystery readers can’t seem to get enough of her. Over the past six decades, female sleuths have gone from sweet (think Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple or Nancy Drew) to tough-minded (Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone, Helen Mirren in Prime Suspect) to borderline psychopathic, preternaturally talented uber-predators. Versions of the hard-as-nails woman detective…