Black Women Detective Novelists Across Two Centuries

I wanted to see how many Black-authored detective and crime-related novels by women appear in the 20th century as opposed to the 21st century in the Literary Navigator Device.

For “Reading Form,” I selected novel, and for “Author Gender,” I selected “woman.” Using the genre filters, I selected “Crime/Detective/Mystery fiction” and then chose Early 20th century (1900–1939), Mid-20th century (1940–1965), and Late 20th century (1966–1999). I then repeated the search with only the 21st century selected.

I ended up with 8 results from the 20th century and 71 results from the 21st century. The contrast between the two periods is striking and immediately visible through the Navigator’s filtering system.

This discovery suggests that there are far more novels by Black women novelists in the 21st century. It also shows how the Navigator makes it possible to quickly identify shifts in genre participation across time.

Related:

• Navigator Discoveries