Being a Mystery Woman by Ayo Onatade


The world of mystery groups whether online or otherwise can be found in a vast majority of countries with a bulk of them being not only online but also based in the United States.  However, in the United Kingdom when a discussion about mystery groups begins there is generally only one name that is foremost on most people’s lips; that is the group called Mystery Women.  http://www.mysterywomen.co.uk. 

When one first hears the name Mystery Women one can be forgiven for thinking that you are about to embark on a rather surreal experience with a number of strange women.  In fact, this is not the case.  Mystery Women is a UK based group that celebrates the work of female crime writers in all its sub-genres.  It all started back in January 1998 when the founders Kate Charles and Michelle Spring decided that there was nothing in the UK that promoted female crime writers especially lesser known female crime writers and that it was about time there was.  Mystery Women is only vaguely based on the same concept of the US group Sisters in Crime as in that it was set up to raise the awareness of female crime writers.  It also provides a forum for the discussion of crime fiction by enthusiastic crime fiction addicts amongst a lively and friendly atmosphere.

At the first meeting, which took place in Cambridge, the guest speaker was Jill Paton Walsh.  Shortly after the first event and owing to the major writing commitments of both Kate Charles and Michelle Spring they decided to retire from taking an active role in the organisation and the impressive Lizzie Hayes took over the running of the group initially (and briefly) with the help of Mitch Karunaratne and more recently Ayo Onatade.

The group organises events throughout the year and a newsletter is produced four times a year which reports on various crime fiction events that have taken place, book launches, competitions, interviews with a wide range of authors and information about awards, conferences, speaking engagements and anything else crime fiction related.  Periodically a reading list is also produced which covers all sub-genres of crime fiction and is used by libraries, reading groups and crime fiction enthusiasts all over the world. 

Currently, Mystery Women have members in the UK, USA, Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy and South Africa. Not only are there readers/fans of the genre many are also published authors including such distinguished writers as, Ann Granger, Linda Fairstein, Joyce Holms, Paula Gosling, Betty Rowlands, Priscilla Masters, Marianne MacDonald, Cath Staincliff; Lauren Henderson, Stella Duffy, Joanna Hines, Manda Scott, Kit Sloane, Elizabeth Corley and Judith Cutler, Mo Hayder, Val McDermid to name a few. To ensure that all members have the opportunity to attend events many of them are held around the UK.  Furthermore, events are also organised on behalf of authors.

Even though Mystery Women was set up to promote female crime writers, they have a number of male members who have joined because they support the aims of the group.  Like the female authors, they are interviewed, their books are reviewed, they attend events and information regarding their books is put in the newsletter.  The first male author to join was CWA Dagger winner Andrew Taylor who surprised everyone at the annual St Hilda’s Crime and Mystery Conference in by announcing to the packed hall that he had become a mysterious woman!  Along with Andrew Taylor, some of our male members include Nick Stone, who recently won the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award with his first novel Mr. Clarinet, and Martin Edwards and Stephen Booth.

Mystery Women have organized events in conjunction with the Cozy Crime Tour visiting from the US, events at Heffer’s bookshop in Cambridge and hosts a cocktail party every year during the annual St Hilda’s Crime and Mystery Conference, which is held in Oxford every August.

Mystery Women is extremely independent and is therefore able to be completely unbiased.  It is not subsidised by any of the UK publishers but they have built up an extremely good relationship with them that has ensured that as many books are reviewed as possible.  Reviews are done by members and are balanced.  Female authors always get reviewed whether or not they are members of Mystery Women but only the male members of Mystery Women get their books reviewed.

So how do groups like Mystery Women survive and how do they manage to gain such a following?  Groups like Mystery Women survive due to subscriptions. The subscription enables the newsletter to be produced and sent out all over the world.

Mystery groups do have a purpose.  They are very good at spreading the word about books, they are very good about knowing what is hot, and they are very good at reading those lesser-known authors.  It is well known that most people (whom are not authors) that become involved in the crime fiction world do it because they love the genre and not for any monetary gain. 

For further information about Mystery Women, its aims and how to join have a look at the website at http://www.mysterywomen.co.uk.