Celebrating International Women’s Day: Female Fictional & TV Detectives!

This year’s theme is ‘Choose to Challenge’ (#ChooseToChallenge) and if there’s women who love to seek a challenge or face challenges in their life, it’s the well-known female detectives we love to watch in crime TV shows and read in the fictional world.

That’s why we wanted to celebrate some of the top female detectives we know and love!

Let us know who your favourite female detectives are - have you dressed up as one of these crime-solving women at our events?

Miss Marple

Probably one of the most well-known female amateur detectives in crime fiction history.

Miss Marple is a fictional character in Agatha Christie’s crime novels and short stories. Miss Marple lives in the village of St Mary Head and acts as an amatur consulting detective.

Her challenge is that she’s often characterised as an elderly spinster, but due to her shrewd intelligence, she is able to solve difficult crimes.

She can be a gleeful gossip and begins having a nosey nature and is not particularly a nice woman - but later on in the book series, she becomes a much nicer and more modern person.

She has featured in over 12 books and short stories, including The Murder at The Vicarege, The Moving Finger, A Pocket Full of Rye, Nemesis, A Sleeping Murder and many more.

Catherine Willows

Catherine Willows is best known for being a Crime Scene Investigator in the CBS drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. Portrayed by actress Marg Helgenberger, the character of Catherine Willows is based off of real-life forensics officer, Yolanda McClary of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police.

She is willing to do anything to crack the case… even once promising a prisoner that for every question he answered, she would unbutton one button on her blouse!

She has a wide knowledge of odd facts that help in her investigations of crime scenes.

Her challenge in life is letting her own emotions cloud her judgement, especially when it came to cases that involved a little girl of which she had a strong reaction to.

But her knowledge in every case was always valuable and always paid off, hence being included on this list!

Clarice Starling

She may be quiet, but she is one intelligent detective!

Clarice Starling is an FBI Agent and is the fictional character and protagonist of the novels The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal. She hopes to join the Behavioral Science Unit as a physiological investigator and with her high grades, she's well on her way…

Her challenge is catching Buffalo Bill, a deranged killer who abducts and skins plus-size women. Luckily, due to Bill leaving calling cards on every victim, she’s able to crack the case.

She is played by Jodie Foster in the 1991 film adaption of The Silence of the Lambs and later on by Julianne Moore in Hannibal.

Irene Adler

The fictional character from the Sherlock Holmes fiction series, although she only appears in one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s short stories, she is one of the most notable characters.

Irene Norton nee Adler, is featured in the short story “A Scandal in Bohemia” published in July 1891. She’s known for being scheming and manipulative; she uses her profession to gain insight into the top secret activities of individuals and governments.

Her challenge in life in the BBC Sherlock series is successfully playing Sherlock Holmes. When Irene sends the royal family compromising pictures, Mycroft Holmes sends his little brother Sherlock to take her phone.

Irene, however, is far more used to playing others than being played, and she has bigger plans for the Holmes brothers. Far from finding Sherlock's skills intimidating, Irene considers them a nice challenge.

Jessica Jones

Part of the Marvel world, Jessica Jones is a superhuman not to be messed with!

A super-powered human, Jessica Jones is a former superhero turned private investigator as she opens her own detective agency. She’s blunt, strong-minded and guaraded. Jessica doesn’t mince her words and doesn’t waste time on people who get in her way.

She’s a bit rough around the edges, suffers from PTSD and is described as being “a total asshole at times” - but she is a good person at the core.

Her challenge in life is to stop Kilgrave - after an incident which caused Jessica to kill someone, thanks to Kilgraves villiancious ways, he has now resurfaced and Jessica must rise to stop him before he hurts anyone else.

You can watch Jessica Jones seasons 1-3 on Netflix.

Ellie Miller

Detective Sergeant Ellie Miller was part of the C.I.D at Broadchurch Police Station

Her challenge is getting to the bottom of a young boy’s murder, which recently occured in Broadchurch - she has a personal stake in this investigation due to the family of the young boy living opposite her and being her son’s best friend.

She’s going to have to swallow her pride as she works with fellow detective, Alec Hardy, who recently took over her case due to being “more experienced.”

She proves she’s just as reliable and strong-willed to solve the case as she is compassionate and dedicated to her work.

Jessica Fletcher

Jessica Fletcher is a one-woman band, is there anything she can’t do!?

Also known as J.B Fletcher, she’s a best-selling author of mystery novels, an English teacher, amateur detective, criminology professor and congresswomen. She is the main protagonist in Murder, She Wrote.

Her challenge in life is that she finds her writing work and personal life overlap and she is generally forced to solve every mystery herself in the style of the characters from her books.

People naturally trust her with themselves and their troubles but she is positive, has a warm heart and is both loyal and determined - making her one of the best TV detectives!