{"id":1640,"date":"2016-04-03T13:55:40","date_gmt":"2016-04-03T20:55:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/?p=1640"},"modified":"2017-12-18T08:32:13","modified_gmt":"2017-12-18T16:32:13","slug":"review-no-game-for-a-dame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/2016\/04\/03\/review-no-game-for-a-dame\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: No Game For a Dame"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"No<\/a>
\n No Game For a Dame<\/a> by M. Ruth Myers<\/a>
\n My rating: 3 of 5 stars<\/a><\/p>\n

A hard-boiled detective novel\u2014but hey, the dick\u2019s a dame! How about that for a twist? Yeah, well, as \u201cneat\u201d as that is, I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s that big of a deal.<\/p>\n

Which is not to say this was a bad novel. It\u2019s your basic procedural, your basic private-eye story, with many of the tropes we enjoy, the reason we read these things. The language, the attitude, the seedy bars, the gangsters, the run-ins with the cops. Maggie Sullivan delivers.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the new stuff, the stuff you don\u2019t get in the male version. Knitting needles, elaborate hats, a boarding house for women only. Don\u2019t worry, none of it\u2019s sexist or derivative. Just part of the tapestry, and used in the execution of detective duties.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s maybe a little too much misogyny tossed around for my tastes. I mean, yeah, sure, that\u2019s the way it was back then, but I don\u2019t read these detective stories for the history lesson. Feels less like an attempt at verisimilitude and more like self-indulgence. Like, I\u2019m supposed to respect this dame more because she solves crimes and<\/em> has to deal with institutional sexism.<\/p>\n

No thanks. I\u2019d rather just read a good story. And No Game for a Dame<\/em> is a good story, more or less. The question I have to ask myself is, would this story have worked if the main character had been a guy? Sure\u2014 so on the one hand, kudos for not making this merely a by-gals-for-gals thing.<\/p>\n

But on the other hand, why bother with the title, then? Look, I haven\u2019t read a lot of women-as-private-eye novels. But it seems to me that there\u2019s gotta be more one could do than just throw a female into a by-the-numbers paperback and add a little sexist window-dressing for good measure.<\/p>\n

Then again, maybe that\u2019s me being sexist. Bottom line\u2014if you\u2019re looking from some kind of feminist screed, give this one a pass. But if you\u2019re looking for a decent little crime novel, go right ahead.<\/p>\n

View all my reviews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No Game For a Dame by M. Ruth Myers My rating: 3 of 5 stars A hard-boiled detective novel\u2014but hey, the dick\u2019s a dame! How about that for a twist? Yeah, well, as \u201cneat\u201d as that is, I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s that big of a deal. Which is not to say this was a … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Review: No Game For a Dame”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p24y52-qs","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1640"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1640\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1641,"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1640\/revisions\/1641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}