At the tail end of Women's History month--A book that fails the Bechdel test

Cover image courtesy of
Sterling and Stone

And look, I understand that not every piece of reading or viewing entertainment out there needs to pass this simple test, but the lead character of Once Upon a Crime by Nolan King is a woman. You would think the author would be able to give her a female friend, and you would think that—as a cop—she could find things to discuss with that other female besides men. I’m not being nit picky here, and if you don’t know what the Bechdel test is, look it up. Also, the victims of this cop thriller are all women, stalked by a serial killer with an obsession for Grimms' fairytales. 

Anyway, we could argue about the specifics of the Bechdel test: 1) The story needs two "featured" women (Chelsea Sullivan is the only featured one, even though her detective partner has a mom and ex girlfriend who make a brief appearance to be concerned about…the new girl in his life…), 2) Those "featured women" need to have at least one brief conversation together (Chelsea's only brief conversation is with a librarian near the end of the story, and she's not a featured character), and 3) that conversation between two "featured" women has to be about anything other than a man (if we’re counting the partner's mom and ex girlfriend, well they’re discussing him and his love life, so—fail). 

But hey, as detective thrillers go, this story was… okay. If you're a fan of TV shows like Bones, Castle, Big Sky, where there are two detective partners tracking down crime while flirting with the potential that they are meant for each other (by denying it at every turn), this story might be for you.