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"My husband is always reading thrillers, so I thought they were just for men. But I just read John le Carr\u00E9&amp;#039;s The Constant Gardener and loved it. Can you recommend other thrillers a woman might like? Margo responds: John le Carr\u00E9&amp;#039;s The Constant Gardener is a good example of the mild literary thriller that used to be the only kind that appealed to women. There&amp;#039;s not much overt violence in this shadowy tale about a young wife killed while trying to expose international pharmaceutical horrors in Africa (recently made into a movie). In the end, it&amp;#039;s more of a love story between the crusading woman and her passive, bureaucratic husband than the usual shoot-&amp;#039;em-up thriller. These days, however, women are no longer shying away from displays of blood and guts. Women comprise 60 percent of the readers of thriller writer Lee Child. Booksellers, says the Wall Street Journal&amp;#039;s Jeffrey Trachtenberg, believe terrorist attacks and the war in Iraq have changed what women want to read. Lee Child&amp;#039;s thrillers feature the hard-bitten, womanizing Jack Reacher, a former military cop who is not afraid to crack open a bad guy&amp;#039;s head or, as he did in Persuader, break his neck. So why does he appeal to the so-called gentler sex? Because he commits these acts of violence in a search for justice. In The Hard Way, for example, Reacher helps a former military officer track down his kidnapped wife and stepdaughter, a story that turns out to be thrilling right up to its heart-thumping finale. If you like your PI&amp;#039;s more sensitive (or at least more monogamist), stick with Boston-based Robert B. Parker. Parker&amp;#039;s Spenser, who inspired the TV series Spenser for Hire, has three constant companions: Hawk, his best friend; Susan Silverman, his steady girlfriend; and his Labrador. Parker&amp;#039;s books are usually labeled mysteries, not thrillers, although they feature suspense and an occasional bloodied corpse. In Hundred-Dollar Baby, due out in October, a prostitute from a previous Spenser novel, now a madam, once again seeks Spenser&amp;#039;s aid. Parker also has a new series starring a woman PI, Sunny Randall. In the latest, Blue Screen, when Randall is asked by a sleazy producer to protect his bimbo star, she seeks the aid of Jesse Stone, the star of a third Parker series. For those who want a thriller through and through, try Shadow Man, by Cody McFadyen. This new, debut novel also stars a woman, Smoky Barrett, who was hunting serial killers for the FBI when a maniac killed her own husband and daughter and left her face badly scarred. Teetering on the brink of suicide, Barrett is drawn back into service when another ruthless killer sends her a horrific videotape of his handiwork, which has left a child motherless. A truly chilling tale. Or why not try a new thriller written by a woman? Clearwater, Florida-based Lisa Unger, author of Beautiful Lies (she used to write under the name of Lisa Miscione), is one of the more successful female writers who have broken into this male-dominated genre. Beautiful Lies is the story of a New York City freelancer who receives a package in the mail that sends her on a quest to discover who she really is, a quest that could get her killed, she discovers. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/entertainment/a21117/books-women-thrillers-aug06/>