What Do you Like and Not Like in a Heroine in a Mystery?
I just finished reading a book which will remain nameless and I didn't like the heroine at all. She was intelligent, nice looking, but seemed absolutely clueless about her own peril. You've all heard of the heroine they call too dumb to live. You know, the one who knows a killer is on the loose, hears a noise in the basement and goes down there with no weapon nor light--or if she takes a flashlight, the battery dies. There is only one reason a woman would go down in the basement like that would be if her child were down there. In the book I just read, though this woman was a psychiatrist she didn't seem to know anything about people. She lived in one of the most remote places possible and even when she knew someone was after her, didn't leave. Now this house didn't even have an inside bathroom--so she always went to the bathroom just before locking up at night. Then she left all the lights on (she was afraid of the dark) but had no curtains on her windows. Of co...