In case you think that discrimination in the crime writing world is a thing of the past, here’s an incident recounted by the Scottish writer Val McDermid. It appeared in The Scotsman, August 15, 2007:

McDermid said she was sitting next to the thriller-buyer for a major chain at a trade dinner: “He was … talking about his new job, and he said, ‘I had no idea of how much reading was going to be involved in this.’

“Then he said, ‘Of course, I don’t read books by women.’ And this is one of the most powerful purchasers in the country. And he doesn’t read books by women.

“What I wanted to do was to grab him by the throat, smack him against the wall and say, ‘You stupid a***hole!’ But what I actually said was, ‘Perhaps you might like to try one of mine?’”

Congratulations to Val on her restraint!

From Mystery Scene blog, August 2007.