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| Who reads archaeological adventure thrillers? |
I write Egypt novels, but sometimes wonder – are writers the best judges of their audience appeal, their true readers or of their own genre?
The
dictionary describes genre as a ‘category of artistic composition’ or ‘kind’.
My
books have been variously described as investigative novels, archaeological
adventures, adventure thrillers and action adventures.
I
am reminded of Hamlet, where Shakespeare has some fun with the idea of genres
and cross-genres when the old windbag Polonious
speaks of “tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral, pastoral-comical,
historical-pastoral, tragical-historical, tragical-comical-historical-pastoral,
scene individable, or poem unlimited…”
Yes,
my lead character is a man, Anson Hunter, an unusual, alternative Egyptologist with
a sardonic line of wit, an agreeable nature and appealing flexibility.
But
what of the female appeal?
The
experiential young Coptic Egyptologist Kalila Nawal - we first meet her in The
Smiting Texts.
The
beguiling She-she-shet who appears in inset tale of the Great Destroyer of
Humankind (The Smiting Texts, also in a stand alone novelette Hunting Hathor).
The
glamorous university chair of the Middle Eastern Department, Dr Melinda
Skilling who appears in much of the series.
The sultry antiquities Egyptian-Greek thief Alexia - Hathor's Holocaust.
The
androgynous head of a new age group who calls herself Lady Neith - Hathor's
Holocaust
The
British intelligence agent Gemma Laughton -Hathor's Holocaust.
The
mysterious female Mossad agent Zara Margolin - The Ibis Apocalypse.
The
young ‘space archaeologist’ Dr Katy Parkinson - The Night of Anubis Cruise…
the revenant Isis in 'The Egyptian Mythology Murders'...
the revenant Isis in 'The Egyptian Mythology Murders'...
…
to name just a few.
Many women readers enjoy my novels – do they feel they are reading ‘male
adventures’?
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