Queasy-making thrillers written by women may be on the rise, but the female detective is by now firmly entrenched in the whodunit scene. Relative newcomer Becky Masterman is taking her place alongside Sue Grafton and Sara Paretsky with her own creation, ex-FBI agent Brigid Quinn, now a workaholic private investigator, in Fear The Darkness ($23.95, Penguin). She looks into the death of a 14-year-old found drowned in a pool with his pants around his ankles. A series of creepy poisonings in her neighbourhood follow. Complicating everything is the presence of her emotionally unstable niece, who could be more of a factor than Quinn wants to believe. Incidentally, Gillian Flynn likes this book.
