6 Books to Investigate if You Love the Stumptown TV Show

The only thing better than a gripping murder mystery is a badass female protagonist solving it. In ABC’s Stumptown, Marine Corpsveteran and newly mintedprivate investigator Dex Parios gets the job done solving crimes while also navigating her own PTSD and a complicated personal life. She is a character we can relate to even if we’ve never escaped from the trunk of a locked car driven by kidnappers or single-handedly taken down a would-be robber attempting to hold up our local convenience store.

But Dex Parios is just one of fiction’s many strong and capable women solving crimes and seeking justice, destroying the male image that comes to mind when we think “private investigator.” Between episodes of Stumptown, explore these six mystery and suspense books that also celebrate tenacious female energy.