Meredith Hambrock is a Canadian fiction and television writer who lives in Vancouver, BC. Her short fiction has appeared in several magazines including
Maisonneuve and
Descant. She’s been a finalist for the CBC Short Story Prize and most recently wrote for the sitcom
Corner Gas Animated.
Hambrock's new novel is
Other People's Secrets.
At CrimeReads she tagged
five recent favorite messy female characters that exist in the world of crime fiction, including:
Kismet, by Amina Akhtar
When we first meet Roni, in Amina Akhtar’s darkly funny novel Kismet, she’s struggling through a hike in Sedona. Cheered on by her best friend/life coach, Marley, Roni’s questioning everything in her life. How did she end up in this sweaty, sandy hellhole, surrounded by bugs and blondes? As they continue on the hike, Roni and Marly happen upon a head. That’s right! A head, detached from a 
corpse, sitting out in the desert, roasting in the sun right next to a pair of hands and feet. And thus a story of murder and intrigue begins. While Roni isn’t as aesthetically messy as some of the other heroes on this list, she’s struggling to find a place in a racist world that treats her like trash. There’s a particularly memorable scene where she’s manhandled into giving blood for facials. (I had to look this treatment up and it’s real. Wild!) Of course, Roni’s solutions to her problems include sleeping on an air mattress in the back of a crystal shop and befriending the local raven population. Akhtar’s novel is the definition of propulsive and with some unforgettable twists, this story (and its lead character) is one I’ll be thinking about for a long time.
Read about
another entry on the list.
--Marshal Zeringue
Maisonneuve and Descant. She’s been a finalist for the CBC Short Story Prize and most recently wrote for the sitcom Corner Gas Animated.
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