Wicked Wednesday – Survival Skills

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Hey readers – Liz here with another nine-lives themed Wicked Wednesday.

Nine lives has always been associated with cats. While we know that isn’t technically true (yeah, sadly, it’s a myth), they do have exceptional survival skills. So Wickeds, which real or fictional person do you admire for his/her survival skills and why?

Julie: Mrs. Pollifax jumps to mind. I do so love those books. She’s in her 60’s when the series starts, and decides to join the CIA to find purpose in her life. Her only survival skills at the beginning are her wits, and her ability to make connections where there seemingly are none. By the end of the series she’s a brown belt in karate, and has several other survival skills, but her special skills remain unique.

Edith/Maddie: There are so many astonishingly brave real women who have risked death over and over, for women’s rights, in war, in everyday life. But I’ll stick to crime fiction and pick Molly Murphy from Rhys Bowen’s long-running series. Molly flees to New York City in the early 1900s from Ireland, thinking she’d killed a man. She’s determined to be come a private investigator. She succeeds, and is still investigating, solving crimes, and getting into – and out of – jams despite being married to a policeman and being a mother.

Jessie: I have mentioned her before here, but for me she is the perfect example of survivorship is Victoria Woodhull. She found her way out of a difficult childhood, a terrible marriage, poverty, jail, and the expectations and limitations placed on women during her era. She was a complex person and one I find utterly fascinating.

Liz: Since I’ve been watching the new Bosch Legacy, I have to say I’m back on a Harry Bosch kick. I love everything about him, and Titus Welliver on the show is probably the best Bosch they could’ve given us to fit the character. Every time I think “there’s no way he’s getting out of this one” – he does. Love him.

Sherry: Liz, I love all the Bosch books and shows. I love Honey Chandler in the shows too, she’s tough, smart, and and overcomes obstacles. Lizbeth Salander in the Girl With The Dragon Tattoo books is also one tough cookie–flawed and smart.

Barb: We just finished the Bosch Legacy series and now are watching The Lincoln Lawyer, so we are really on a Michael Connelly kick, too. For survivors, I think of Ree in Daniel Woodrell’s Winter’s Bone. The book brilliantly describes what it takes for a teenage girl not only to survive every day in the face of grinding rural poverty and the adult dysfunction it causes, but then throws her into a life and death situation in a desperate attempt to protect her younger siblings from a life much worse than the one they are already living. I loved this book.

Readers, who’s your favorite survivor?

Published by Cate Conte / Liz Mugavero

Cate Conte writes the Cat Cafe Mysteries and the Full Moon Mysteries. As Liz Mugavero, she writes the Pawsitively Organic Mysteries, the first of which was an Agatha Award nominee for Best First Novel. She lives in the Boston area with her rescue pals.

11 Thoughts

  1. WICKEDS: Those are great fictional survivors!
    I will add Sara Paretsky’s V.I. Warshawski. In 22 books spanning 40 years(!), this veteran Chicago P.I. has remained feisty & loyal, kicking-butt and seeking justice for her clients, friends & family.

  2. Pretty much every character that survives multiple murder cases and attempts on their lives is a big survivor in my book. I mean, Jessica Fletcher has that uncanny ability to survive every time that she pokes her nose into a murder.

    I just have one question for Barbara Ross, how did you see the full first season of Bosch Legacy already? I thought they were only showing two new episodes each for the next two weeks?

    1. Hi Jay-

      Like Liz (below) we watched on FreeVee, which used to be IMDB TV. Which meant we did have to watch ads, but they were quite brief, never more than a minute. Annoying, but not super annoying.

  4. I’m going to go with Phryne Fisher. She survived poverty as a child and more than a handful of close calls investigating mysterious murders.

  5. We are also on a Bosh: Legacy kick. Jay, I don’t know if it is the whole season, but we are watching them on FreeVee. I didn’t know what to think of Honey Chandlar when she first showed up, but I like her now.

    I think the protagonist of any mystery series has to be a survivor by nature!

  6. Our library is still doing curbside delivery of reserved books, so I am taking advantage of it since I still cannot go inside the library and reading Kerry Greenwood’s Corinna Chapman Mystery series. Corinna like Phryne Fisher is a survivor of a dysfunctional childhood and many stings and arrows come her way even now concerning her weight, yet she perseveres by being her own confident self. She is also good at solving mysteries with her soulmate, Daniel.

  7. What great picks! I’m going with Adam Dalgleish. He used his great tragedy to inform and benefit his professional decisions rather than letting it embitter him.

  8. Julie – YES!! Mrs. Pollifax. As I might mention frequently (and was giving Art Taylor a hard time about on Twitter yesterday), I’m a big Mrs. Pollifax fan. Finally read my first non-Mrs. Pollifax book from Dorothy Gilman this year and enjoyed it, too.

    I’m holding off on the Bosch TV shows until I catch up (or get closer to catching up) on the books. Of course, at the rate I’m moving through them, it will be years before I get there. I’m just afraid of twists getting spoiled. I’ve also never had Amazon Prime, but now that everything is on FreeVee, I don’t have that excuse. And I don’t have NetFlix, or I’d be watching The Lincoln Lawyer.

  9. My Mom is my favorite survivor. I am not sure who I would pick from a fictional character. There have been so many. Thank you for sharing. God bless you.

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