I have no problem with enjoying them, but I really desperately want a detective story with two blazingly awesome female leads.
And the thing is, I feel like this: "Female, queer, non-neurotypical--pick one."
Give me a synopsis and I'll get started.
Two lesbian detectives must learn to work together despite favouring completely different methods in an alternate history Regency-era London where women are provisionally being allowed to be detectives due to a bet that the Prime Minister lost.
{A} is a well-read lady who is firmly progressive (by the standards of the time, and the alternate history), but comes off as being stodgy and a general stick-in-the-mud. Despite this, she has taught herself gunplay and trick-shooting from a woman from the American South who was touring London with her trick-shooting family -- and the two of them also fell in love.
{B} is a former factory working woman who is addicted to serials, mysteries, and puzzle solving. As it happens, she managed to catch the serial killer who was antagonizing her coworkers, and was given an honorary rank of detective for her brilliant solution to it ... two days before the Prime Minister said that women were allowed to do that sort of them, and retroactively made her not only part of the police, but an actual detective. Sometimes she feels out of her depth, and she is definitely a fish out of water in the police force, but flashes of brilliance are her thing and she is a definite case breaker. She is also a knife when it comes to witty banter, and she's not above crude humor.
The two women are forced to work together when the chief throws his hands up in the air and declares that the only thing he can think of that will temper these two "roguish detectives" is to make them work as a team. Little does he know that he has inadvertently created even more headaches for himself ...
Points of conflict:
- {A} and {B} butt heads all the time. {A} is highly trained and intelligent but "by the book", and {B} is intelligent and a puzzle genius but doesn't care at all about procedure.
- {A} already has a lover she's devoted to, {B} is inexperienced romantically and often gets crushes that she's been conditioned to avoid. And {B} often crushes on women who she knows she doesn't want to pursue relationships with due to the awkwardness. Like, for instance, {A}.
- Legally, they have full rights to be detectives. Culturally, they will run up against problems in this area. especially when they butt up against social norms.
- {B} is especially unliked by her fellow police officers because they can at least respect {A}'s dedication to earn her place (though many of them aren't fond of {A} either...). {B} was promoted in a display of politics.
- {A}'s relationship with the girl from America is not all sunshine and roses as that girl shares a number of traits with {B}, plus general culture shock.
This concept just needs a mystery...
Edit: The only reason I didn't include a non-neurotypical element into the mix is because I am not well versed enough in the subject to feel confident that I am not playing with completely inaccurate portrayals in the scenario. Anyone can feel free to add those elements to the mix.
Edit 2: I just want to make sure to put a giant
FEEL FREE TO USE THIS IDEA, BE FREE stamp here. Just so that there are no copyright confusions or anything in the future.