Favorite book: Tunnel Vision
Favorite PI: Sue Grafton (she's just the most fun)
Not sure about the other two questions right now. I'll get back to you.

I love V.I. Sometimes the things she does make me cringe, and that's what makes her character so real.

I should have said my favorite female PI is Kinsey Milhone (Sue Grafton's creation), but I am also fond of V.I. Warshawski. In addition to being a daredevil PI she really stands up for the social issues she believes in. Probably both V.I. and Sharon McCone are more realistic characters than Kinsey, but Kinsey is both more fun and funnier.

I really did enjoy the movie and thought it was really helpful to help you switch your frame of reference from reading mysteries purely for escape to thinking of them as a "literary" genre. We watched the movie twice (at the first and after we read the second book) and it is helpful to view it both before and after you read.

I'm still not sure about the titles chosen since I haven't read all the books written by all 3 authors. F is for Fugitive is not my favorite of Grafton's but it matches very well with "The Shape of Dread" because both feature an unjustly convicted person. The first two tie into Tunnel Vision because all of Paretsky's books discuss many social issues including the injustice that sometimes occurs in the justice system. So I think the three books work well together.

The midyear meeting of the American Library Association takes place in Denver this year, from January 23-28. (It overlaps with the stock show, which I find amusing.) One of their special events is a panel discussion entitled Women of Mystery: The art of revealing "who did it?" with bestselling female authors." You can learn more about it at http://www.ala.org/ala/conferencesevents/upcoming/midwinter/2009/specialevents.cfm