I quit because I was good, and when you’re good and a girl at something, you should be suspicious.’
‘Of what?’
‘Of what part of yourself you didn’t know you were selling.

women at the top.

Not for the first time she reflected that there were many drawbacks to being a swordswoman, not least of which was that men didn't take you seriously until you'd actually killed them, by which time it didn't really matter anyway.

We must pay attention to gender, but it is difficult to pay attention to gender all by itself…It emerges differently in women’s lives because it hooks onto other markers such as race, class, sexual orientation and age.

So you’re positive the killer is a man.”
“Yes, I think my gender can take responsibility for this one. Women don’t cut out other women’s hearts.”
“We can.

It was her pleasure, her joy, to make me still the master in all things.