Both forms of detectives, traditional and hard-boiled are somewhat lateral thinkers in the way they see beyond the square and interpret clues but the key differences are that hard-boiled detectives can be seen as sharing certain traits with criminals; "(hard-boiled detectives) have a penchant for violence, are alienated from society and reject conventional values" (6) As violence is more pronounced by hard-boiled detectives, this is the key difference that separates them from classical detectives
Although there are other key distinctions: they are tough and cynical, deliberately do not disclose any family background and some are misogynists which is why women are often portrayed as villains in hard-boiled detective novels. This prompted Paretsky's creation of her character V.I. Warshawski, "I wanted to read about a woman who could solve her own problems" (7), whom she has used as a mould of her own feminist aspirations because she felt that women were depicted in an unfair manner in detective fiction. Readers are aware of Vic's feminism partly through her own revelations of her life through the first person narrative.
Firstly V.I. is half Italian and half Polish, although this is not entirely a "break" within what would be considered as the typical detective, Christie's Poirot was Belgian, it is nevertheless a recurring trait that was not initially as common as the typical English detective like Dr. Sherlock Holmes.
Secondly, she is a woman. Although women detectives have been around for a while, they are often associated with a much older, unattractive woman like Miss Marple, (8) but V.I. Warshawski is young, appealing, attractive and is tough too. "I remembered you were tough and funny, Vic, but I"d forgotton how attractive you are" (9) Here, Ferrant points to the crux of the argument that she partly conforms to a hard boiled detective, and is furthermore demonstrated when he says "are they as hard-boiled as you?" (10), yet she is appealing in appearance and that differentiates her from the mainstream detective.