Them's who like Nevada Barr's books may also like those of Laurie R. King:

www.laurierking.com

The Kate Martinelli series features a contemporary female cop in San Francisco. "A Grave Talent" is the first book in the series. The Mary Russell series features a younger, Jewish, California-born, Oxford scholar sweetheart and then wife of ---Sherlock Holmes! Sounds dorky but it works. Each series is a hoot. King is a scholar/geek as well as a fantastic mytery/suspense craftsman (craftsperson?) so the books are quite unusual.