Kinsey Millhone -- thrillingdetective.com/millhone.html
Private eye KINSEY MILLHONE is probably the most popular, and certainly the best of the female gumshoes to make their big splash in the eighties -- or at least one of the top two (a case could certainly be made for Sara Paretsky's V.I. Warshawski).
first book in series: A is for Alibi (1982)

V.I. Warshawski - thrillingdetective.com/warshawski
Along with Kinsey Millhone, with whom she will probably always be linked, V.I. WARSHAWSKI is one of best known of the new lady dicks, a Chicago private eye specializing in corporate skullduggery. I just read free found copy of KillingOrders (3rd bk, 1985).
first book in series: Indemnity Only (1982)

P AUTHORS: V. I. Warshawski is one of the best developed characters in the history of the genre. More hard-boiled than Grafton’s Millhone, Warshawski is a major contribution to the genre. ok yeah more hard-boiled I guess: more urbane. her nice suits & italian shoes.
and V.I. cooks and wants to buy her own house (gets enough money to buy a co-op at the end of the one I read), whereas Kinsey does not cook or dress up and seems happy renting the garage from her 80yrld landlord and friend. so I identify a lot more with Kinsey. anyway she is probably more likeable, the books are a bit lighter more easygoing. sunshine california...
G AUTHORS: Kinsey Millhone’s alphabetical adventures is a great series from a great lady.

The Whole Wired Word: Colette's List 7: King, Grafton [L is for Lawless, 1995], Paretsky [Tunnel Vision, 1994]y:
[Grafton's] plots, long modeled on Ross MacDonald's family dramas ah neat. I'll look into MacDonald. and, I suppose this is another aspect that makes Grafton more appealing to me than Paretsky who it seems tends to deal with corporate crime.

CRIME/MYSTERY; Miss Marple They Ain't - October 8, 1995 New York Times:
In January 1982, Sara Paretsky's 'Indemnity Only' was published, introducing V. I. Warshawki, the Chicago-based private investigator (white-collar crime a specialty) who has been known to whistle Mozart while cleaning her Smith & Wesson.
Just three months later came ' 'A' Is for Alibi,' the debut of Kinsey Millhone, Sue Grafton's equally unflappable gumshoe, ferreting out insurance frauds over in Santa Teresa (read Santa Barbara), Calif.
Kinsey, a funky former police officer and a laid-back loner, proved irresistible from the get-go, a wild yet vulnerable charmer. Unfortunately, Ms. Grafton's fledgling plots were rarely as fresh as Kinsey's narration.
The early V. I., on the other hand, was more politically correct than engagingly complex, and her untangling of corporate and municipal corruption schemes often seemed labored.