The Victorian and Edwardian eras watched the appearance of a number of female literary detectives, both in Britain and America, acting as "the female rivals" of Sherlock Holmes.
There was something of a false start in the 1860s (in The Female Detective by Forrester, and other books), after which the real wave of "lady detectives," as they were called, came
rolling on from the mid-1890s until WWI (my last example below from the
1920s is a latecomer).
This was of course an off-shoot of the general interest in mystery and detective stories (following in the wake of the highly popular sensation novel as practiced by Collins and Braddon) and made possible by a huge proliferation of magazines eager to publish short stories - and at the same time an expansion of literacy by general education.
Leaving aside the false dawn of the 1860s (a period which was still solidly Victorian, with no opportunities given to women to work independently), we see that in the 1890s society was slowly changing. Where in mid-Victorian times women had been solely keepers of the domestic sphere (with only the possibility to step out of that when pursuing charitable causes), now among women themselves a demand was coming up for equality with men, something symbolized in the actions of suffragists who fought for the right to vote.
This led to the concept of the “New Woman,” or in other words, women who were well-educated, who enjoyed economic independence (employment), and who demanded physical freedom (including “rational clothes” and
bicycle riding). In those aspects, the New Woman was very close to the type of the female detective.
All the same, in late-Victorian and Edwardian times the female detective was still not more than pure fiction. London's police department had been founded in 1829 and the first two women were only employed in 1888, to assist in managing female prisoners. But London did not have female police
officers until a 1916 Act of Parliament
specifically allowed for it. Female policewomen had to be between twenty-five
and thirty-five years of age and single. They
were asked to leave the force as soon as they married. And the first female detective
position was only created in 1922. This all serves to demonstrate how "fictional" the below stories about female detectives unfortunately were...
So how was it possible that such fictional female detectives were at all accepted by readers? This may be because of the characteristics of the genre of detective stories: it was a new profession, both in reality and in fiction, and the only quality that counted for a detective was to have outstanding problem-solving
abilities.
Woman detectives brought a few extra qualities as well. One was that they could enter spaces forbidden to men: they could pose as governesses, household helps, etc., and enter into the very bosom of families where a mystery had to be solved. The second was a “woman’s intuition,” a faculty enabling them to make sharp judgements about others based on
little information. Intuition is of course not typical for women - also Sherlock Holmes uses a lot of it - but the writers tell us it was perhaps more acutely developed in their "lady detectives." And finally another feature of the lady detective is her
meddlesomeness, an inclination to nosiness and toward knowing all there is to know about
the lives of others (this is very strong in Miss Gladden, and in Judith Lee, see below). In fact, the
inability to mind one’s own business would become a particular trait of detectives of the
future.
One regrettable aspect of these stories is that the writers were, unlike their protagonists, mostly men (there are only three woman writers among the nine listed below). Some of them perhaps felt they had to bow to Victorian convention by explaining how their woman characters ended up doing such work - usually it was because of outside forces beyond their control. And by the end of the series, not a few women are sent back to their domestic sphere by their creator, showing that even in fiction the female rivals of Sherlock Holmes were the exception rather than the rule.
showing the detective and her employer]
1. Miss Gladden ("G"), "The Female Detective," by Andrew Forrester (1864)
This book can claim to be the beginning of the tradition in the crime literature of the female detective: Miss Gladden (or “G”) is the first female professional detective to appear in fiction. She is a somewhat mysterious figure, even her name is not revealed ("Miss Gladden" is supposed to be an assumed name) and we learn little about her. "G" is not directly employed by the police, but is a sort of inquiry agent who works independently but on behalf of the authorities. "G" may also initiate her own inquiries (as she does in "Tenant for Life" with rather disastrous results). She usually works undercover and only introduces herself as a detective when the need arises or when her investigations have come to a close. Her strong point is that she can get into places where men cannot, as she as a woman is not seen as a threat, for example by posing as a milliner.
It is interesting to note how far these stories are ahead of their times: in 1864 when they were published, there were no women detectives in Britain (and no women police officers either) - and there would not be any for another 50 years. No wonder that Miss Gladden operated undercover!
By the way, only months after The Female Detective saw the light, a similar story collection called Revelations of a Lady Detective (attributed to William Stephens Hayward) appeared, which featured the debut of Mrs. Paschal, a detective of “vigorous and
subtle” brain who works for an all-women branch of the police
department, both unfortunately this was a false dawn. The next female detective in Britain would only appear 30 years later, in the form of The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective by Catherine L. Piskis in 1894.
The Author:
James Redding Ware (1832-c. 1909, pseudonym Andrew Forrester) was a much-published writer and editor, who turned his hand to all kinds of subjects, but remained in obscurity - even the year of his death is not certain. Ware published two more collections of detective stories.
The Stories:
The Female Detective (1864) has been republished in 2016 by The British Library (although out of copyright, this rare book cannot be found online). In the longer stories, such as "Tenant for Life" and "The Unknown Weapon", Ware developed a strong, three-dimensional character, with ingenious skills of deduction. Although written by a man, the stories depict a strong woman's outlook. But on the negative side, out of the seven stories in this book (actually two novellas of about 100 pages each and five short stories), there are only four in which the "female detective" plies her craft. Moreover, several of the stories have no plot but are more like essays on the duties and techniques of the detective. This book is mainly interesting for its historical significance, and for explicitly acknowledging the private spaces to which a woman would have access that a man would not.
The seven stories are: "The Tenant for Life," "Georgy," "The Unraveled Mystery," "The Judgement of Conscience," "A Child Found dead," "The Unknown Weapon," and "The Mystery."
There is no origin story, but a short introduction presenting Miss Gladden. Besides that, I recommend the two longer stories mentioned above (especially "The Unknown Weapon" is quite good). The language is a bit stiff and stilted, but "G" certainly is a self-assured and realistic detective.
2. Loveday Brooke, "The Lady Detective," by Catherine Louisa Pirkis (1894)
Appearing exactly 30 years after Miss G, Britain's second female detective Loveday Brooke was created by a woman, Catherine Louisa Pirkis. The book stands halfway between the casebook stories from the 1860s (as in The Female Detective) and the mystery plots of Conan Doyle, who started writing his Sherlockian stories in 1891. The sharply observant and remarkably self-reliant Loveday Brooke is the star employee of a detective agency. She is not a bored member of the upper classes, but a working girl, an intelligent and independent woman who works as professional detective for Ebenezer Dyer, the head of a detective agency in Lynch Court (off Fleet Street). Finding herself thrown upon the world penniless, with no means of support, the thirtyish Loveday Brooke turns to detective work where her common sense and knack for disguise come in handy.
She is frequently sent undercover into households, for example as a governess, a servant or an interior decorator. The interplay with her employer Mr Dyer is very modern. She does so well in her new profession, that she can afford her own chambers and hire a maid. All of the Loveday stories show a feminist point of view.
The Author:
C.L. Pirkis (born Catherine Louisa Lyne, 1839-1910) - who often used only initials to hide her gender as in Victorian England women writers were not socially accepted - wrote 14 novels in the mystery genre and also contributed to major magazines. The female detective Loveday Brooke was her most popular character, in 1893 appearing in seven magazine stories, and the next year brought out in book form. Contemporary critics dubbed Loveday Brooks "the female Sherlock Holmes" (she was also called "a character who continues to outshine the detective Sherlock Holmes in preternatural prescience") and Piskis's collection of stories became one of the bestselling Sherlockian rivals. Later in life, Pirkis and her husband became known as champions for animal rights. Unfortunately these new endeavors also meant that Pirkis only wrote one set of stories about Loveday Brooke.
The Stories:
The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective (1894) contains seven short stories. The stories predate the fair play conventions of later mystery fiction (and sometimes the solution arrives rather "out of the blue"), but the deductions are always logical and reasonable. The plots are captivating and, different from The Female Detective of 30 years before, are still interesting of their own accord.
The seven stories are: "The Black Bag Left on a Door-Step," "The Murder at Troyte's Hill," "The Redhill Sisterhood," "A Princess's Vengeance," "Drawn Daggers," "The Ghost of Fountain Lane" and "Missing!"
My favorites among these seven stories are "The Redhill Sisterhood" and "Drawn Daggers." But as they are short and snappy, why not read them all?
Dorcas Dene was a beginning actress strong in using various impersonations, but she left the stage when she married the young and promising artist Paul Dene. Then Paul had an illness and became blind, so Dorcas Dene again had to look out for an occupation to make both ends meet. As chance would have it, next door lived a retired superintendent of police, who conducted a high-class inquiry business, and Dorcas started working for him as a lady detective. He told her: "You have plenty of shrewd common sense, you are a keen observer, and you have been an actress."
Dorcas stipulates that she will give up if she finds out that the job "involves any sacrifice of her womanly instincts," but as her first case involves the tracking down of a man who has abandoned wife and children, her scruples are overcome.
Dorcas is an attractive woman, with soft grey eyes, who is a master of disguise. The earliest tales occasionally become sentimental (much is made of poor Paul’s blindness), but this element is fortunately reduced as
the stories progress and the husband is moved offstage. That being said, the family atmosphere of a suburban home complete with pet bulldog reoccurs in most stories.
Dorcas shows outstanding detective skills and relies on leg work and professionalism. She always uses real detection to solve her cases, never guess work or coincidence. She impresses the reader as a highly intelligent, gifted woman excelling in her profession. She therefore enjoys the respect of Scotland
Yard.
The Author:
George R. Sims (1847-1922) was an English journalist, poet, dramatist and novelist. Sims started out as a satirist, but soon concentrated on social reform. He was an avid sportsman and had a large circle of artistic friends. Sims was interested in the psychology of crime, and he penned some ingenious detective stories. Sims liked to discuss actual criminal cases with Max Pemberton and Arthur Conan Doyle, such as the murders of Jack the Ripper.
The Stories:
Dorcas Dene was featured in two case books, Dorcas Dene, Detective, First Series (1897) and Second Series (1898), written in a somewhat Holmesian vein. A modern Kindle edition containing all Dorcas Dene stories is available. The mysteries are well plotted and logically presented - they are also
often quite inventive and hold up very well to other stories about the rivals of Sherlock Holmes. It is again a step ahead compared to the stories about Loveday Brooke.
The stories are: First Series (1897): "The Council of Four," "The Helsham Mystery," "The Man with the Wild Eyes," "The Secret of the Lake," "The Diamond Lizarx," "The Prick of a Pin," "The Mysterious Millionaire," "The Empty House," "The Clothes in the Cupboard," "The Haverstock Hill Murder," "The Brown Bear Lamp." Second Series: "The Missing Prince," "The Morganatic Wife," "The House in Regent's Park," "The Co-Respondent," "The Handkerchief Sachet," "A Bank Holiday Mystery," "A Piece of Brown paper," "Presented to the Queen" and "The One Who Knew." Note usually 2 titles make up one story, so the first series consists in fact of 5 stories; the second series consists of 4 stories (the first 3 titles belong together).
The "origin story" "The Council of Four" is disappointing, as Dorcas Dene is shown in strict Victorian style as subservient to the intellect of her husband. Happily, this pretense is discarded in most of the other stories, where Dorcas Dene is the major intellect and "boss" who orders her male assistant around. Some of my favorite stories are "The Man With the Wild Eyes," "The Diamond Lizard" and "The
Mysterious Millionaire" - but all stories are fun to read - with the provision that the stories in the first series are generally better than those in the second series.
4. Dora Myrl, the "Lady Detective," by Matthias McDonnell Bodkin (1900-1911)
Dora Myrl is the well-educated daughter of a (now deceased) Cambridge don. She has a degree in medicine, but unable to find work as a physician, she works in odd jobs from telephone girl to journalist. In other words, despite her impressive qualifications, there was a sad lack of opportunities for
her to use them in the society of her day. Fortunately, she realizes her gift for detection while
working as a companion to an elderly woman who was being blackmailed (in the first story, "The False Heir and the True"). After that, she established herself as a professional private detective, mostly catering to high society. Her practice soon became quite lucrative.
When she first appears, Dora Myrl is described as follows: "...the face of a bright schoolgirl out for a holiday, brimming over with excitement. An audacious toque, with a brace of scarlet feathers stuck in it, was perched among thick coiled hair that had the ripple and lustre of a brown trout stream in the sunshine. The short skirt of her tailor-made dress twitched by the light wind showed slim ankles and neat feet encased in tan cycling boots..."
Dora Myrl is vivacious and good at tennis and billiards; observant, adept at disguises, and intuitive. In short, she the prototype of the "New Woman," something symbolized by the fact that she always moves around on her bicycle (even using it to race after criminals!). She is capable of wielding a revolver and can decipher codes. She treats her early cases as a game in which she pits her wits, sometimes flirtatiously, against the villains.
The Author:
Matthias McDonnell Bodkin (1850-1933) was an Irish politician and MP, a barrister who was appointed a judge - but also a noted author, journalist and newspaper editor. He wrote in a wide range of genres, including novels, plays, history and political texts. Bodkin earned a place in the history of the detective novel by his invention of the first detective family. His character Paul Beck was an Irish Sherlock Holmes with a very original yet logical method for detecting crime. Beck first appeared in Paul Beck, the Rule of Thumb Detective in 1899. In the following year Bodkin's creation Dora Myrl, the Lady Detective, appeared. In The Capture of Paul Beck (1909), Bodkin had them marry each other and in 1911 their son comes on stage, in Paul Beck, a Chip Off the Old Block. Other titles in this series were The Quests of Paul Beck (1908), Pigeon Blood Rubies (1915) and Paul Beck, Detective (1929).
The Stories:
Dora Myrl, The Lady Detective (1890) contains 12 stories. A modern Kindle edition containing all Dora Myrl stories is available.
The stories are: "The False Heir and the True," "The Hidden Violin," "How He Cut His Stick," "The Palmist," "The Last Shall Be First," "Clue," "A Railway Race," "The Pauper's Legacy," "Was it a Forgery?," "Hide and Seek," "Weighed and Found Wanting" and "The Wings of a Bird."
My favorite story is "How He Cut His Stick," in which Myrl sprints after the villain on her bicycle. I also liked, for example, "The Hidden Violin," "Clue" and The Pauper's Legacy." All stories are vivid and concise.
5. Lady Molly, "Of Scotland Yard," by Emma Orczy (1910)
Lady Molly is the aristocratic daughter of the Earl of Flintshire and a French actress "from whom she inherited all her beauty and none of her faults." She is at ease in high society, but can also disguise herself as a maid when necessary.
"Some say she is the daughter of a duke, others that she was born
in the gutter, and that the handle has been soldered on to her name in
order to give her style and influence... We always called her "my lady"
from the moment that she was put at the head of our section; and the
chief called her "Lady Molly" in our presence."
Her greatest qualifications are her feminine tact and her woman's special knowledge, such as of the servant class, of fashion, and of the psychology of other women. But she is in the first place valued for her sharp feminine intuition.
"We of the female department are dreadfully snubbed by the men, though
don't tell me that women have not ten times as much intuition as the
blundering and sterner sex; my firm belief is that we shouldn't have
half so many undetected crimes if some of the so-called mysteries were
put to the test of feminine investigation."
Lady Molly has an assistant called Mary Granard who acts as narrator. The book soon became very popular, with three editions appearing in the first year. Orczy's police officer preceded her real life female counterparts by a decade. Lady Molly, like her fictional contemporaries as for example Loveday Brooke, succeeded
in her job because she recognized domestic clues foreign to male experience.
Lady Molly's backstory is told in the last two, rather sentimental tales of the collection and it is rather a downer: her entry into the police is motivated by a desire to save her secret husband from a
false accusation - unfortunately, not because she wants to challenge male dominance in the police force by doing an important job... Emma Orczy was very conservative politically and certainly not a feminist. Once her superior intuition has triumphed, Lady Molly marries and leaves the force.
The Author:
See Emma Orczy's profile in my article The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes.
The Stories:
Lady Molly of Scotland Yard (1910) contains all twelve Lady Molly adventures.
The stories: "THE NINESCORE MYSTERY," "THE FREWIN MINIATURES," "THE IRISH-TWEED COAT," "THE FORDWYCH CASTLE MYSTERY," "A DAY'S FOLLY," "A CASTLE IN BRITTANY," "A CHRISTMAS TRAGEDY," "THE BAG OF SAND," "THE MAN IN THE INVERNESS CAPE," "THE WOMAN IN THE BIG HAT," "SIR JEREMIAH'S WILL" and "THE END."
"The Woman in the Big Hat" was adapted for the TV series "The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes." - it is indeed the best story. Generally, the Lady Molly stories are weaker than Orczy's other detective stories about The Old Man in the Corner. The background stories employed by her are also often hackneyed Victorian "family-secret" plots. The last two stories about Lady Molly's secret marriage and vindication of her husband are saccharine.
6. Judith Lee, "The Lip-Reading Detective," by Richard Marsh (1911-1916)
Richard Marsh's creation Judith Lee is very original: a young teacher of deaf pupils whose lip-reading ability involves her with mysteries that she solves by acting as a detective. She is a busybody who lip-reads the conversations of others across crowds and in restaurants etc. and comes in action when she spots any suspicious behavior. Her fiery sense of justice makes her take action against evildoers, almost against her will. It is also a skill which embroils her in trouble (also because she not always acts wise, as in "The Restaurant Napolitain" when she faces the criminal alone rather unwisely informing him she knows he has murdered someone).
In the origin story "The Man Who Cut Off My Hair", Judith narrates her first case,
when as a 13-year old she is caught lip-reading a conversation between jewel thieves. The (male) criminals tie her up and, before
leaving her for dead in an empty house, cut off her hair to scare and
shame her. She manages to help catch them but is nonetheless
traumatized by the experience. Every subsequent story shows Judith getting stronger and
more tenacious - she even learns jujitsu! What distinguishes the Judith Lee stories from those about other female detectives is that the present heroine regularly is placed in physically threatening situations. But she can also be quite nasty and vindictive (something typical for the protagonists in Richard Marsh's fiction).
The stories are quite varied and increase in intensity as Judith finds herself in more perilous situations as the series progresses. From preventing a prospective marriage based on fraud, finding a "vanished" bride, or flouting a fraudulent fortuneteller, she thwarts a bombing, faces off with agents of the Mafia, and is trapped in a locked building forced to do battle with a murderous knife-wielding assailant...
The stories are of high quality with excellent plots (albeit chance plays a rather important role) - it is mystery why these mysteries have been completely forgotten!
The Author:
Richard Marsh (1857-1915) was the pseudonym of the English author born Richard Bernard Heldmann. A best-selling and prolific author of the late Victorian and Edwardian periods, Marsh is best known for his supernatural thriller The Beetle, a truly weird book, which was published in the same year as Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897), and which initially was even more popular (it is certainly stranger). Marsh produced nearly 80 volumes of fiction and numerous short stories, in genres including horror, crime, romance and humor.
The Stories:
The 22 Judith Lee stories were from 1911 on published in The Strand
Magazine and were first collected in book form in 1912.
Richard Marsh was still
writing Judith Lee stories when he passed away, and his widow issued a
second and final collection of still unpublished stories in 1916. The two collections are Judith Lee: Some Pages from Her Life (1912) and The Adventures of Judith Lee (1916). They have been published together by Black Coat Press as The Complete Adventures of Judith Lee.
Judith lee is an interesting character. I advise to start with "The Man Who Cut Off My Hair" which is a sort of origin story and quite good fun. I also enjoyed "Eavesdropping at Interlaken," (the young Judith Lee is accused of being a thief by all the other hotel guests, and has to face them alone), "Matched," and "Isolda." The second collection is less interesting. Note that between both collections another "origin story" is included which was found among Marsh's papers (and probably not meant for publication), which clashes with "The Man Who Cut Off My Hair."
7. Miss Madelyn Mack, the "Master Detective," by Hugh C. Weir (1914)
Madelyn Mack is a woman-about-town, mistress of style and master detective. After first working as house detective for the Niegel Dry Goods Store, where she successfully solved a big theft, she struck out on her own by establishing her detective agency on Fifth Avenue. She employed several staff members and does well enough to buy a country place shaped like a Swiss chalet north of New York City on the Hudson River. Sufficiently well-off, she later closes the agency and only works as a consulting detective.
Madelyn Mack is about twenty-five, with red and white cheeks, crowned by a softly waved mass
of dull gold hair, and a pair of vivacious grey-blue eyes "that at once
made one forget every other detail of her appearance.” She usually
dresses all in white or all in black. An interesting aspect is that she uses cola berries (which she carries in a locket around her neck) as a stimulant when she needs to go without sleep or food for
days when working on a case. Madelyn comes complete with her faithful Watson in the form of her friend and chronicler, the reporter Nora Noraker.
The Author:
Hugh Cosgro Weir (1884-1934) worked as a reporter in Illinois and in Ohio, before becoming a freelance magazine writer and then a screenwriter in the very early days of Hollywood. In fact, the Mack stories were based on two films based on his scripts which were made in 1913 and 1914. Later Weir went on running an advertising agency and being a magazine editor. Weir is rather obscure, even Wikipedia doesn't have his profile as of this writing.
Hugh Cosgro Weir (1884-1934) worked as a reporter in Illinois and in Ohio, before becoming a freelance magazine writer and then a screenwriter in the very early days of Hollywood. In fact, the Mack stories were based on two films based on his scripts which were made in 1913 and 1914. Later Weir went on running an advertising agency and being a magazine editor. Weir is rather obscure, even Wikipedia doesn't have his profile as of this writing.
The Stories:
The 5 stories have been collected in Miss Madelyn Mack, Detective, published in 1914. They are: “The Man with Nine Lives,” “The Missing Bridegroom,” “Cinderella’s Slipper,” “The Bullet from Nowhere,” “The Purple Thumb.”
8. Violet Strange, "The Girl Detective," by Anna Katherine Green (1915)
Anna
Katharine Green is credited as America's first female mystery novelist (with The Leavenworth Case, 1878),
establishing many of the conventions of the genre. "Girl Detective" Violet Strange appears in 1915, so quite late in her career, but she had already written 3 novels about female detective Amelia Butterworth in That Affair Next Door (1897), Lost Man's Lane (1898) and The Circular Study (1900) (not treated here because I only include short stories).
Violet Strange is a
wealthy debutante who secretly moonlights as a sleuth. Violet's detective work must be kept secret, especially from her father (her mother is deceased). She specializes in cases involving high society in which as a debutante she can move freely. In the first story, "The Golden Slipper," she attends a house party to safeguard a priceless jewel necklace - and discovers the culprit when the necklace is stolen from among four rich women. One wonders why considering her position she is at all interested in detective work (and why she is so good at it) - there is no origin story in which this is explained. But the police chief who hires her has to do a lot of effort to engage her interest, for only then will she take a case. She keeps far from distasteful cases. Violet drives around in a chauffeured limousine, and as she cannot travel alone to questionable places, she has to take her brother into her confidence and let him accompany her. In the final story she marries and her sleuthing days are over...
The Author:
Anna Katherine Green (1846-1935) was an American poet and novelist, who has the distinction of being one of the first writers of detective fiction in America. Green has been called "the mother of the detective novel" for her well-plotted and legally accurate stories. Green is credited with developing the series detective: her main character was detective Ebenezer Gryce of the New York Metropolitan Police Force, who appears first in The Leavenworth Case and then in 12 more novels. In three other novels he is assisted by the nosy society spinster Amelia Butterworth (who could be called the prototype for Agatha Christie's Miss Marple or Patricia Wentworth's Miss Silver). Green also invented the 'girl detective' in the character of Violet Strange, a debutante with a secret life as a sleuth. Green's plot devices were innovative and included dead bodies in libraries, newspaper clippings as "clews", the coroner's inquest, and expert witnesses. Yale Law School once used her books to demonstrate how damaging it can be to rely on circumstantial evidence. But as is also shown by the fact that she "safely" marries off her heroine, Green was a conservative who was opposed to women's suffrage and who certainly was not a feminist.
The Stories:
The stories: "THE GOLDEN SLIPPER," "THE SECOND BULLET, "AN INTANGIBLE CLUE," "THE GROTTO SPECTRE," "THE DREAMING LADY," "THE HOUSE OF CLOCKS," "THE DOCTOR, HIS WIFE, AND THE CLOCK," "MISSING: PAGE THIRTEEN, "VIOLET’S OWN."
"The Golden Slipper" is a sort of origin story. My favorite stories are "An Intangible Clue," "The Grotto Spectre," and "Missing: Page Thirteen."
9. Madame Storey, the "Practical Psychologist," by Hulbert Footner (1926-1936)
One of the last (and most interesting) Lady Detectives was Madame Storey who made her magazine debut in 1923 in Argosy All-Story Weekly, and went on to appear in numerous novellas, novels and collections for well over a decade. She is a fabulous looking woman, brilliant, fearless, intelligent, tall and graceful (her arms graced by long lizard gloves, in tune with the flapping 1920s), and "darkly beautiful in the insolent style that causes plainer women to prim up their lips."
This last description is by her plain, red-haired assistant Bella, who narrates her exploits in true Watson-like fashion (in the first story "The Ashcomb Poor Case" we learn how she came to be hired by Madame Storey). Although she prefixes "Madame" to her name, Rosika Storey is unmarried, because she has yet to meet a man bold enough to face her down - she is always mentally the strongest. This is a problem for Mr Barron, the assistant district attorney of New York, who brings several cases to her but is unable to make a dent in her armor. Madame Storey does have a fixed companion, a little monkey called Giannino.
Madame Storey works as a psychologist and private eye from her apartment in Manhattan, but her exploits take place not only in New York, but also in Paris, Monte Carlo and East Asia. Most of the stories are of the longer novella type, which makes them more interesting thanks to the larger scope; besides, Footner wrote a number of novels about his lady detective. I've only read a number of the stories, but found them quite original and refreshing.
Madame Storey works as a psychologist and private eye from her apartment in Manhattan, but her exploits take place not only in New York, but also in Paris, Monte Carlo and East Asia. Most of the stories are of the longer novella type, which makes them more interesting thanks to the larger scope; besides, Footner wrote a number of novels about his lady detective. I've only read a number of the stories, but found them quite original and refreshing.
The Author:
Hulbert Footner (1879-1944) was a Canadian writer of primarily detective fiction, who lived and worked mostly in New York. He also wrote plays and travel stories.
The Stories and Novels:
- Madame Storey (4 stories, 1926)
- The Under Dogs (novel, 1925)
- The Velvet Hand (4 stories, 1928)
- The Doctor Who Held Hands (novel, 1929)
- Easy to Kill (novel, 1931)
- The Casual Murderer (7 stories, 1932)
- The Almost Perfect Murder (5 stories, 1933)
- Dangerous Cargo (novel, 1934, also made into a film)
- The Kidnapping of Madame Storey (5 stories, 1936)
My suggestion is to start with the four stories in Madame Storey of 1926. These are: "The Ashcomb Poor Case," "The Scrap of Lace," "The Smoke Bandit" and "In the Round Room."
Also read my article "The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes"