Female Detectives in UK fiction 1850-1900
A Selective Bibliography
This is a very partial and idiosyncratic bibliography, stemming from my MA thesis on Victorian female detectives, research for the anthology Twelve Women Detective Stories and discussions on email lists. All suggestions for additions welcome!
Useful links to further information about fictional female detectives are at the bottom of this page.
The picture above is from Punch's Almanack for 1853
Wilkie Collins: "The Biter Bit "(in The Queen of Hearts) (1859)
Detective: Mrs Yatman (Amateur)
Profession: Shopkeeper
Motive: To draw attention away from own guilt
Wilkie Collins: "The Diary of Anne Rodway" (in The Queen of Hearts) (1859)
Detective: Anne Rodway (amateur)
Profession: Seamstress
Motive: To bring the killer of a (female) friend to justice
Wilkie Collins: The Woman in White (1860)
Detective: Marian Halcombe (Amateur)
Profession: none
Motive: To solve mystery involving her family and friends
Mary Elizabeth Braddon: Eleanor's Victory (1863)
Detective: Eleanor Vane
Profession:
Motive: To avenge her father's death
Anonyma (attrib. W.S. Hayward) : Revelations of a Lady Detective (c1864)
Detective: Mrs Paschal (professional)
Andrew Forester Junior: The Female Detective (1864)
Detective: 'G' (professional)
Wilkie Collins: No Name (186?)
Detective: Magdalen Vanstone (Amateur)
Profession: actress (briefly! )
Motive: To solve mystery involving her family and friends
Mrs Henry Wood: The Master of Greylands (1873)
Detective: Madame Charlotte Guise
Profession: Governess
Motive: To investigate her husband's disappearance
Anthony Trollope: Phineas Redux (1874)
Detective: Madame Max Goesler (Amateur)
Profession: Runs a financial business
Motive: To save the man she loves from being convicted of murder
Wilkie Collins: The Law and the Lady (1875)
Detective: Valeria Woodville (Amateur)
Profession: none
Motive: To clear her husband's name
Wilkie Collins: I Say No (1885)
Detective: Emily Brown
Profession: none
Motive: To solve mystery of her father's death
George R Sims: "The Mysterious Crossing-Sweeper" in Dramas of Life (1890)
Detective: Mrs Janet Cox (Professional)
Grant Allen: What's Bred in the Bone (1891)
Detective: Elma Clifford
Profession: none
Motive: To solve mystery involving her family and friends
Grant Allen: Recalled to Life (1891)
Detective: Una Callingham (Amateur)
Profession: none
Motive: To find her father's murderer
Fergus Hume: “The Greenstone God and the Stockbroker.” The Idler 4 (1893-4): 563-580.
Detective: Clara Ford (Amateur)
Profession: Hospital Nurse
Motive: To clear her fiance who has been framed for murder(Many thanks to Ryan Vernon for providing the information about this story)
Catherine Louisa Pirkis: The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective (1894)
Detective: Loveday Brooke (Professional)
Mrs George Corbett: When the Sea Gives Up Its Dead (1894)
Detective: Annie Cory
Profession: none
Motive: To prove her fiancé's innocence
Carlton Strange: The Beech Court Mystery (1894)
Detective: Jessie Thorold, alias 'Squirrel' (Amateur)
Profession: Poacher
Milton Danvers: The Fatal Finger Mark, Rose Courtenay's First Case (1895)
Detective: Rose Courtenay (Professional)
Headon Hill: By a Hair's Breadth (1897)
Detective: Laura Metcalf (Amateur)
Profession: none
Motive: Gets involved by accident
George R Sims: Dorcas Dene, Detective (1897-1898)
Detective: Dorcas Dene (Professional)
Fergus Hume: Hagar of the Pawn-Shop (1898)
Detective: Hagar Stanley (Amateur)
Profession: Pawnbroker
Motive: Various motives stemming from customers' problems
Clarence Rook: "The Stir Outside the Café Royal" in Harmsworth's Magazine (1898)
Detective: Miss Nora Van Snoop
Profession:
Motive: To bring her fiancé's murderer to justice
L.T. Meade and Robert Eustace: The Brotherhood of the Seven Kings
Detective: Anna Beringer (professional - appears in the final two chapters)
Grant Allen: Miss Cayley's Adventures in the Strand Magazine (1898-1899)
Detective: Lois Cayley
Profession: Various, including lady's maid, bicycle saleswoman, journalist and proprietor of a typing bureau
Motive: Usually gets involved by accident. In her last case, she works to save her fiancé from being convicted of forgery
L.T. Meade and Robert Eustace: 'Florence Cusack' stories in Harmsworth's Magazine (1899-1900)
Detective: Florence Cusack (Professional)
Grant Allen: Hilda Wade in the Strand Magazine (1899-1900)
Detective: Hilda Wade (Amateur)
Profession: Nurse
Motive: To clear her father's name
McDonell Bodkin: Dora Myrl, the Lady Detective (1900)
Detective: Dora Myrl (Professional)
Last updated 21 June 2000
Twelve Women Detective Stories - an anthology of mainly 19C stories, some of which are unobtainable elsewhere
Jess Nevins' Victorian Crime and Mystery page
femaledetective.com - 20C female detectives
e-texts:
CL Pirkis: "The Ghost of Fountain Lane"
Clarence Rook: "The Stir Outside the Cafe Royal"
Wilkie Collins: "The Diary of Anne Rodway"
Wilkie Collins: The Woman in White
LT Meade and Robert Eustace: "Mr Bovey's Unexpected Will"
Baroness Orczy: Lady Molly of Scotland Yard
Articles:
The Female Sherlock: 'Lady Detectives' in Victorian and Edwardian Fiction
Loveday Brooke - The
Lady Detective as Career Woman
Slums, Sleuths and
Anarchists: Gender Issues in the Work of George R Sims
Grant Allen's Female
Detectives
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