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Twelve Women Detective Stories
Whether a housekeeper, secretary, lodger, or pawn-broker in a seedy area of Victorian London, the woman detective's powers of observation and deduction are also her most effective in uncovering and resolving both crimes and mysteries. Twelve Women Detective Stories is an entertaining
anthology that gives us a glimpse at these female sleuths in twelve engaging mysteries.
The woman detective is as prominent in stories written by men as in those by women. The detectives here may be young, educated and independent, or elderly and unmarried, illustrating the writers abilities to both use and subvert feminine stereotypes in fascinating ways. Included here are stories
by Fergus Hume, Robert Eustace, Baroness Orczy, and Agatha Christie, to name a few. There are also less well-known stories which keep the reader guessing right down to the last sentence.
Miss Marple, Carlotta Carlyle, Sharon McCone--the heroines of the detective novel are certainly some of the best loved and most memorable characters ever created. In Twelve Women Detective Stories , Laura Marcus presents some of the best ever written, in an absorbing tour of the world of crime,
detection, and retribution.
anthology that gives us a glimpse at these female sleuths in twelve engaging mysteries.
The woman detective is as prominent in stories written by men as in those by women. The detectives here may be young, educated and independent, or elderly and unmarried, illustrating the writers abilities to both use and subvert feminine stereotypes in fascinating ways. Included here are stories
by Fergus Hume, Robert Eustace, Baroness Orczy, and Agatha Christie, to name a few. There are also less well-known stories which keep the reader guessing right down to the last sentence.
Miss Marple, Carlotta Carlyle, Sharon McCone--the heroines of the detective novel are certainly some of the best loved and most memorable characters ever created. In Twelve Women Detective Stories , Laura Marcus presents some of the best ever written, in an absorbing tour of the world of crime,
detection, and retribution.
- GenresShort StoriesMystery
240 pages, Paperback
First published January 15, 1998
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 28, 2012
Twelve Women Detective Stories is an Oxford University Press paperback featuring twelve stories written between 1861 and 1950, all featuring women detectives.
Interestingly, most of the writers were male but lady detectives enjoyed quite a vogue in the late 19th and early 20th centuries (a vogue that continues to this day).
As with any anthology the quality is variable but most of the stories are pretty good.
The weakest entry is Gladys Mitchell’s A Light On Murder, a very dull lighthouse murder tale from 1950 (and the most recent story in this volume). But it’s really the only dud story here. Arthur B. Reeves’ The Clairvoyants is a failure but at least it’s an interesting failure, an attempt to combine a story of confidence tricksters with Freudian mumbo-jumbo. Stories involving fake spiritualists usually appeal to me but this one seems rushed and the ending is too pat.
Anna Katharine Green's An Intangible Clue is also a little on the dull side besides being a trifle silly.
That’s the bad news. The good news is that the other nine stories are pretty good.
There are some well-known writers here and some obscure ones, although many of the latter were quite well-known in their day. Baroness Orczy is among those who remain justly famous and her contribution is a Lady Molly of Scotland Yard story, and a very good one - The Man in the Inverness Cape.
Fergus Hume is remembered today mostly for his novel The Mystery of a Hansom Cab. His contribution is one of his tales of the gypsy detective Hagar, certainly one of the most unusual and quirky detectives featured here.
The earliest story in the collection is the anonymously authored The Mysterious Countess from a collection called The Revelations of a Lady Detective. Written in 1861 it is not just the first appearance of a female detective but dates from the earliest years of the detective story when the genre was only just beginning to take its modern shape. The heroine, Mrs Paschal, goes undercover. A mastery of disguise was of course a vital necessity to any nineteenth century fictional sleuth.
These are not all murder stories. Catherine Louisa Pirkis’s Drawn Daggers (despite its lurid title) is not a tale of murder but it still presents a challenge to Miss Brooke which she solves with her customary skill.
Hugh C. Weir’s The Man with Nine Lives tells of an unfortunate man who has survived no less than eight attempts on his life but the famous detective Madelyn Mack with discover that all is not as it seems. For my money this is one of the strongest entries in the anthology.
Even better is F. Tennyson Jesse’s Lot’s Wife, a very dark and twisted tale.
Grant Allen’s The Cantakerous Old Lady strikes a lighter note and is entertaining and rather charming.
Henry Cecil’s On Principle rounds off the anthology with a cynical but amusing twist and provides a suitable end point since it feels far more modern than any of the other stories.
These stories mostly date from a time when female fictional detectives were expected to be both ladylike and feisty. They rely mostly on their wits although at least one of the Victorian lady detectives has cause to regret that she lefty her trusty Colt revolver at home.
On the whole quite a strong anthology and certainly worth picking up.
Interestingly, most of the writers were male but lady detectives enjoyed quite a vogue in the late 19th and early 20th centuries (a vogue that continues to this day).
As with any anthology the quality is variable but most of the stories are pretty good.
The weakest entry is Gladys Mitchell’s A Light On Murder, a very dull lighthouse murder tale from 1950 (and the most recent story in this volume). But it’s really the only dud story here. Arthur B. Reeves’ The Clairvoyants is a failure but at least it’s an interesting failure, an attempt to combine a story of confidence tricksters with Freudian mumbo-jumbo. Stories involving fake spiritualists usually appeal to me but this one seems rushed and the ending is too pat.
Anna Katharine Green's An Intangible Clue is also a little on the dull side besides being a trifle silly.
That’s the bad news. The good news is that the other nine stories are pretty good.
There are some well-known writers here and some obscure ones, although many of the latter were quite well-known in their day. Baroness Orczy is among those who remain justly famous and her contribution is a Lady Molly of Scotland Yard story, and a very good one - The Man in the Inverness Cape.
Fergus Hume is remembered today mostly for his novel The Mystery of a Hansom Cab. His contribution is one of his tales of the gypsy detective Hagar, certainly one of the most unusual and quirky detectives featured here.
The earliest story in the collection is the anonymously authored The Mysterious Countess from a collection called The Revelations of a Lady Detective. Written in 1861 it is not just the first appearance of a female detective but dates from the earliest years of the detective story when the genre was only just beginning to take its modern shape. The heroine, Mrs Paschal, goes undercover. A mastery of disguise was of course a vital necessity to any nineteenth century fictional sleuth.
These are not all murder stories. Catherine Louisa Pirkis’s Drawn Daggers (despite its lurid title) is not a tale of murder but it still presents a challenge to Miss Brooke which she solves with her customary skill.
Hugh C. Weir’s The Man with Nine Lives tells of an unfortunate man who has survived no less than eight attempts on his life but the famous detective Madelyn Mack with discover that all is not as it seems. For my money this is one of the strongest entries in the anthology.
Even better is F. Tennyson Jesse’s Lot’s Wife, a very dark and twisted tale.
Grant Allen’s The Cantakerous Old Lady strikes a lighter note and is entertaining and rather charming.
Henry Cecil’s On Principle rounds off the anthology with a cynical but amusing twist and provides a suitable end point since it feels far more modern than any of the other stories.
These stories mostly date from a time when female fictional detectives were expected to be both ladylike and feisty. They rely mostly on their wits although at least one of the Victorian lady detectives has cause to regret that she lefty her trusty Colt revolver at home.
On the whole quite a strong anthology and certainly worth picking up.
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July 12, 2024Re-started 12th July 2024 (forgot I had it).
February 24, 2025
The first ten were really old-fashioned writing, but the last two were terrific. Gladys Mitchell's was, of course, modern and professional, but the very last one by Cecil was a surprise.
November 15, 2016
This delightful collection of short stories involving women detectives gives us an initial glimpse into the evolving nature of the genre from its beginning in the mid 1800s to the early 1900s, as a result (or reflection) of the evolving social climate, especially in the area of women's rights and society's expectations of women's roles.
The stories are all enjoyable, from the earliest, with its concise and proper language ("I was particularly desirous at all times of conciliating Colonel Warner, because I had not long been employed as a female detective, and now having given up my time and attention to what I may call a new profession, I was anxious to acquit myself as well and favourably as I could, and gain the goodwill and approbation of my superior.") to the last, only three and a half pages long but with a zinger of an ending you do not see coming.
The introduction is informative and fascinating.
The stories are all enjoyable, from the earliest, with its concise and proper language ("I was particularly desirous at all times of conciliating Colonel Warner, because I had not long been employed as a female detective, and now having given up my time and attention to what I may call a new profession, I was anxious to acquit myself as well and favourably as I could, and gain the goodwill and approbation of my superior.") to the last, only three and a half pages long but with a zinger of an ending you do not see coming.
The introduction is informative and fascinating.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews