SOLVED. Mystery - Female sidekick to incompetent Holmes-like sleuth. Spoilers ahead. [s]

[Carrie]

Novel series, darkly comedic, starting a gutsy young woman who goes to live with a guardian after her parents deaths. He is a misanthropic detective, loosely based on Sherlock Holmes. I think the series is also set in a Victorian-era city - possibly London?

SPOILER - she inherits/wins/earns a great deal of money at the end of the first book

SPOILER - one book features a number of poisoned cats, i think, and a thrilling conclusion where the heroine is trapped in the mechanisms of a slaughterhouse or factory? Or something like that... It's all a bit hazy.

[Kym]

The Mangle Street Murders by M.R.C. Kasasian?

[Lynda]

The Thin Woman by Dorothy Cannell?

[Carrie]

YES Kym, you got it right! "The Mangle Street Murders" THANK YOU I have been trying to figure this out for a month. Thank you thank you.

[Kym]

Glad we could help Carrie.