While I will read a good mystery novel any time of the year, autumn always seems the perfect time for one. However, as I read more mysteries, I am more and more interested in the detectives who help solve mysteries. And we have a fantastic new book digging into the history of detectives, in particular female detectives. As I’ve specifically set out to share more books by female authors and more women’s history, sharing this here was a no brainer. Our Book Bite this week is none other than The Mysterious Case of the Female Victorian Detective by Sara Lodge.
Thank you to NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
The Mysterious Case of the Female Victorian Detective, Sara Lodge
A revelatory history of the women who brought Victorian criminals to account—and how they became a cultural sensation
From Wilkie Collins to the adventures of Sherlock Holmes, the traditional image of the Victorian detective is male. Few people realise that women detectives successfully investigated Victorian Britain, working both with the police and for private agencies, which they sometimes managed themselves.
Sara Lodge recovers these forgotten women’s lives. She also reveals the sensational role played by the fantasy female detective in Victorian melodrama and popular fiction, enthralling a public who relished the spectacle of a cross-dressing, fist-swinging heroine who got the better of love rats, burglars, and murderers alike.
How did the morally ambiguous work of real women detectives, sometimes paid to betray their fellow women, compare with the exploits of their fictional counterparts, who always save the day? Lodge’s book takes us into the murky underworld of Victorian society on both sides of the Atlantic, revealing the female detective as both an unacknowledged labourer and a feminist icon.
Why You Should Read This…
I loved this book far more than I expected to, I am happy to admit. As someone who loves mysteries, I am more than familiar with fictional detectives, but far less so with historical detectives. Enter Sara Lodge’s history!
Lodge has done a fantastic job of incorporating an incredibly wide range of sources, including Victorian novels about female detectives, that really kept me interested. (As an historian, a lot of what I do includes looking at how and where things are written.) And it doesn’t only touch on “detectives” specifically but all of the related roles that women covered, including “searchers”. Lodge’s research very much highlights how important their work was, as they were able to carry out tasks and investigations that men were not.
This approach allows for us to learn more about both these incredible women and the cases that they investigated. I wasn’t expecting for this book to touch on quite so many issues and areas of history, but it only shows why histories like these are so important.
Is The Mysterious Case of the Female Victorian Detective by Sara Lodge on your to-read list?
Cheers,
The Historian
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