Historical Women Detectives

It's no rest for the wicked when Kate Shackleton picks up her second professional sleuthing case. But exposing the culprit of a pawn-shop robbery turns sinister when her investigation takes her to the wealthy neighborhoods of Harrogate - and murder is only one step behind. A night at the theater should have been just what the doctor ordered, until Kate stumbles across a body in the doorway. The knife sticking out of its chest definitely suggests a killer in the theater's midst. Kate likes nothing better than a mystery - except solving it.

January 1922, and the Bangalore constabulary is on high alert. Edward, Prince of Wales, is scheduled to visit the city, seeking to redeem his reputation after disastrous visits to Bombay and Calcutta which were marked by violent anti-British riots. Kaveri has none of these concerns on her mind; she's excited as she and her husband Ramu have been given VIP tickets to the famous Bangalore circus. But when a celebrity magician disappears into thin air and his son pleads with Kaveri to find his vanished father, she is stunned to discover Inspector Ismail telling her to leave the case well alone.

While visiting London, Mary Russell comes across a friend from Oxford. The young woman introduces Mary to Margery Childe, charismatic leader of a religious sect involved in the suffrage movement. When several members of the sect's female volunteers are murdered, Mary starts to investigate - but events spiral out of control, and Mary's search plunges her into the worst danger she has yet faced....

Maud West ran her detective agency in London for more than 30 years, having started sleuthing on behalf of society’s finest in 1905. Her exploits grabbed headlines throughout the world, but beneath the public persona, she was forced to hide vital aspects of her own identity in order to thrive in a class-obsessed and male-dominated world. And - as Susannah Stapleton reveals - she was a most unreliable witness to her own life. Who was Maud? And what was the reality of being a female private detective in the Golden Age of Crime?

In 1566, Elizabeth Tudor faces tremendous opposition from Parliament for ruling England without the help of a husband. Instead, she turns to her Privy Plot Council for help, only to discover from her royal herbalist that a woman has drowned in a tub of starch. Soon another garment worker meets the same rigid fate. Elizabeth becomes unbending in her attempts to solve the murders, as well as iron out the problems of her kingdom.

In the summer of 1932, Maisie Dobbs’s career takes an exciting new turn when she accepts an undercover assignment directed by Scotland Yard's Special Branch. Posing as a junior lecturer, she is sent to a private college in Cambridge to monitor any activities "not in the interests of His Majesty’s Government." When the college's controversial pacifist founder and principal, Greville Liddicote, is murdered, Maisie is directed to stand back from the investigation. But she soon discovers something suspicious....

After losing her copywriting job, young Gwynne Dacres seeks a place to live when she stumbles upon Mrs. Garr's old boarding house. Despite the gruff landlady and an assortment of shifty tenants, Gwynne rents a room for herself. She spends her first few nights at 593 Trent Street tensely awake, the house creaking and groaning as if listening to everything that happens behind its closed doors. A chain of chilling events leads to the gruesome discovery of a mutilated body in the basement kitchen, dead of unknown circumstances. Was it an accident or murder?

Sherlock Holmes has been missing and is presumed dead for some time, and his grief-stricken landlady, Mrs. Hudson, is anxious for a distraction. However, she is in for a culture shock when she travels to Ireland with her friend, Kitty Melrose, to try and stop a forced marriage. What she finds is a countryside steeped in superstition and beliefs in the old ways, a place of fairy forts and holy wells, and of changelings and banshees. A place, moreover, where an impoverished peasantry remains under the heel of oppressive English landlords, but not for much longer.

Young Harriet and her brother Austin have always been scared of the quarry where their stonemason father works. So when they find him dead on the cold ground, they scarper quick smart and look for help. When help arrives, the quarry is deserted and there is no sign of the body. Were the children mistaken? Is their father not dead? Did he simply get up and run away? It seems like another unusual case requiring the expertise of Kate Shackleton. But for Kate this is one case where surprising family ties makes it her most dangerous and delicate yet.

This summer, Queen Elizabeth I is in no mood for games. She and her court were expecting to spend the warmer months lounging in great manor houses, feasting in the fields, tempting forbidden romance, and perhaps engaging in sport. But someone in the Queen's entourage isn't playing by the rules…and soon Elizabeth is dodging crossbows, longbows, and - worst of all - the threats of her greatest rival, Mary Queen of Scots. As bodies and clues pile up, the mystery and dangers deepen like the surrounding forests.

It's March 1934, and Josephine Tey is travelling from Scotland to London to celebrate what should be the triumphant final week of her celebrated play, Richard of Bordeaux. However, a seemingly senseless murder puts her reputation, and even her life, under threat.

April 1933. Eddie Pettit is a gentle soul with a near-magical gift for working with horses. When he is killed in a violent accident, there is skepticism about the cause of death. Who would want to kill Eddie, and why? Maisie Dobbs is determined to offer her help. As she uncovers lies and manipulation on a national scale, Maisie must decide whether to risk it all to see justice done.

Smitten with spring fever, Elizabeth Tudor escapes London for fantastical Nonsuch Palace in the sweet Surrey countryside. There she hopes to relax and pose for the official royal portrait for which she is holding a competition. But one of her artists is burned to death, and portraits of the queen are going up in flames. When she hears that her rival, the dangerous Mary, Queen of Scots, has been peering in mirrors and announcing, "I see the next queen of England!" Elizabeth summons her Privy Plot Council.

Heartwrenching. Everyone agreed on that but no one could ever quite make out the words…but the melody was haunting to the few who heard it…and never forgot it…Haunted houses weren’t on the schedule but while waiting out a snow storm that has them stranded after performing in Colorado, Maddie and her friends are staying at one of the city’s historic homes thanks to her father’s quick talking. Before long, they find themselves intrigued by the stories of the mysterious and haunting melody that many have heard but no one has been able to figure out where it comes from…or what it ...

The next book in the gripping Flavia Albia series, by acclaimed author Lindsey Davis. A tragic accident...or was it? Emperor Domitian has been awarded (or rather, has demanded) yet another Triumph to celebrate two so-called victories. Preparations are going smoothly until one of the men overseeing arrangements for the celebration accidentally falls to his death from a cliff on the symbolic Capitoline Hill. But an old woman comes forward, insisting that the man was in fact pushed - and she refuses to leave it alone.

When Bradon Riggston decides to write his family history, he is shocked to find that many of his relatives and their friends have died by unfortunate accidents. Are Riggston family members and their close associates just unlucky, or is there some sinister power working behind the scenes? Holmes and Watson are called in to investigate, only to uncover a deadly saga of revenge for long-hidden crimes.

When a mysterious puppet show arrives in Bishop's Lacey, death is not far behind... a grisly murder during a performance of Jack and the Beanstalk in the village hall reaches back to an earlier crime that has cast a shadow over the village for years. Flavia's investigations test her powers of deduction to the limit - and provide a shocking insight into the darker corners of the adult world.

Toronto, 1914. Merinda Herringford and Jem Watts never could have imagined their crime-solving skills would set them up as emblems of female empowerment in a city preparing to enter World War I at the behest of Great Britain. Yet, despite their popularity, the lady detectives can't avoid the unrest infiltrating every level of society. A war measure adopted by Mayor Montague puts a target on Jem and her Italian husband, Ray DeLuca.

Fresh out of the hospital and low on funds, a young doctor decides to take a long sea voyage to restore his health. He signs on as a steward on board a millionaire's yacht. Then, one hot and humid summer night, the voyage starts to become a nightmare.

When Flavia de Luce is banished to Miss Bodycote's Female Academy in Canada, she’s soon on familiar ground when, on her first night, a mummified body is dislodged from a chimney, and she is presented with a gruesome puzzle to solve. Girls have been disappearing with alarming regularity, leading Flavia to wonder not only how and why but what exactly is the academy's true purpose? Flavia must enter a shadowy world where truth and lies seem interchangeable and no one can be trusted.