'The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective' is a mystery novel written by Catherine Louisa Pirkis—and is also her best-known work. The lead crime-solver in this novel is Loveday Brooke, and she was once dubbed the "female Sherlock Holmes", with her collection of stories one of the bestselling successors to Sherlock Holmes.

IT'S a big thing," said Loveday Brooke, addressing Ebenezer Dyer, chief of the well-known detective agency in Lynch Court, Fleet Street; "Lady Cathrow has lost £30,000 worth of jewellery, if the newspaper accounts are to be trusted." "They are fairly accurate this time. The robbery differs in few respects from the usual run of country-house robberies. The time chosen, of course, was the dinner-hour, when the family and guests were at table and the servants not on duty were amusing themselves in their own quarters. The fact of its being Christmas Eve would also of necessity add to the business and consequent distraction of the household.

What is a young lady like Loveday Brooke doing in a private detective agency? She's working there, as a clever sleuth, a female Sherlock Holmes of sorts. Excerpts: "Loveday Brooke, at this period of her career, was a little over thirty years of age, and could be best described in a series of negations. "She was not tall, she was not short; she was not dark, she was not fair; she was neither handsome nor ugly. Her features were altogether nondescript; her one noticeable trait was a habit she had, when absorbed in thought, of dropping her eyelids over her eyes till only a line of eyeball showed, and she appeared to be looking out at the world through a slit, instead of through a window. Her dress was invariably black, and was almost Quaker-like in its neat primness." But what one could say affirmatively about her was that Loveday Brooke was a naturally talented private detective, a chosen career that had cut her off sharply from her former associates and her position in society. She demonstrates her skills in these six short stories: The Black Bag Left on a Door-Step, The Murder at Troyte's Hill, The Redhill Sisterhood, A Princess's Vengeance, Drawn Daggers, The Ghost of Fountain Lane, Missing!

The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective by Catherine Louisa Pirkis

The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective. By C. L. Pirkis

The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective by Catherine Louisa Pirkis

When Loveday Brooke falls from her place in London high society, losing her financial security, she has no choice but to become a working woman. Set in the Victorian era, it is considered unusual and even shameful for a woman to participate in the workforce, but when Brooke proves her ability, no man can deny or ignore her talent. Beginning a career as a detective, Brooke becomes the go-to police consultant for any case that seems unsolvable. The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective is a collection of seven short stories, each portraying an individual mystery, varying crimes and intrigue. The Black Bag on the Doorstep is the first title in the collection, and follows a Christmas Eve robbery. Featuring a more heinous crime, The Murder at Troyte's Hill depicts a murder mystery after a local lodge-keeper is found dead in a ransacked room. Challenged with one of her most puzzling mysteries, Brooke attempts to find a young girl who vanished without a trace in the fan-favorite story, Missing. Unable to find a lead even after ten days of searching, the police are ready to give up, but Loveday Brooke is determined to reunite the girl with her family. With an original approach to the mystery genre, The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective was among Catherine Louisa Pirkis' most popular work. Often compared to Sherlock Holmes, Loveday Brooke remains to be a beloved and memorable character from the detective fiction genre, and is one of the earliest depictions of a woman working in the detective field in literature. With mysteries ranging from crimes of theft, murder, kidnap, and conspiracy, The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective provides a fun and fresh reading experience, as it has remained to be progressive and intriguing nearly one-hundred and thirty years after its original publication. This edition of The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective by Catherine Louisa Pirkis is now available in an easy-to-read font, and features a new, eye-catching cover design. With these accommodations, The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective is restored to modern standards while the original mastery of Catherine Louisa Pirkis' work is preserved.