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C. L. Pirkis, The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective (1894)


‘It’s a big thing’, proclaims private detective Loveday Brooke in the opening line of The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective (1894). She is speaking of the £30,000 of stolen jewellery that is subject of her first case, but Loveday’s own appearance in print was also, in its way, a ‘big thing’. Not only is she one of the earliest female-authored ‘lady detectives’ in British fiction, but she is also one of the most inherently successful of fictional New Women. Marking the culmination of Catherine Louisa Pirkis’s literary career and being its most enduring creation, Loveday is also a ‘big thing’ in the life of her author.

Volume Contents

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    Front Matter
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    Introduction By Adrienne E. Gavin
  • The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective (1894) By C.L. Pirkis
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      I
      The Black Bag Left on a Doorstep.a
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      II
      The Murder at Troyte's Hill
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      III
      The Redhill Sisterhood
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      IV
      A Princess's Vengeance
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      V
      Drawn Daggers
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      VI
      The Ghost of Fountain Lane
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      VII
      Missing!
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    Back Matter