The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Female Detective by 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.

Format:Paperback / softback 384 pages, 41 b-w illus., 1 map, 1 fig.
Publisher:Yale University Press
Imprint:Yale University Press
ISBN:9780300286601
Published:7 Oct 2025
Classifications:United Kingdom, Great Britain, c 1800 to c 1900, True crime, Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900 , British & Irish history, Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900, Social & cultural history, Gender studies: women
Dimensions:197 x 127 (mm)