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

Catherine Louise Pirkis was the first woman author to write mystery stories about a woman detective, Loveday Brooke. These were published in 1894 in Ludgate Monthly. There had been earlier women detectives such  as William Stephens Hayward's publication of  The Revelations of a Lady Detective in either 1861 or 1864. and Andrew Forrester published The Female Detective in 1864. Anna Katharine Green wrote a novel featuring detection by Amelia Butterworth, That Affair Next Door, in 1897, and a series of short stories featuring detection by Violet Strange in 1915. It is handy to remember here that Conan Doyle published The Study in Scarlet, his first Sherlock Homes novelr in 1887.

A career in detection was an unusual choice for a woman at this time. The Dover edition of this book has a very informative essay by Michele Slung, and she provides the information that the first women joined the Metropolitan Police  in 1883 and they acted as guards of female prisoners. In America, Kate Warne was a operative in the Pinkerton Detective Agency in 1860, but rarely did detective work.

Loveday Brooke began her career in detection as a result of a stroke of ill fortune which left her penniless. She choose the unusual career in detection and did poorly at it until she was hired by Ebenezer Dyer who was head of a flourishing detective agency. He stated that "I don't care twopence - half penny whether or not she is a lady. I only know that she is the most practical and sensible woman I ever met." Loveday was a rather nondescript person. She was hardly one to attract attention because she was neither tall nor short and was "neither handsome nor ugly". She was about 30 years of age, and usually dressed in black.

When a case arose for which Mr. Dyer thought her talents were demanded, she was given the details of the case which she put in her notebook. She called these her "sailing orders" In these seven stories, she tackles a variety of cases. She prefers to work with the upper and middle classes. She has a marked prejudice against unattractive people as belonging to the criminal classes.  Her cases entail finding lost jewels and lost persons, coping with murder, and discovering the real activities of a strange orders of nuns. Her ability to quickly observe the most important features of a case and the relevant clues lead her find remarkably rapid solutions.

Catherine Louise Pirkis (1893 -1910) wrote a total of 14 novels in her lifetime although she is best know for the Loveday Brooke stories. She was also a champion of animal rights, and she and her husband founded an organization to protect animals. It is still active today as the "Dogs Trust"