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Revelations of a Lady Detective

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Revelations of a Lady Detective

By: William Stephens Hayward
Narrated by: Patience Tomlinson
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'Owing to frequent acquaintance with peril, I had become unusually hardened for a woman.'

Mrs Paschal, the heroine of Revelations of a Lady Detective, is regularly consulted by the police and serves as an undercover agent as well as investigating her own cases. But even though she is 'verging on 40', she throws herself into cases with verve and gusto and has no hesitation in infiltrating a deadly secret society or casting off her crinolines in order to plummet into a sewer on the trail of a criminal.

Mrs Paschal is only the second ever professional female detective in a work of fiction. First published in 1864, these works are of historical significance because for over 20 years they remained the only books to feature a female detective as a protagonist.

©2013 The British Library (P)2024 Soundings Mystery Traditional Detectives Women Sleuths
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The stories have a tendency to gloss over difficulties but there is some humour which carries them along and, for the period, the lead character is surprisingly engaging and not written as so much of a stereotype as I had expected. The stories are rather spoilt by the general lack of expression and, particularly, the irritating squeaky voice which the narrator uses for the main character.

Interesting stories spoilt by narration

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