Catherine Louisa Pirkis’s The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective (1893-4) was one of the first detective series to feature female sleuth. Loveday Brooke is a single and fiercely independent professional woman who regularly out-thinks her male rivals. The seven stories in the series were first published in the Ludgate Magazine with illustrations by Bernard Higham. This e-edition includes a general introduction, sixteen critical essays, a timeline, and a bibliography.

General Editor: Alexis Easley, Professor of English, University of St. Thomas

Assistant Editors: Kari Aakre, Katherine Bruns, and Katherine Oswald

Annotators: Kari Aakre, Spencer Adelmann, Elena Bolstad, Katherine Bruns, Ellie Lange, Pacifico Lobianco, Ben Morris, Cheniqua Morrison, Mike Omalanga, Katherine Oswald, Riley Rose, Delaney Sacia, Bridget Schmid, Maddie Schutte, Jessica S. Trombley.

Essay Contributors: Kari Aakre, Spencer Adelmann, Elena Bolstad, Katherine Bruns, Abby Dorland, Ellie Lange, Pacifico Lobianco, Ben Morris, Cheniqua Morrison, Katherine Oswald, Rebekah Krotzer, Delaney Sacia, Bridget Schmid, Cecelia Schneeman, Maddie Schutte, Christopher Steene, Jessica S. Trombley

 Table of Contents:

1. Alexis Easley, General Introduction

2. Cheniqua Morrison, The Experiences of C. L. Pirkis, Lady Author

3. Kari Aakre, Biographical and Historical Timeline

4. Spencer Adelmann, Bernard Higham’s Illustrations for The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective

5. Bridget Schmid, The Ludgate Magazine and The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective

6. Katherine Bruns, Femininity as a Disguise in The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective

7. Rebekah Krotzer, Detecting Feminism: Loveday Brooke and the Redefinition of Professions for Women

8. Jessica S. Trombley, Untrue Women and Pioneer Feminists in The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective

9. Elena Bolstad, Loveday Brooke and Neo-Victorian Depictions of Women Detectives

10. Ellie Lange, The Critical Reception of Catherine Pirkis’s The Experiences of Loveday Brooke through a Feminist Lens

11. Maddie Schutte, The “MISSING!” and the Murdered: Women of Victorian London and the Rise of Popular Crime Culture

12. Pacifico Lobianco, Quiet Power: An Introduction to Catherine Louisa Pirkis’s “Drawn Daggers”

13. Ben Morris, Deception and Assumptions in “The Redhill Sisterhood”

14. Katherine Oswald, Detective Fiction and Scientific Advancements of the Victorian Era

15. Cecelia Schneeman, Spiritualism and Detection: Debunking a Catching Fad in “The Ghost of Fountain Lane”

16. Delaney Sacia, Embodied Rationality in The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective

17. Kari Aakre, “Wild eulogies on the beloved pastor”: Clerical Portrayals in C. L. Pirkis’s Loveday Brooke

18. Abby Dorland, The Female Detective and the Domestic Worker in C. L. Pirkis’s “The Black Bag Left on a Doorstep”

19. Christopher Steene, Conflicting Views on Transnational Femininity in “The Black Bag Left on a Doorstep”

20. Bibliography