It all started with me pledging to read only women authors in 2014. But then I got a serious hankering for some Sherlock Holmes (who is, sadly, written by a dude). Thinking, “Surely there must be detective stories written by ladies! Lady detective stories even! Vintage lady detectives written by vintage lady authors!” And there are! Several hours later, here we are… (NB: Being an asexual lady myself, I consider the spinster sleuth an awesome and delightful protagonist, haters to the left.)
Anna Katharine Green (1846-1935) was an American poet and novelist, whose first detective novel The Leavenworth Case (featuring Ebenezer Gryce) became a bestseller in 1878. She is credited with the first appearance of both the spinster detective (Amelia Butterworth) and the young sleuth (debutante Violet Strange). Amelia Butterworth novels: That Affair Next Door (1897) | Lost Man’s Lane (1898) | The Circular Study (1900) . Violet Strange short stories: The Golden Slipper And Other Problems For Violet Strange . Constance Sterling one-shot mystery: The Mill Mystery .
Catherine Louisa Pirkis (1841-1910) was a British short story writer and novelist. Her stories of disguise-mastering Loveday Brooke, who choses detecting over becoming a governess, were published in Ludgate Magazine, starting in 1894. Loveday Brooke stories: The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective (1894) .
Mary Roberts Rinehart (1876-1958) was an American novelist, playwright, and non-fiction author. Apart from her detective fiction, her co-written novel The Bat about a caped criminal inspired Bob Kane’s The Bat-Man. Her protagonists all fall in the spinster sleuth category. Rachel Innes novels: The Man in Lower Ten (1906) | The Circular Staircase (1908) . Letitia “Tish” Carberry stories: The Amazing Adventures of Letitia Carberry (1911) | Tish (1916) | More Tish (1921) | Tish Plays the Game (1926) | Tish Marches On (1937) . Cornelia van Gorder one-shot mystery: The Bat (1920) co-written with Avery Hopwood.
My Sources: Women Detectives: An Overview by Joseph Rosenblum/SalemPress (including bibliography) . A Criminal Matriarchy by A Course of Steady Reading .
Editing my post to add: Baroness Emma Orczy (1865-1947) was a Hungarian-born British novelist, playwright, artist, and translator. Although she is predominantly famous for her novels about The Scarlet Pimpernel she also published a book about a female crime-solving duo. Lady Molly stories: Lady Molly of Scotland Yard (1910) .
Lady Detectives by Lady Authors (in the public domain)
Published
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