This edition of these hard-to-find tales from the Golden Age of Detective Fiction features an Introduction by a noted authority on fictional female detectives. Michele Slung discusses the importance of these stories in the context of Victorian life and literature and offers a bibliographical profile of author Catherine Louisa Pirkis.
Catherine Louisa Pirkis (1839–1910) was a British mystery writer whose Loveday Brooke series was notable for being the first detective stories that featured a heroine created by a woman author. Dubbed "the female Sherlock Holmes," Loveday starred in adventures that were among the bestselling successors to those of the Baker Street sleuth.