“Women have an eye for detail and are excellent observers.” –Kate Warne
In 1856, Allan Pinkerton hired Kate Warne, a 23-year-old widow, to join his detective agency. She was America’s first female private detective and instrumental in uncovering assassination plots on President Abraham Lincoln and catching embezzlers. John Derrig wrote that Warne “dress[ed] the part or fit right into whatever situation she was in… She was very brave, and was comfortable doing what she was doing because she was good at it.” Warne was so good, Pinkerton created the Female Detective Bureau in 1860 and asked her to oversee the recruitment of ladies. (Derrig, John. Pinkerton’s First Lady: Kate Warne – United States First Female Detective. Mother Spider Designs, 2014.)
The ladies in these books may be fictional, but they are incredible female detectives!
Lady Katherine Bascomb
Ladies Most Scandalous series by Manda Collins.
England, 1865: Lady Katherine Bascomb is a newspaper columnist who gains notoriety writing about murders. She escapes town for the country only to confronted by another corpse and the surly Detective Inspector Andrew Eversham.
Miss Stella Kendrick
Stella and Lyndy Mysteries by Clara McKenna.
It’s Downton Abbey meets Agatha Christie. Miss Stella Kendrick, an American heiress, goes to England thinking that her father is selling horses, not her! Then a murder is committed. Stella teams up with her supposed fiancé, Viscount Lyndhurst, and sparks and clues fly.
Miss Genevieve Timmons
A Dreadful Splendor by B. R. Myers.
Genevieve Timmons is part spiritualist and part swindler who offers mourners a way to speak to the dead. She lands up in jail and is given a chance to escape: preform a successful séance and convince a young lord to come to peace over the death of his fiancé. The setting is a remote estate on the cliffs and this Gothic mystery is full of chills and thrills.
Lady Frances Wynn
A Countess of Harleigh Mystery series by Dianne Freeman.
Frances Wynn, the American-born Countess of Harleigh, doesn’t miss her dead husband. She is eagerly preparing for her sister Lily’s debut until an anonymous letter to the police implicates her in the late earl’s death. Although she didn’t kill him, Frances doesn’t want the true details of his death to come out. But keeping secrets makes her the prime suspect.
Miss Charlotte Homes
Lady Sherlock Historical Mysteries by Sherry Thomas
Charlotte Holmes is not a delicate, nor demure debutante. She is smart and analytical. When three unexpected deaths bring suspicion upon her father and sister, Charlotte sets out to clear the family name and find the real culprit.
Miss Veronica Speedwell
Veronica Speedwell Mysteries by Deanna Raybourn.
England, 1887: Orphaned and intelligent Veronica Speedwell sets off on adventure, fending off suitors and the silly rules of acceptable female behavior. When a German Baron is found murdered, she works with his bad-tempered friend Stoker to find the assassin and uncover the truth.
Miss Tiffany Woodall
Lady Librarian Mysteries by Samantha Larsen
England, 1784: Miss Tiffany Woodall’s half-brother dies on her fortieth birthday. To save her cottage, she buries him in the back garden and takes over his identity as the librarian to the Duke of Beaufort. But when another servant dies, Tiffany realizes that her half-brother was murdered. She has to discover who the murderer is before they finish the job and kill her.
