The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective

by Catherine Louisa Pirkis

Seven short stories:

The Black Bag Left on a Door-Step
The Murder at Troyte's Hill
The Redhill Sisterhood
A Princess's Vengeance
Drawn Daggers
The Ghost of Fountain Lane
Missing

Genres: Mystery, Classics, Short Stories, Fiction, Ebooks, Detective, Mystery Thriller

98 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1894

About the author

Catherine Louisa Pirkis (6 October 1839 – 4 October 1910) was a British author of detective fiction. Throughout her career as a writer, Pirkis would sometimes write under the name of "C.L. Pirkis", as to avoid gender association.

Source: Wikipedia

Reviews

[Louie the Mustache Matos · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am a huge Sherlock Holmes fan, and I was told that Catherine Louisa Pirkis had a Lady Detective the equal of Holmes. Good Lord was I sold a load of goods that were untrue. Sure, Loveday Brooke is a lady. Sure, she is a detective. In 1894, it is a hugely impressive feat to have a capable Lady Detective. Hell, I will say without hyperbole that in 2022, this is a feat, because it is not easy to become a detective. I'm not a detective. Few people are, but to compare her with the cream of the crop is disingenuous especially when considering that some of these stories (7 in all) are barely even mysteries. And only one of them is a legitimate murder mystery. Ugh! I did not enjoy these stories the way I enjoyed Lady Molly of Scotland Yard. My criteria for calling something a classic is threefold, but I can excuse paradigm shifting because how many things in literature are that distinct? The three criteria are: longevity, exceptional, and paradigm shifting. For longevity, the compilation of stories is more than 100 years old: it qualifies (50 years would be sufficient to make the cut). For paradigm shift, a fictional female detective 20 years BEFORE actual female detectives: it qualifies. Exceptional? Uh-uh, I'm sorry. These stories are boring, and I will never revisit them again. That ought to tell you something about these stories. I'm a bibliophile that will read anything and I would rather read nothing than read these again. Two stars, out of respect for what Pirkis was trying to do, but not much more than that.

[Nancy Oakes]

like a 3.5

"Too much of a lady, do you say?...I don't care twopence halfpenny whether she is or is not a lady."

So says Mr. Ebenezer Dyer, the head of the "flourishing detective agency in Lynch Court" where Loveday Brooke works as an operative. Dyer goes on to brag about his detective as having "so much common sense that it amounts to genius." And that she does, often, it seems, more so than the police or even her boss when it comes to solving a case.

Up to now in this "history of mystery" I've been doing, I've experienced two books about "lady" detectives, both of them characters sprung from male minds. Loveday Brooke came straight from the pen of a woman writer, Catherine Louisa Pirkis, making it a seminal work and milestone in the evolution/history of crime writing; even more importantly, Loveday Brooke is likely the first "New Woman" detective in the genre.

I have to say that one thing readers might notice is that in most of these stories it doesn't seem like Brooke is doing much "detecting" -- that she goes on scene, takes in a few details and then dazzles us with her observations. That is true in more than one case and it has caused readers to complain about the lack of "fair play." I had to go and look up the concept of "fair play," and learned that the so-called "rules" involved in "fair play" were not codified until 1928, so really, in my opinion it doesn't apply here. There are a couple of very good stories here, none the least of which is "The Redhill Sisterhood," in which Loveday is sent to spy on a "home for cripples" (you really have to look beyond the language here) in order to try to figure out the connection between the nuns who run the place and a string of country house robberies. That one was just great, for several reasons I won't go into in case anyone decides to read the book. I will also mention that I completely sussed the solution to "Drawn Daggers!" not too far into it, but for the most part, the big reveals were complete surprises. However, because this collection of tales is a product of the late Victorian era, I would advise a bit of patience while reading. The stories are good, not great, but to me it's all about Loveday Brooke herself, making her way in what was normally a male profession, often doing a much better job than her male counterparts in this book.

much more about this book, the author, and fin-de-siecle British women's writing here:

http://www.crimesegments.com/2018/02/...

[Carolien · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. A collection of short stories that feature one of the earliest fictional female sleuths. These are not murder mysteries per se (one of the stories involve a murder), but include a variety of crimes including stolen cheques, missing necklaces and missing persons. Fun to read and really interesting puzzles in each story. Loveday is a very competent lady and I enjoyed the collection thoroughly.

[tortoise dreams · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the earliest fictional female detectives written by a woman. Loveday Brooke, lady detective of London (very Miss Scarlet), is "a little over thirty years of age" and otherwise fairly nondescript. This is a beneficial attribute as her cases often involve her going undercover and blending in with various households and environments. The "Experiences" involve seven short stories of cases in which the reader can't really follow along with the detecting, but rather watch Brooke engaging in various actions the meaning of which is not readily apparent until satisfactorily explained at the end. Although the character was obviously inspired by Sherlock Holmes (who appeared just six years before), Loveday Brooke is no Holmes and such comparisons do not serve either well. Pirkis created her own detective (not just some person who stumbles into mysteries) in her own manner and style. The seven stories are all clever and involve a variety of crimes and even non-crimes: stolen jewels, murder, country-house robberies, missing persons, a missing necklace, threatening letters, ghosts, a stolen check (or cheque). None are astonishing or mind-blowing, but all are charming and enjoyable even when slight. One theme of the stories is how Brooke establishes the impossible link between two wildly disparate incidents. She is strong and independent minded, always willing to stand her ground and speak her mind. Wonderful to see in 1894. Those who tick her off will get little help or cooperation. Some of the most entertaining moments of the stories are in the sharp-tongued banter between Brooke and her boss, Mr. Dyer, at the beginning and end of each story as they debate the proper investigation of the cases. Suffice it to say, Mr. Dyer is rarely correct. More than just of historical value, though they certainly are that, as long as the reader remembers that these are not murder mysteries, and Loveday Brooke is not a female Sherlock Holmes. She's her own person, and would insist on that. [3½★]

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The edition I found at Chicago's Public Library was published 1986 by Dover and part of its charm are the illustrations. Something close to it seems to exist by ebook and I would recommend doing search using her last name "Pirkis" on Amazon since there are very reasonably priced collections of the early female detectives (Victorian era). There are seven enjoyable detective stories included in this edition.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

These stories are so delightful! I can see why Brooke was a big hit back in the 1890s, even considered a female Sherlock Holmes. She's bright, knowledgeable, clever, and not sniffing around for a husband. That probably made her seem kind of unusual (and maybe unladylike) in her day, though now we're pretty used to confident female characters who aren't trying to catch the eye of every eligible man who crosses their path.

There are seven short stories here, all of them enjoyable mysteries. Loveday Brooke is a professional detective -- she earns her living working as an operative for a detective agency. She's unmarried, in her thirties, proper and ladylike, and ready for whatever assignment comes her way. She solves crimes using observation and deduction, like so many classic detectives. Although these mysteries don't quite "play fair" (they don't give the readers every single clue), they're still very fun to read. I only wish there were more!

[LindaH · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was because this collection of mystery stories features the first female detective created by a female writer that I wanted to read it. Loveday Brooke must have been to the women of Catherine Pirkis' generation (the Victorian 1890s) what Nancy Drew was to the girls of my generation (the post-war 40s and 50s): an excitingly independent role model. Besides being smart, Loveday is efficient and direct. She sees what her male counterparts miss. She cannot be manipulated. For creating a wonderful first "lady detective", Pirkis deserves her hallowed place in the history of mystery.

Her contribution to the development of the mystery genre is not so great, however. In the first five stories ninety per cent of the text is dialogue. This means long paragraphs summarizing what has already happened. The liveliest passages are of Loveday and her boss arguing. Also, the mysteries are a bit tame. In one the issue proves to be a misunderstanding, not a crime. The solutions are very entertaining though, and I was engaged. But there isn't any weighing of clues. Often there aren't any clues. Loveday notices things the reader doesn't hear about until the end. Pirkis is known for writing the so-called "unfair mystery", i.e. a mystery the reader is not equipped by the author to solve. I didn't mind this aspect...I just enjoyed the surprises, AND I gave Pirkis a lot of passes because I liked the main character so much.

So, four stars for first female detective and two stars for the writing. That's three stars in my book.

[MD Mostafijur Rahaman · Rating 4 out of 5]

এই বইতে সাতটি রহস্যময় কেস উপস্থাপন করা হয়েছে,লেডি ডিটেকটিভ লাভডে ব্রুক-এর কেসগুলো শার্লক হোমসের ধাঁচের, কিন্তু একইসাথে নারীর দৃষ্টিভঙ্গি ও সমাজের চোখে নারী গোয়েন্দার চ্যালেঞ্জগুলোকেও ফুটিয়ে তোলে।

পুরনো দিনের ইংরেজি সমাজ ও নারীর অবস্থান নিয়ে চমৎকার অন্তর্দৃষ্টি পাওয়া যায়। সে সময়কার সাহিত্যে নারী চরিত্র সাধারণত ছিল গৃহিণী, প্রেমিকা বা নিরীহ ভুক্তভোগী। কিন্তু লাভডে ব্রুক একজন ব্যতিক্রম। তিনি ব্যক্তিগত গোয়েন্দা সংস্থার কর্মচারী, বেতনভুক্ত পেশাদার নারী গোয়েন্দা।

এই বইটি প্রকাশিত হয় ১৮৯৪ সালে, লেখিকা ক্যাথরিন লুইসা পার্কিস-এর কলমে।
এটা মনে রাখতে হবে, এই বইটি Sherlock Holmes (Arthur Conan Doyle) এর জনপ্রিয়তার সময়েই প্রকাশিত হয়। ফলে এটি একটি ভিন্ন ধারার, নারীকেন্দ্রিক গোয়েন্দা চরিত্রের প্রবর্তন করে।

[Chloe · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book contains seven stories that follow Loveday Brooke, one of the earliest depictions of a fictional female detective, first published in the 1890s. Each story follows a very similar format, as Loveday is introduced to a new case and arrives at the location to investigate. The mystery is then solved and she explains what occurred and how she solved it. As a result, the stories started to blend into one another, making it difficult to differentiate between them. The writing itself was not bad, it just felt quite slow to read. Loveday herself was an interesting character, although she did not do a great deal in her investigations apart from observe, but that seemed to be enough for her to solve the case.

The Black Bag Left on a Door-Step - ★★

This was an interesting mystery to start the collection with, but it was also the easiest to solve. However, it did offer a good introduction to Loveday and her methods of investigation, highlighting how intelligent she was despite constantly being underestimated by others.

The Murder at Troyte's Hill - ★★★

This was my favourite story out of the seven in this book. It was the one with the most action and certainly the most interesting mystery too. Loveday also seemed to be more involved in this case compared to some of the others, which I especially enjoyed.

The Redhill Sisterhood - ★★

The solution to this case was fascinating and really quite clever. However, the overall narrative itself was not as interesting.

A Princess's Vengeance - ★★

This story did not particularly stand out in any way and was honestly quite forgettable.

Drawn Daggers - ★

This story was certainly not as good as the previous ones, the biggest problem being that it was trying to be overcomplicated and the conclusion was not explained in a simple and concise manner as it probably should have been. This was also the most difficult story to get into, which made reading it less enjoyable to start with.

The Ghost of Fountain Lane - ★

The initial mysteries featured in this story had the potential to be the most fascinating of the entire collection but as they began to unravel, it quickly became quite the opposite.

Missing! - ★

This story was actually okay until the very end, where the conclusion was disappointing.

The average of my ratings came to 1.7, which I rounded up to 2 stars, which seems fair. While some of the stories could be interesting in parts, none of them were really very gripping throughout.

Rating - 2/5
★★

There is also a link to this review on my blog here!

[Jack Avery]

Quite good and above average Victorian detective fiction. Surprisingly progressive for the time it was written.

The female detective Loveday Brooke is written as highly competent and professional at her job. She solves cases that have baffled the male police force using her intellect and her understanding of human nature and criminal ways. Not only that, but she also either directs the police in how to capture the criminals or devises schemes to trick the criminals into custody. She is valued for her "keen wits". She does not have a male companion other than the head of the detective agency she works for who merely dispatches her to the scene of her latest case.

The only downside is that the cases are not "fair play" mysteries. The reader does not learn of many clues until the end of the case when Brooke reveals her deductions. Brooke also depends on specialized knowledge, such as that of London taxi driver slang or the history of watchmaking families in Switzerland, to solve the case. Knowledge that she only dispenses after the mystery is solved.

The stories are well worth reading, particularly since they are available free at several places on the internet. Unlike some fiction from the period, it's quite readable to a modern eye.

[Ana Bugalho · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection introduces one of the earliest fictional female detectives, written by a female author, but offering less than engaging mysteries. While the stories follow the “unfair mystery” style, where readers lack all the clues to solve them, the surprises make up for it. The charming main character makes this an enjoyable and historically significant read.

[Crissy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Awesome! Just short stories so it was tough to get really attached to characters and invested in plot but they were very entertaining...Enjoyed it a lot. Interested in more Victorian detective fiction!

[Aniek Verheul · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun, light read, though the stories vary between being completely predictable and unsolvable due to information that's being withheld until after Brooke has solved the case. "The Redhill Sisterhood" was my favourite.

[Elisabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review to follow.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent mysteries, well-worth checking out!

[Ad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Appearing exactly 30 years after Miss G (in The Female Detective), Britain's second female detective Loveday Brooke was created by a woman, Catherine Louisa Pirkis. The sharply observant and remarkably self-reliant Loveday Brooke is the star employee of a detective agency. She is not a bored member of the upper classes, but a working girl, an intelligent and independent woman who works as professional detective for Ebenezer Dyer, the head of a London-based detective agency. Finding herself thrown upon the world penniless, with no means of support, the thirtyish Loveday Brooke turns to detective work where her common sense and knack for disguise come in handy.

Says her boss: "I only know she is the most sensible and practical woman I ever met. In the first place, she has the faculty–so rare among women–of carrying out orders to the very letter: in the second place, she has a clear, shrewd brain, unhampered by any hard-and-fast theories; thirdly, and most important item of all, she has so much common sense that it amounts to genius–positively to genius."

She is frequently sent undercover into households, for example as a governess, a servant or an interior decorator. The interplay with her employer Mr Dyer is very modern. She does so well in her new profession, that she can afford her own chambers and hire a maid. All of the Loveday stories show a feminist point of view.

The stories predate the fair play conventions of later mystery fiction (and sometimes the solution arrives rather "out of the blue"), but the deductions are always logical and reasonable.

C.L. Pirkis (born Catherine Louisa Lyne, 1839-1910) - who often used only initials to hide her gender as in Victorian England women writers were not socially accepted - wrote 14 novels in the mystery genre and also contributed to major magazines. The female detective Loveday Brooke was her most popular character, in 1893 appearing in seven magazine stories, and the next year brought out in book form. Contemporary critics dubbed Loveday Brooks "the female Sherlock Holmes" (she was also called "a character who continues to outshine the detective Sherlock Holmes in preternatural prescience") and Pirkis's collection of stories became one of the bestselling Sherlockian rivals. Later in life, Pirkis and her husband became known as champions for animal rights. Unfortunately these new endeavors also meant that Pirkis only wrote one set of stories about Loveday Brooke.

My favorite among these seven stories are "The Redhill Sisterhood," "Drawn Daggers," and "The Ghost of Fountain Lane" (in which two seemingly unrelated cases gradually come together and prove to be linked). But as they are short and snappy, why not read them all?

Also read my blog https://adblankestijn.blogspot.com/.

[Gregory Moses · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a very early example of a female detective, written by a female author, Loveday Brooke is beloved by mystery anthologists trying to bring some diversity to their collections; indeed, you could probably read the entire corpus that way, brief as it is. And to be clear, adding diversity is good, and some often-anthologized male authors are far worse (hello, Arthur Reeve). Furthermore, she was a best-selling author in her day; whatever I think of her, it's hard to claim she doesn't belong in said anthologies. Still, she is not beloved by me.

Loveday Brooke just isn't a very interesting character in most of these stories. She has no friends, family, hobbies, eccentricities, political beliefs, past experiences, ambitions, or vices. She does not make jokes, or express moral opinions about the crimes she investigates. She does not form relationships with suspects or other characters in the story. She does not celebrate her successes. There are exceptions (she sometimes squabbles with her boss, and in the first case, she goes so far as to be “saddened” at the thought that an unjustly accused girl might have killed herself, while in a later case she makes an uncharacteristic speech about charismatic preachers), but Loveday Brooke is Detective. She solves cases. That's it, that's what you get.

And that could be fine! But if the solving of cases is all you've got, those cases and those solutions had better be interesting, and … well, let's take a look at them.

“The Black Bag Left on a Doorstep” is the first of several stories that has Brooke go undercover, and I don't think it's ever very successful. Brooke is a pretty muted character to begin with, and when undercover, she's necessarily even more so. It's also the first of several stories to omit extremely important scenes to try to ensure that the reader won't figure things out too early. The Holmes stories can sort of get away with this because they're first person narrations by someone other than the detective—Watson can not be there when something important happens, or he can miss important clues, and although it wouldn't fly in the fair-play stories of later decades, you can at least say that yes, it makes sense that the story leaves out the information it leaves out. In this story, when the narrative is following the detective but skips over important conversations, without even an indication that that's happening, it's kind of risible.

“The Murder at Troyte’s Hill” is one of the more successful stories. It's another one where Loveday Brooke is undercover, but prior to that, her interactions with fellow detective Griffiths feel a little more human than we usually get, the inhabitants of the house she goes undercover in are better drawn than usual, and the ending is great, practically veering into the horror genre.

“The Redhill Sisterhood” is not a success as a mystery, or anything else: the way Brooke decides a certain character can't be a criminal is almost charming in its innocence, and again, the story hides essential evidence from us. The stakes are low (what do I care if some rich people get robbed?), and Pirkis is developing a bad habit of assuming we'll care about characters we've never actually met. She started this with the unjustly accused maid in “The Black Bag Left on a Doorstep” and now we have the title religious organization; if they're suspects, let us get to know them.

“A Princess's Vengeance” is a little more like it. Brooke is a little snappier in it than usual because she has to put up with her buffoonish client, and anything that makes Brooke more of a human can only improve the story. Said client is a fun foil to Brooke; his mother is a little amusing, even if we hear about rather than really see her eccentricities. The mystery … still not great. The problem that characters who are major in terms of the plot are not really introduced or characterized remains.

“Drawn Daggers” is good, it's so nice to finally be able to say that about one of these stories. The characters are lively and amusing. The detective-work is also clean. Brooke makes deductions that feel feminine, which is actually quite unusual for her (and obviously, this sort of classification is reductive, and I'm also not implying that a female detective needs to operate differently than her male peers, or make uniquely “feminine deductions”; but e.g. Brooke's understanding that the young woman occupying the house doesn't really feel at home there, because the furnishings and decorations are all stuffy and ugly and early Victorian, and not what you'd expect if there was a girl living in the house who felt empowered to add her own stamp to it, doesn't feel like something Holmes would come up with). In the end, a lot of stuff still happens off screen, but the reader is offered far more clues to take a guess about the solution than in most of these stories, and the solution is satisfying.

But now we crash back down. The last time I read “The Ghost of Fountain Lane” I said: “Brooke is boring. In this story she listens to a servant gossip for multiple pages, then reads a diary entry by the criminal that explains everything. Cool. The diary entry is kept from the reader, and the gossip carefully curated, because if they weren't we'd guess the culprit at exactly the same time as Brooke, and her credentials as brilliant detective might be called into question [I now realize this is a habit of Pirkis's] …” I stand by that, but I went on to criticize Brooke's little monologue about religion, and now that I've spent an entire book with her, I don't care if it is just Pirkis using her as a mouthpiece, I am so glad that Brooke has opinions on something. Story's still bad, though.

Things pep up in “Missing,” the last story. Brooke is much more of a character in this one (this is the only story that isn't strictly third person limited; it's not a lot, but we get a little of Brooke's thoughts), and the story has a gloomy Gothic vibe (“This was Rene's favorite corner, and here are the last flowers she gathered—dead, all dead, but I will not have them touched!”) The twists are wild, and we see more of Brooke's technique than we usually do.

So, now that I have everything laid out neatly … two real successes (“Drawn Daggers” and “Missing”) out of seven is not a good hit rate, even if some of the others have their virtues. On the other hand, the stories are arranged in order of writing, which makes my two favorites two of the last three; if Catherine Louisa Pirkis had kept at it, and maintained that trend, who knows where she'd have ended up. In reality, she abandoned fiction entirely to focus on anti-vivisectionism and similar causes; she co-founded the Canine Defense League, which has since been renamed the Dogs' Trust, but which remains Great Britain's largest charity for dog welfare, and I'm certainly not going to criticize that. As a matter of fact, her activism comes through in a few of her stories; in “The Murder at Troyte’s Hill” a dog gets killed by a senile academic who wants to write a monograph comparing the dying moans of humans and animals, and in “Missing,” the missing girl was vacillating between two lovers until she saw one of them beat his dog, and immediately kicked him to the curb.

[Lynda Birch · Rating 4 out of 5]

The very prim Loveday Brooke doesn't have an eye-catching appearance nor is she into fashion. Being nondescript serves her well when she needs to become part of the background to listen and observe. She is very astute and the private detective agency she works for appreciates and relies on her cleverness and discretion to solve their clients' problems.

I was intrigued by this collection of short stories as they are published as originally written in 1893 and 1894. Some may find the language awkward but I found it created atmosphere. Very much along the line of Sherlock Holmes, these stories are for the most part impossible for the reader to solve, simply because the reader isn't given all the information necessary to solve them. Only the squinting eyes and genius mind of Loveday Brooke see and knows all.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really liked Loveday Brooke!! How long it took me to finish this book was not reflective of how good it was. The stories were all interesting with strong plots and good twists. Especially liked the last one!

[Arianna Fox · Rating 4 out of 5]

📖 𝙼𝚈 𝚁𝙰𝚃𝙸𝙽𝙶: 𝟺.𝟻 𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚜. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨
⚠️ 𝙲𝙾𝙽𝚃𝙴𝙽𝚃 𝚁𝙰𝚃𝙸𝙽𝙶: 𝙿𝙶-𝟷𝟹.

“‘That's just it, Miss Brooke,’ cried the young man enthusiastically. ‘You do such wonderful things; everyone knows you do. It seems as if, when anything is wanted to be found out, you just walk into a place, look round you and, in a moment, everything becomes clear as noonday.’ ” – REDH

💜 𝙾𝙿𝙸𝙽𝙸𝙾𝙽𝚂 💜

Dear me, what a collection! I regard it with great fondness, though I must admit that it was not quite Sherlock Holmes-level. (But there I go again comparing. Never compare. Apples to oranges, Fox; apples to oranges.)

This was well-thought-out and remarkably clever. I do wish—and this bugs me a bit—that C.L. Pirkis would have given more hints throughout the stories that certain things were not exactly as they should have been. We are often told at the end of a story that Loveday "noticed a certain volatile expression upon [so-and-so's] face" (or something along those lines) and we never SEE it with her to begin with. Not to go comparing again, but certain talented mystery authors of Pirkis' time (like Conan Doyle) were very good at hinting and foreshadowing so that it all feels complete by the end of the story. As the axiom is said, "Plot twists shouldn't make you say, 'I didn't see that coming!' They should make you say, 'I should've seen that coming!'" Dropping hints of foreshadowing is terribly important so that the reader feels they have even the slightest chance of figuring out the mystery alongside the detective, even if the reader knows they can't.

Apart from that, the mysteries were great! They were very intriguing and just complicated enough. My favorites were "The Murder at Troyte's Hill," "The Redhill Sisterhood," "The Ghost of Fountain Lane," and definitely "Missing!"

📚 𝚂𝚃𝙾𝚁𝚈 𝚁𝙰𝚃𝙸𝙽𝙶𝚂 📚

• The Black Bag Left on a Door-step: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨
• The Murder at Troyte's Hill: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
• The Redhill Sisterhood: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
• A Princess's Vengeance: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
• Drawn Daggers: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨
• The Ghost of Fountain Lane: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
• Missing!: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

⚠️ 𝙲𝙾𝙽𝚃𝙴𝙽𝚃 𝚆𝙰𝚁𝙽𝙸𝙽𝙶𝚂 ⚠️

I rate this collection PG-13 for general mentions of violence, death, murder, burglary, attempted suicide, and other crimes. No gory detail, and very little to no profanity is used in this book to my recollection—barely even a use of God's name, unlike some of its Victorian mystery predecessors. Some of the cleanest Victorian mystery I've read.

💜 𝙲𝙾𝙽𝙲𝙻𝚄𝚂𝙸𝙾𝙽 💜

In conclusion, this collection was lovely to read, and I definitely recommend it if you're looking for more à la Sherlock Holmes or C. Auguste Dupin. I was thoroughly pleased with how Loveday Brooke was written as a realistic character and not an overpowered female protagonist. She was capable but not fully independent (because who is?), and is the Lady Detective in my mind, just as Sherlock Holmes is the Great Detective. She uses ration and reason to figure out her cases, uses her womanly charm to help the maids to gossip (LOL), and is all-around a great sleuth.

Overall, Loveday Brooke is a unique and iconic character of her own and is brilliantly NOT a carbon copy of Sherlock Holmes—but just remember that this applies to the stories themselves too, and if you're expecting the same grade of excellence, you may be somewhat disappointed. But treat these little stories on their own as they are, and you may find yourself pleasantly intrigued with all the pretty little problems which Lynch Court has to offer.

[Ана Хелс · Rating 5 out of 5]

От момента на раждането на Шерлок Холмс и появата на неговите приключения и гениални дедукции във викториански времена, силният пол започва да го използва активно за демонстрация на превъзходство над крехките дамски съзнания, които според доминиращото и за съжаление класическо мисогинистично мнение, стават само колкото да родят някой и друг наследник, и да организират някое домашно парти. Или поне докато не се появяват смелите дами-писателки, които създават своите алтер-егота – дамите – детективи. Когато започвате нов жанр винаги е добра идея да пробвате с кратките разкази – като малък тестер на безумно скъп парфюм, който се опитва да ви убеди, че си заслужава половината ви заплата да иде в нещо толкова летливо като … миризма, а в случая – идея, затова ето ви и стартер-кита във света на викторианските дами-детективи.

Това са три класически приключения с Шерлокиански благородни красавици – Лейди Моли на Баронеса Оркжи, Ловдей Брук на Катрин Луиза Пъркис и Лейди Наташа Дорингтън на Брукс Артър Уактъл. Три дами с активни около стоте процента мозъци се изправят срещу цялата престъпна маса от начинаещи и професионални убийци и измамници на добрата стара Англия, и разрешават по свой уникален, забавен и впечатляващо логичен начин абсолютно всяка проблемна ситуация. Лейди Моли използва специалните си социални умения и връзки, за да разкрива елегантно и дискретно; мис Ловдей съзира абсолютно всеки детайл на всяко местопрестъпление, и го анализира с точността на изкуствен интелект, а лейди Дорингтън е циркаджийска нинджа с брилянтни дедуктивни способности, пиперлив език и свежо безразсъдство дори пред цяла шайка откачени култисти. За всеки вкус по нещо, но ако сте като мен – ще е и трите, дядо попе, и трите.

От кратки разкази, през новели до романи в разкази, тези три дами заемат своето заслужено място до Поаро, Холмс и Мегре, отсрамвайки поколения дами, живели в сенките, набедени, че не притежават мозъчни клетки или всякакви умствени способности над балансирането в балната зала или различаване на двадесетте вида вилици на официална вечеря. Тези истории отварят вратите към нов любим жанр, ново читателско удоволствие, нови хиляди и хиляди заглавия, на които трябва да им търсите място по лавиците вкъщи. Предупредени сте!

[Gypsi · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a set of short stories, originally a magazine serial, featuring Miss Loveday Brooke, who works for a detective agency in London. Her services are much in demand, as her employer recognizes in Loveday's intelligence and gentility the traits of a valuable agent, and she is quick to repay his regard with success after success.

Pirkis is a contemporary of Arthur Conan Doyle, publishing her stories and novels during some of the same decades, and her plot formula is quite similar. Loveday, like Holmes, assesses and solves the situation quickly, reaching the right conclusion based on information rarely given to the reader. She then points out the malefactor, is shown to be right, and, finally, explains to an admiring audience how she solved the case.

The seven stories in this collection are generally interesting, some quite so, but they would have been much better if the clues had been provided for the reader. There is another reason, however, that Loveday -- unlike Holmes -- has been mostly forgotten: Loveday has no life, no personality, and the stories are equally emotionally flat.

The Loveday tales are important in their own way, though, as they are among the earliest written by a woman about a female detective. Given that, they would be worth reading to those interested in the history of crime fiction. Otherwise, I don't particularly recommend Loveday's experiences, even to fans of Victorian melodrama and mystery.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a series of short stories about Miss Brooke, originally published in a magazine in 1893-94. They are pretty unique in that they were written by a woman about a woman who had a profession (detective) that not many other women did at that time. The writing got better as the author went on so I'm glad I read them all. I did struggle with the physical format of 2 columns with tiny font, which is how it apparently appeared originally in its magazine. My aging bifocal eyes can't keep up with that!

[Joy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loveday Brooke is a British Victorian woman who makes an interesting living: as a detective! In this book of short stories, she solves mysteries of murders, missing persons, and thefts with observation and common sense. Her actions seem obtuse and mysterious to both the reader and to other characters, but she explains all at the end of each story. This may seem formulaic, but I enjoyed not being able to guess the culprit until the very end. Brooke is like Sherlock Holmes, so if you enjoy Sir Conan Doyle, these short stories of Miss Brooke with be a refreshing twist.

[Niki (nikilovestoread) · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had never heard of Catherine Louisa Pirkis prior to reading that one of her short stories was a pick for the Dickens December readalong. I always enjoy discovering new Victorian authors that I have not heard of before. The Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective short stories were a collection of stories about a young woman detective living in London. While the stories may have been groundbreaking as featuring one of the first lady detectives, that certainly didn't mean the stories were very good, unfortunately. I prefer my mystery authors to plant little nuggets of clues here and there and even red herrings. The Loveday Brooke's stories, while the set up of the stories is good, all the clues are kept until Loveday's miraculous unveiling of the solution to the mystery. They are not mysteries that the reader gets to enjoy making speculations along the way because all the clues stay hidden. Since part of the enjoyment of mysteries is trying to figure out who the guilty party is or how the crime was committed, the Loveday Brooke's stories make for rather boring reading.

[Kat · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed these short stories after reading one in A Surprise for Christmas and Other Seasonal Mysteries. My biggest complaint is the reader is not giving all of the information the protagonist is to solve the mysteries.

[Jo-Ann Leake · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love finding obscure authors, certainly from the past, and rediscovering them. Catherine Louisa Pirkis is in this category. The plots are well articulated, the format in how Detective Brooke solves the crimes is clear and entertaining, and related historial context is enjoyable. This is a quick and light read recommended for mystery lovers everywhere.

[Liza · Rating 3 out of 5]

The thing that annoyed me about the stories is that not all the events are contained in the story.

It's one thing for the reader to not notice a clue and another thing totally to just say "I went there yesterday" (paraphrased).

I know the stories were written in 1893 but the clues need to be there.

[Mark Higginbottom · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very enjoyable read ...Victorian crime mysteries.... basically does what it says on the tin.....if you enjoy Sherlock Holmes or any Agatha Christie books then this will appeal.....I do much prefer the writing style of the older authors and novels.....so nothing too taxing just pleasant enjoyable reads....

[Ruth · Rating 2 out of 5]

8 1986. Started off well with the best stories at the beginning, but halfway through, they started to get a bit mediocre and the language just a little to stilted. . I’d give it an A for effort and an E for execution hence the two stars. Cautiously recommended to the normal crew.