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The Adventures of Maud West, Lady Detective: Secrets and Lies in the Golden Age of Crime
Maud West ran her detective agency in London for more than thirty years, having started sleuthing on behalf of society’s finest in 1905. Her exploits grabbed headlines throughout the world but, beneath the public persona, she was forced to hide vital aspects of her own identity in order to thrive in a class-obsessed and male-dominated world. And – as Susannah Stapleton reveals – she was a most unreliable witness to her own life. Who was Maud? And what was the reality of being a female private detective in the Golden Age of Crime? Interweaving tales from Maud West’s own ‘casebook’ with social history and extensive original research, Stapleton investigates the stories Maud West told about herself in a quest to uncover the truth. With walk-on parts by Dr Crippen and Dorothy L. Sayers, Parisian gangsters and Continental blackmailers, The Adventures of Maud West, Lady Detective is both a portrait of a woman ahead of her time and a deliciously salacious glimpse into the underbelly of ‘good society’ during the first half of the twentieth century.
11 pages, Audiobook
First published June 13, 2019
36 people are currently reading
1882 people want to read
About the author
Susannah Stapleton
3 books11 followersSusannah Stapleton was born in Kent in 1973. As a freelance historical researcher and writer with over twenty years’ experience, she has worked for museums and galleries, community groups, politicians and private individuals. She currently works as a bookseller at an award-winning independent bookshop in Shropshire whilst pursuing her own passion for twentieth century women’s history.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 111 reviews
June 4, 2019
This is a fascinating tale of an overlooked female detective in the early 1900's. So much research has obviously gone into this and the story is so richly woven Maud really comes to life as you read. One of the things I enjoyed, besides the stpry of Maud herself, is the authors tale of her research: how she 'discovered' Maud and unravelling her story. It adds another layer of richness.
If you enjoy historical biographies you will love this.
If you enjoy historical biographies you will love this.
June 9, 2019
Author Susannah Stapleton is a lover of mysteries and tucks herself away each year for what sounds like a perfect break – a winter, binge read, of her favourite novels. My jealousy at the thought of holidays that do not involve airports, packing, heat, or unknown places, nearly undid me. However, one winter, Ms Stapleton is unable to get into the mood for her annual book binge. Also like myself, a lover of Golden Age mysteries, she wonders whether there were any real Lady Detectives, and comes across Maud West. This glimpse of a long-forgotten, female detective agency, leads the author into an investigation of her own.
During this book, we follow the author’s research into Maud West’s life story. The tales of her investigation are mixed with West’s biography, as it is gradually unearthed, alongside wonderful articles about her cases, written by West herself. From the first chapter we are aware that Maud West met Dorothy L. Sayers and this book will surely appeal to all lovers of Golden Age crime fiction, as well as mentioning many famous criminal cases of the day.
This really is a joyous read for those of us who have a fascination for this era, and who find interest in the challenge of academic research. Stapleton is adept at introducing social history, alongside the anecdotes, adventures and articles. We read of WWI, suffragettes, Chelsea artists, society ladies, blackmail, indiscretions, spiritualists, missing people, opium, disguises and jewel thieves.
Maud West delighted in putting herself centre stage in her tales of derring-do and the author has to work hard to distinguish truth from fiction. Maud West is such an interesting character and I am so pleased that I learnt about her, and the work of female detectives between the wars, as well as delighting in the company of the author, as she narrates her story. I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.
During this book, we follow the author’s research into Maud West’s life story. The tales of her investigation are mixed with West’s biography, as it is gradually unearthed, alongside wonderful articles about her cases, written by West herself. From the first chapter we are aware that Maud West met Dorothy L. Sayers and this book will surely appeal to all lovers of Golden Age crime fiction, as well as mentioning many famous criminal cases of the day.
This really is a joyous read for those of us who have a fascination for this era, and who find interest in the challenge of academic research. Stapleton is adept at introducing social history, alongside the anecdotes, adventures and articles. We read of WWI, suffragettes, Chelsea artists, society ladies, blackmail, indiscretions, spiritualists, missing people, opium, disguises and jewel thieves.
Maud West delighted in putting herself centre stage in her tales of derring-do and the author has to work hard to distinguish truth from fiction. Maud West is such an interesting character and I am so pleased that I learnt about her, and the work of female detectives between the wars, as well as delighting in the company of the author, as she narrates her story. I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.
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June 16, 2019A fascinating effort to dig up the truth about Maud West, an honest to God lady detective in London from just before the first war to just before the second.
This is hampered by a severe dearth of actual info, so this is very much a book about the author's search for Maud and how one goes about writing history. Plus we get some of Maud's newspaper accounts of her exploits, most completely implausible, and some intriguing sidelights on crime of the period, gangs, and the struggle for professional women to establish themselves, in law enforcement and in general. It makes the best of admittedly limited material to be highly readable and very interesting.
This is hampered by a severe dearth of actual info, so this is very much a book about the author's search for Maud and how one goes about writing history. Plus we get some of Maud's newspaper accounts of her exploits, most completely implausible, and some intriguing sidelights on crime of the period, gangs, and the struggle for professional women to establish themselves, in law enforcement and in general. It makes the best of admittedly limited material to be highly readable and very interesting.
September 6, 2020
3.5/5. When I first heard about this book, I immediately knew I had to read it. This is about real-life female detective Maud West who ran a detective agency for 30 years in London during the Golden Age of Crime in the 1900s-1930s. As Susannah Stapleton tries to piece together Maud's life story (Maud West was a bit of an unreliable witness to her own life), she also gives lots of insights into other aspects of private detection during that time. These were my least favourite parts of the book to be honest, as I've come to realise that I have a hard time focusing on non-fiction that jumps around a lot in that way ("Here's a fact about this!"/"Here's an anecdote about this!"). I guess I prefer non-fiction that very much focuses on one person or a group of people, but I'm aware that that's probably a very me thing. So while I didn't enjoy it quite as much as I hoped I would, I'd still recommend this book if it sounds like something you're interested in.
August 26, 2023
This was an entertaining read for me, with lots of interesting insights into life in England (and in bits abroad) during the early 20th century - from the perspective of crime. The author follows clues, much like a detective, to assemble the life of a real Lady Detective / Sleuth, namely Maud West. Never discouraged by the many dead ends, she slowly gets to the bottom of it and reveals the woman behind the glamorous newspaper appearance.
April 22, 2021
This was an interesting true crime read about a female detective called Maud West who operated services in the early 20th century in London and whether she was all as she seemed. Lots of research was conducted into the makings of this read. The early 1900s is a historical time period that I've always been interested in. The chapters did alternate between real articles that Maud had written to national newspapers regarding cases that she had been working on and the author's own research.
May 27, 2020
I'd gone looking for a lady detective and found so much more: a remarkably complex woman who'd taken the poor hand dealt her at birth and transformed it into.a life that would be the envy of millions. She was bad-tempered and sharp and tender and kind. She loved her work, she loved her family; she was determined to have it all - and she'd almost succeeded.
I found the concept of a pre-WWI-interwar years London lady detective to be an interesting potential read. And it was.
One of my issues with the book was Stapleton's editorial choice to switch off between chapters with every other chapter between finding her journey exploring Maud's life with chapters written by Maud detailing her various cases. It interrupted the narrative flow and I was really struggling with remembering all of Maud's various family members, especially given the number and aliases and the difficulty in going back to find where they were first introduced.
Another issue I had was Stapleton's many surmises about Maud's decisions, thoughts, and actions, based on sparse or non-existent evidence. This was partly due to Maud's and her family's falsehoods about her own life and the lack of information about the average person, let alone a woman, at the time of her detective agency. But Stapleton made some big jumps, which I felt were unwarranted, even though she didn't make any declarative statements in these instances.
Overall, this was an interesting read but not one I will ultimately remember too much about shortly in the future.
I found the concept of a pre-WWI-interwar years London lady detective to be an interesting potential read. And it was.
One of my issues with the book was Stapleton's editorial choice to switch off between chapters with every other chapter between finding her journey exploring Maud's life with chapters written by Maud detailing her various cases. It interrupted the narrative flow and I was really struggling with remembering all of Maud's various family members, especially given the number and aliases and the difficulty in going back to find where they were first introduced.
Another issue I had was Stapleton's many surmises about Maud's decisions, thoughts, and actions, based on sparse or non-existent evidence. This was partly due to Maud's and her family's falsehoods about her own life and the lack of information about the average person, let alone a woman, at the time of her detective agency. But Stapleton made some big jumps, which I felt were unwarranted, even though she didn't make any declarative statements in these instances.
Overall, this was an interesting read but not one I will ultimately remember too much about shortly in the future.
June 30, 2019
Detecting the detective...
Susannah Stapleton is a historical researcher and life-long fan of Golden Age crime novels. It was while reading one of Gladys Mitchell’s Mrs Bradley novels that she found herself wondering “Were there really lady detectives – proper fleshandblood ones – in the golden age of crime?” A little searching turned up the name of Maud West, who advertised herself as “London’s only Lady detective”. Intrigued, Stapleton turned her research abilities towards finding out more about this elusive woman, and along the way to learning about the world of private detection in the first few decades of the twentieth century.
Maud’s story runs through the centre of the book, and we do gradually learn a good deal about her life. But Stapleton uses her as a jumping off point to look at all kinds of quirky aspects of society of her time, such as the growth in divorce cases, blackmail and extortion rackets, theft and kleptomania in high society, dodgy spiritualists, and the expanding role of women in the professional world – of detection, specifically, but also more generally. She uses actual cases to illustrate her subject matter and writes in an approachable, chatty style that makes the book easy and enjoyable to read. She’s also more than willing to allow her own opinions to come through, thus avoiding the dryness a more academic approach may have had, and she’s often humorous.
Maud was a mistress of self-advertisement, and wrote many articles for the newspapers and magazines of the day in which she related some of her racier adventures, with much gun-slinging, travel to exotic locations and evil blackguards whose dastardly deeds were thwarted by Maud and her team of crack detectives. Each chapter ends with either one of these tales or with an interview given by Maud to a journalist of the day. Stapleton can’t exactly disprove Maud’s stories, but nor could she prove most of them, and she’s clear that she suspects most of them are exaggerated at the very least, if not entirely invented. They add a lot to the fun though.
Stapleton digs down into old newspapers reports to find cases that Maud definitely worked on, and mostly these are to do with rather less glamorous crimes – divorces, thefts, missing persons, etc. That’s not to imply that her real work was dull – Maud was apparently a mistress of disguise, often dressing as a man in order to follow people or cases into places not easy for a “lady” to access. Her work involved her in some of the sensational society divorces of the time, and while the dope factories of South America may have been pure invention, she clearly did traipse around the spots of Europe where the rich Brits abroad got up to skulduggery, often of the amorous kind.
Maud the detective is easier to pin down than Maud the woman, though. Stapleton sifts through the many and varied stories Maud gives of her own origins in interviews over the years, and tries to get at the truth of who Maud was, where she came from, and how she ended up in “an unsuitable job for a woman”. This becomes a detective story in its own right, and the other interesting aspect of the book is that Stapleton takes us with her on her research journey rather than simply presenting us with the results. So we learn how she goes about looking up old records – censuses, birth and death records, newspaper reports and so on – and she tells us when something sets up a suspicion in her mind and how she then sets about proving or disproving it. Sometimes these leaps seem too fanciful, and often peter out, but even as they do they often reveal another piece of the jigsaw. As often happens with me when the subject of a biography is someone who didn’t necessarily want to put her private life in the public gaze, I found some of these details a little too personal, occasionally making me feel a shade uneasy. I was rather glad to discover that Stapleton herself had considered that aspect...
Without wishing to spoil the story, by the end, like Stapleton, I felt somewhat reassured about the acceptability of publishing the revelations she discovered along the way.
Stapleton also discovered that Maud’s claim to be London’s only Lady detective was entirely untrue. Not only were there other detective firms owned and run by women, but there were lots of women employed as store detectives, or working alongside the police in cases where women were able to gain easier access – in the fight against prostitution, for example, or secretly policing society events, or monitoring the more violent suffragette groups. Stapleton tells of how women gradually began to be officially employed by the police, usually as clerks but sometimes involved in detective work.
I thoroughly enjoyed this one. Maud’s story is interesting in itself, but even more fascinating are all the insights into the darker recesses of Golden Age society and particularly the rapidly changing role of women in these early years of the fight for equality. I liked Stapleton’s relaxed and often humorously judgemental and sarcastic style, and found her account of her own researches as entertaining as the information they uncovered. And for Golden Age fans, there’s a special treat in the chapter headings, mostly (perhaps all) taken from the titles of famous mystery novels and stories – Partners in Crime, A Kiss Before Dying, A Case of Identity, etc. – and the various hidden references to some of the greats Stapleton makes in her text. Highly recommended!
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, Picador.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
Susannah Stapleton is a historical researcher and life-long fan of Golden Age crime novels. It was while reading one of Gladys Mitchell’s Mrs Bradley novels that she found herself wondering “Were there really lady detectives – proper fleshandblood ones – in the golden age of crime?” A little searching turned up the name of Maud West, who advertised herself as “London’s only Lady detective”. Intrigued, Stapleton turned her research abilities towards finding out more about this elusive woman, and along the way to learning about the world of private detection in the first few decades of the twentieth century.
Maud’s story runs through the centre of the book, and we do gradually learn a good deal about her life. But Stapleton uses her as a jumping off point to look at all kinds of quirky aspects of society of her time, such as the growth in divorce cases, blackmail and extortion rackets, theft and kleptomania in high society, dodgy spiritualists, and the expanding role of women in the professional world – of detection, specifically, but also more generally. She uses actual cases to illustrate her subject matter and writes in an approachable, chatty style that makes the book easy and enjoyable to read. She’s also more than willing to allow her own opinions to come through, thus avoiding the dryness a more academic approach may have had, and she’s often humorous.
Maud was a mistress of self-advertisement, and wrote many articles for the newspapers and magazines of the day in which she related some of her racier adventures, with much gun-slinging, travel to exotic locations and evil blackguards whose dastardly deeds were thwarted by Maud and her team of crack detectives. Each chapter ends with either one of these tales or with an interview given by Maud to a journalist of the day. Stapleton can’t exactly disprove Maud’s stories, but nor could she prove most of them, and she’s clear that she suspects most of them are exaggerated at the very least, if not entirely invented. They add a lot to the fun though.
Stapleton digs down into old newspapers reports to find cases that Maud definitely worked on, and mostly these are to do with rather less glamorous crimes – divorces, thefts, missing persons, etc. That’s not to imply that her real work was dull – Maud was apparently a mistress of disguise, often dressing as a man in order to follow people or cases into places not easy for a “lady” to access. Her work involved her in some of the sensational society divorces of the time, and while the dope factories of South America may have been pure invention, she clearly did traipse around the spots of Europe where the rich Brits abroad got up to skulduggery, often of the amorous kind.
Maud the detective is easier to pin down than Maud the woman, though. Stapleton sifts through the many and varied stories Maud gives of her own origins in interviews over the years, and tries to get at the truth of who Maud was, where she came from, and how she ended up in “an unsuitable job for a woman”. This becomes a detective story in its own right, and the other interesting aspect of the book is that Stapleton takes us with her on her research journey rather than simply presenting us with the results. So we learn how she goes about looking up old records – censuses, birth and death records, newspaper reports and so on – and she tells us when something sets up a suspicion in her mind and how she then sets about proving or disproving it. Sometimes these leaps seem too fanciful, and often peter out, but even as they do they often reveal another piece of the jigsaw. As often happens with me when the subject of a biography is someone who didn’t necessarily want to put her private life in the public gaze, I found some of these details a little too personal, occasionally making me feel a shade uneasy. I was rather glad to discover that Stapleton herself had considered that aspect...
Doubt rippled through me. Had I got carried away? Were the dead fair game? And, if so, just how dead did they have to be to make it okay? Was Maud dead enough?
Without wishing to spoil the story, by the end, like Stapleton, I felt somewhat reassured about the acceptability of publishing the revelations she discovered along the way.
Stapleton also discovered that Maud’s claim to be London’s only Lady detective was entirely untrue. Not only were there other detective firms owned and run by women, but there were lots of women employed as store detectives, or working alongside the police in cases where women were able to gain easier access – in the fight against prostitution, for example, or secretly policing society events, or monitoring the more violent suffragette groups. Stapleton tells of how women gradually began to be officially employed by the police, usually as clerks but sometimes involved in detective work.
As the Leeds Mercury commented, however, ‘like all leagues to put women in the place which according to man they should occupy, the League of Womanhood has a man for its organiser.’ In this case, it was Captain Alfred Henderson-Livesey, a former officer in the Household Cavalry, who had devoted himself to reclaiming public life as an exclusively male sphere.
He’d even written a book on the subject. Sex and Public Life was, naturally, dedicated to his mother, and had a bright yellow binding to match the bile within. The main thrust of his argument was that professional women were not real women but genetically abnormal ‘sexual intermediates’ whose second-rate achievements were of interest purely because of their sex. As such, they must be stopped from corrupting the nation’s true womenfolk before the whole ‘virile race’ descended into debauched halfwittery.
I thoroughly enjoyed this one. Maud’s story is interesting in itself, but even more fascinating are all the insights into the darker recesses of Golden Age society and particularly the rapidly changing role of women in these early years of the fight for equality. I liked Stapleton’s relaxed and often humorously judgemental and sarcastic style, and found her account of her own researches as entertaining as the information they uncovered. And for Golden Age fans, there’s a special treat in the chapter headings, mostly (perhaps all) taken from the titles of famous mystery novels and stories – Partners in Crime, A Kiss Before Dying, A Case of Identity, etc. – and the various hidden references to some of the greats Stapleton makes in her text. Highly recommended!
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, Picador.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
July 9, 2019
Such a sparky, fascinating and funny biography that reads like the most charming mystery novel. Both Susannah and Maud's personalities burst onto the page, and I learned things about the 1920s and 1930s even I didn't know. Unmissable. (13+)
*Please note: this review is meant as a recommendation only. If you use it in any marketing material, online or anywhere on a published book without asking permission from me first, I will ask you to remove that use immediately. Thank you!*
*Please note: this review is meant as a recommendation only. If you use it in any marketing material, online or anywhere on a published book without asking permission from me first, I will ask you to remove that use immediately. Thank you!*
March 17, 2021
This was an unexpected gem - two parallel stories run throughout this book - both equally engaging. First we have the story of Maud West - the Lady Detective operating in London in the inter war years. Recounts of drug busts, blackmail, society parties, butlers and blackmail. With reliably unreliable narration from ' Maud" herself we have a view of the darker, seedier side of life - particularly of mens control of women. Alongside that is the equally fascinating layers of detection that Stapleton has undertaken to find out about Maud and the time and context she inhabits. Making visible her methods as a research historian was really inspiring and I've added it to my list of future professions!
November 18, 2019
I have Cleopatra Loves Books to thank for putting this fascinating title on my radar.
While reading a novel set in the ‘Golden Age of Crime Fiction’ featuring a female sleuth, Susannah Stapleton, a former bookseller, archeologist, and historical researcher, began to wonder if there really were lady detectives working during the early 20th century. An online search eventually revealed the name of one, Maud West.
Maud West, Stapleton was to learn, was a lady detective in London who established her agency in about 1905. She claimed in advertisements published in 1909 to be the principal of a high-class firm with both male and female staff, offering services to those in need of private enquiries into delicate matters. A little more research yielded several articles not only in the British press but also in international newspapers from countries as far afield as America, Australia and India, which provided further details about Maud, and her sensational career. Intrigued by the stories, Stapleton continued to dig deeper, however she soon found that Maud West was an astonishingly complex woman, and the truth about her perhaps more elusive than the most slippery private detective’s quarry.
Between chapters that illustrate Stapleton’s painstaking research process and her incredible findings, the author includes reprints of articles written by Maud West for a tabloid broadsheet detailing her supposed exploits as a lady detective. It is a rather unconventional narrative, but it results in an entertaining and easy read. The book is further enhanced by the inclusion of photographs and newspaper excerpts, and Stapleton also provides some social history for context.
I really enjoyed The Adventures of Maud West, Lady Detective. The woman herself is a fascinating figure, and Stapleton’s pursuit of her life story makes for compelling reading.
While reading a novel set in the ‘Golden Age of Crime Fiction’ featuring a female sleuth, Susannah Stapleton, a former bookseller, archeologist, and historical researcher, began to wonder if there really were lady detectives working during the early 20th century. An online search eventually revealed the name of one, Maud West.
Maud West, Stapleton was to learn, was a lady detective in London who established her agency in about 1905. She claimed in advertisements published in 1909 to be the principal of a high-class firm with both male and female staff, offering services to those in need of private enquiries into delicate matters. A little more research yielded several articles not only in the British press but also in international newspapers from countries as far afield as America, Australia and India, which provided further details about Maud, and her sensational career. Intrigued by the stories, Stapleton continued to dig deeper, however she soon found that Maud West was an astonishingly complex woman, and the truth about her perhaps more elusive than the most slippery private detective’s quarry.
Between chapters that illustrate Stapleton’s painstaking research process and her incredible findings, the author includes reprints of articles written by Maud West for a tabloid broadsheet detailing her supposed exploits as a lady detective. It is a rather unconventional narrative, but it results in an entertaining and easy read. The book is further enhanced by the inclusion of photographs and newspaper excerpts, and Stapleton also provides some social history for context.
I really enjoyed The Adventures of Maud West, Lady Detective. The woman herself is a fascinating figure, and Stapleton’s pursuit of her life story makes for compelling reading.
July 8, 2023
Very engaging and entertaining.
Further review to follow
Further review to follow
July 16, 2020
I bought this book for research, but it turned out to be one of the most entertaining reads I’ve enjoyed this year.
On the surface, it’s a biography about Maud West, a pioneering businesswoman – and larger than life character – who claimed to be London’s first lady detective. But ‘Maud’ had more secrets than her clients and an enthralling mystery ensues. Written with wit and verve, Susannah Stapleton throws herself into this genealogical quest, gradually peels back the layers and finally tracks down the real woman behind the headlines; while providing a vivid social history of the shady world of private inquiry agencies at the same time.
This book has been nominated for the 2020 CWA Non-Fiction Dagger Award – and in my opinion, it thoroughly deserves to win.
On the surface, it’s a biography about Maud West, a pioneering businesswoman – and larger than life character – who claimed to be London’s first lady detective. But ‘Maud’ had more secrets than her clients and an enthralling mystery ensues. Written with wit and verve, Susannah Stapleton throws herself into this genealogical quest, gradually peels back the layers and finally tracks down the real woman behind the headlines; while providing a vivid social history of the shady world of private inquiry agencies at the same time.
This book has been nominated for the 2020 CWA Non-Fiction Dagger Award – and in my opinion, it thoroughly deserves to win.
March 4, 2021
This follows the author's research into the life and detective practice of one of the female private detectives operating in early 20th-century London. Maud West was a real person (although the name she used for her business was not her real name) and Stapleton slowly found out quite a lot about her life, overturning a lot of the assumptions that she had made at the beginning.
The parts about detectives of the day and their work were interesting enough for me to give this 4 stars. But it does feel slow in places because of the focus on Stapleton's research.
From the blurb, I was expecting this to include a memoir or diary written by Maud West but it doesn't. The parts written by her are short, sensationalist articles for newspapers, interleaved between the chapters.
The parts about detectives of the day and their work were interesting enough for me to give this 4 stars. But it does feel slow in places because of the focus on Stapleton's research.
From the blurb, I was expecting this to include a memoir or diary written by Maud West but it doesn't. The parts written by her are short, sensationalist articles for newspapers, interleaved between the chapters.
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November 29, 2019"If I learned anything from my two-year incarceration in a ladies' college, it was that there's nothing like a good murder to lift the spirits."
August 19, 2022
Quite an interesting book and I enjoyed the short stories included in it.
January 30, 2020
Maud West was one of a small number of female private detectives working in London in the early 20th century. As a fan of Golden Age crime novels, this got the author wondering about real-life counterparts and so she set out to research one of them. This was a brilliant biography and piece of social history. What was also great was how Stapleton talked about the research process and how she sometimes had to think out of the box to find information. Definitely recommend this.
February 16, 2020
Dear me. I thought I'd expire from boredom reading this.And I didn't even finish it!!!! This was to be a book about Maud West lady detective, instead we got Ms Stapleton waffling on about the journey she went on to find her. When she felt she might lose her reader she threw in a revelation to keep us interested and then muddied the waters by giving various different scenarios for her reveal. Got so bored I gave up on it.
November 17, 2024
In theory, this was great: an unknown “lady detective” based in London in the early 20th century who had remained hidden from history. There are photos and details about the hunt to discover more about her. This got really slow for me because of all the details without the author having sufficiently explained why I should care about who this person was or what place she held in history.
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November 23, 2023I have read *many* detective fictions/cozy crime novels set in the early years of the 20th century with an independent female detective lead, so hearing about a true life example was a pleasant addition to the genre. The real mystery of this story is the detective herself, and the author’s attempts to unearth the ‘true’ details of her life and work. Stapleton reveals her research attempts and frustrations, along with her discoveries, in a way that takes the reader (or listener, thank you Libby) along with her getting to know a truly remarkable woman in Maud West.
June 20, 2019
This rather marvelous book is a mashup of biography, social history, and what for a lack of a better phrase I might call “research thriller”. Susannah Stapleton comes across the figure of Maud West by chance, while idly pondering whether lady detectives had existed during the Golden Age of crime fiction; she’s only thinking about this at all because of a historical missing-persons case that regular historical research had led her to. When she finds Maud West, her interest is piqued by the dearth of information. “The game”, as she winningly puts it, “was afoot.”
Maud West did exist, although she wasn’t born under that name. She opened a private investigation agency in London in 1905 and ran it until just before the Second World War, employing a small staff of hand-selected and rigorously trained men and women as well as undertaking large amounts of field work herself. She wrote “case study” pieces for a variety of tabloids, and filled them with tales of derring-do, often involving white slavers, cocaine smugglers, last-minute ocean liner voyages, and fisticuffs (or, just as often, the well-timed production of a small revolver). Stapleton concludes that West mostly made these stories up–but why? Her business flourished; she tracked cheating spouses, fraudulent salesmen, dishonest cardsharps and country-house jewel thieves. In other advertising venues, she made much of her work amongst the “best sort”; the aristocracy and upper middle classes, in other words. West’s psychology–what she felt she had to prove; the characters she enjoyed playing; her love of disguise (this is borne out by many, many contemporary news features including photographs of West disguised as an old woman, a businessman, a vicar, and so on)–fascinates Stapleton, and the more she digs, the clearer it becomes that the life of this particular private investigator was at least as interesting as any of the cases she worked over the course of her career. Amongst other revelations, and without wishing to spoil anything, West’s life story includes a name change, illegitimacy, and someone who spends forty years masquerading as his own uncle.
Stapleton structures her book brilliantly: excerpts from sensationalist articles written by West are reprinted between chapters. Each chapter is named for a classic crime novel and deals (roughly) with some relevant social issue of the time, like the introduction of women to the Metropolitan police force or the “nightclub panic” of the interwar years, spliced with details of Stapleton’s sleuthing. Quite apart from being an excellent introduction to the Golden Age of crime outside of the pages of fiction, The Adventures of Maud West also functions as a window into the life of a working researcher. Stapleton takes trains from her home in Shropshire to the British Library to read archival clippings; she tracks down out-of-print books to get a sense of how West might have trained herself in investigation techniques; she scans international print databases and calls up descendants. The thrill of the academic chase is a huge part of the book’s appeal–which is really saying something, given that its subject is a woman with such immense willpower, fortitude, and peculiarity of character. A more engaging and intellectually stimulating biography you won’t read this summer.
The Adventures of Maud West, Lady Detective was published by Picador on 13 June.
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Maud West did exist, although she wasn’t born under that name. She opened a private investigation agency in London in 1905 and ran it until just before the Second World War, employing a small staff of hand-selected and rigorously trained men and women as well as undertaking large amounts of field work herself. She wrote “case study” pieces for a variety of tabloids, and filled them with tales of derring-do, often involving white slavers, cocaine smugglers, last-minute ocean liner voyages, and fisticuffs (or, just as often, the well-timed production of a small revolver). Stapleton concludes that West mostly made these stories up–but why? Her business flourished; she tracked cheating spouses, fraudulent salesmen, dishonest cardsharps and country-house jewel thieves. In other advertising venues, she made much of her work amongst the “best sort”; the aristocracy and upper middle classes, in other words. West’s psychology–what she felt she had to prove; the characters she enjoyed playing; her love of disguise (this is borne out by many, many contemporary news features including photographs of West disguised as an old woman, a businessman, a vicar, and so on)–fascinates Stapleton, and the more she digs, the clearer it becomes that the life of this particular private investigator was at least as interesting as any of the cases she worked over the course of her career. Amongst other revelations, and without wishing to spoil anything, West’s life story includes a name change, illegitimacy, and someone who spends forty years masquerading as his own uncle.
Stapleton structures her book brilliantly: excerpts from sensationalist articles written by West are reprinted between chapters. Each chapter is named for a classic crime novel and deals (roughly) with some relevant social issue of the time, like the introduction of women to the Metropolitan police force or the “nightclub panic” of the interwar years, spliced with details of Stapleton’s sleuthing. Quite apart from being an excellent introduction to the Golden Age of crime outside of the pages of fiction, The Adventures of Maud West also functions as a window into the life of a working researcher. Stapleton takes trains from her home in Shropshire to the British Library to read archival clippings; she tracks down out-of-print books to get a sense of how West might have trained herself in investigation techniques; she scans international print databases and calls up descendants. The thrill of the academic chase is a huge part of the book’s appeal–which is really saying something, given that its subject is a woman with such immense willpower, fortitude, and peculiarity of character. A more engaging and intellectually stimulating biography you won’t read this summer.
The Adventures of Maud West, Lady Detective was published by Picador on 13 June.
If you like what I write, why not buy me a coffee?
June 12, 2019
Five out of five completely fabricated thrilling tales of derring-do to The Adventures of Maud West, Lady Detective!
I was hooked from the first few pages of this book, when the author, Susannah Stapleton, describes how she found herself suddenly ungripped by her favourite Golden Age detective stories and decided instead to find out about real women detectives of the time. Maud West is who she found, and Maud West is who she investigates.
Don’t pick up The Adventures of Maud West expecting thrilling romps through exotic locales and narrow escapes from death! No, this is a much more laid-back and subtle book than that. And, while I enjoy a good death-defying piece of heroism (the lives of the women SOE agents, for example, fascinate me – and yet they too were, ultimately, perfectly ordinary women who just ended up doing extraordinary things), I loved the way that Maud West was unfolded throughout this book.
Just as this isn’t a series of hair-raising adventures, it also isn’t precisely a biography in the usual sense. Certainly it deals with many of the facts and mysteries of Maud West’s life, but it’s just as much a journey with Susannah Stapleton as she begins with a few quick searches and gradually dives deeper and deeper into the life of her subject. We go along for the ride as she becomes more and more fascinated with the shadowy Maud West, sometimes excited, sometimes disillusioned, always trying to make the pieces into something coherent.
The format of this book is a lot of fun. Almost the first thing the author discovered related to Maud West was a series of stories in a truly trashy weekly magazine. These stories were not only full of the best detective story tropes and astonishing feats of brilliance and survival, but were written by Maud West herself. The rest of the book consists of alternated chapters describing Stapleton’s investigation, and selected stories of her thrilling adventures by Maud West.
The format can make the narrative a little bit disjointed but these bonkers stories were so much fun to read that I didn’t really care. Plus, there is a great contrast between the woman portrayed in the stories – a woman who is a crack shot with a pistol, cross-dresses regularly, and never loses her cool in the face of almost certain death – and the very ordinary (but still intriguing!) woman who emerges from Susannah Stapleton’s researches. Altogether it makes for a fascinating read.
I also appreciated the part where the author explains how when she realised she might be able to trace people still alive today who remembered Maud West, she wasn’t actually sure she wanted to. It reminded me vividly of the conversations in Dorothy L. Sayers’ Gaudy Night about the moral duty of an academic to bring all the facts to light, no matter their personal feelings in the matter. Perhaps it’s rather silly but I did enjoy the real-life parallel!
All in all I thoroughly enjoyed The Adventures of Maud West. It was a light, fun, interesting read about a very ordinary woman trying to make her way and support her family in a man’s world. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys biographies of excellent women or detective stories.
I was hooked from the first few pages of this book, when the author, Susannah Stapleton, describes how she found herself suddenly ungripped by her favourite Golden Age detective stories and decided instead to find out about real women detectives of the time. Maud West is who she found, and Maud West is who she investigates.
Don’t pick up The Adventures of Maud West expecting thrilling romps through exotic locales and narrow escapes from death! No, this is a much more laid-back and subtle book than that. And, while I enjoy a good death-defying piece of heroism (the lives of the women SOE agents, for example, fascinate me – and yet they too were, ultimately, perfectly ordinary women who just ended up doing extraordinary things), I loved the way that Maud West was unfolded throughout this book.
Just as this isn’t a series of hair-raising adventures, it also isn’t precisely a biography in the usual sense. Certainly it deals with many of the facts and mysteries of Maud West’s life, but it’s just as much a journey with Susannah Stapleton as she begins with a few quick searches and gradually dives deeper and deeper into the life of her subject. We go along for the ride as she becomes more and more fascinated with the shadowy Maud West, sometimes excited, sometimes disillusioned, always trying to make the pieces into something coherent.
The format of this book is a lot of fun. Almost the first thing the author discovered related to Maud West was a series of stories in a truly trashy weekly magazine. These stories were not only full of the best detective story tropes and astonishing feats of brilliance and survival, but were written by Maud West herself. The rest of the book consists of alternated chapters describing Stapleton’s investigation, and selected stories of her thrilling adventures by Maud West.
The format can make the narrative a little bit disjointed but these bonkers stories were so much fun to read that I didn’t really care. Plus, there is a great contrast between the woman portrayed in the stories – a woman who is a crack shot with a pistol, cross-dresses regularly, and never loses her cool in the face of almost certain death – and the very ordinary (but still intriguing!) woman who emerges from Susannah Stapleton’s researches. Altogether it makes for a fascinating read.
I also appreciated the part where the author explains how when she realised she might be able to trace people still alive today who remembered Maud West, she wasn’t actually sure she wanted to. It reminded me vividly of the conversations in Dorothy L. Sayers’ Gaudy Night about the moral duty of an academic to bring all the facts to light, no matter their personal feelings in the matter. Perhaps it’s rather silly but I did enjoy the real-life parallel!
All in all I thoroughly enjoyed The Adventures of Maud West. It was a light, fun, interesting read about a very ordinary woman trying to make her way and support her family in a man’s world. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys biographies of excellent women or detective stories.
November 10, 2019
A good 7/10 (still unhappy with and resistant to the inadequate 5-star system), I enjoyed most of Susannah Stapleton's The Adventures of Maud West, Lady Detective: Secrets and Lies in the Golden Age of Crime. 'Secrets' because there was a private woman behind the name-change to Maud West, that of Edith Maria Barber, married as Elliott, private detective from ~1905-1939, and mother of six children; and 'lies', because she seemed to have invented a lot of thrilling stories à la mode of Conan Doyle, as she undertook largely humdrum and tedious detective work (waiting, watching, divorce cases...) during the Golden Age of the whodunnit - so you can't blame her for her adventurous advertising in frequent articles in weeklies and newspapers, some of which must have added another source of income, and much publicity.
Apart from some tall tales and the emerging picture of a busy and complex character, the book demonstrated the enormous amount of research required in historical non-fiction and biography, made significantly easier since the age of the internet, but still nonetheless required the collation of vast depositories of information that must have seemed to those involved of little use to anyone outside of family. What emerged was the re-creation of a family living through particularly troubled times, with two world wars, the fight of the suffragettes for (at least) greater equality, as well as the ordinary lives of struggle and survival in an age without the NHS and modern conveniences.
It is, of course, a detective story in itself, and while the structure of alternating chapters named after titles of prominent golden age authors (Christie, Allingham, Sayers, Doyle, Tey…) with short pieces by Maud herself was also a record of the journalistic research journey, it meant that, necessarily, there could never be a smooth storyline woven throughout, but each chapter revealing a little more of the character of the industrious sleuth, while concentrating on thematic issues such as types of crime (divorce, blackmail, drugs) and the detection methods (disguise, shadowing, and so on).
Naturally, with a personality like Maud's - self-publicist and part-adventurer - the author was as often confused as I was about what was truth and which fiction, but in the end it's another look at a period which in the imagination, at least, removed from the horrors of those wars and the living conditions of the time, is as much romanticised by us, authors of historical fiction, film-makers and TV studios, as Maud romanticised her profession. We're not too interested in the grime beneath the surface colour, even if the subject is crime in all its indignities. What emerges is a patchwork of pentimenti, but a nonetheless fascinating look at a period and a personality that fills in certain gaps between the whodunnits and mysteries of a golden age of the genre, which create a very personal map of the era in our minds.
I enjoyed the journey - but I must say, I could never undertake such hard work over so long for such a work, of historical non-fiction. I'll stick to the made-up stories. It seems so much easier.
Apart from some tall tales and the emerging picture of a busy and complex character, the book demonstrated the enormous amount of research required in historical non-fiction and biography, made significantly easier since the age of the internet, but still nonetheless required the collation of vast depositories of information that must have seemed to those involved of little use to anyone outside of family. What emerged was the re-creation of a family living through particularly troubled times, with two world wars, the fight of the suffragettes for (at least) greater equality, as well as the ordinary lives of struggle and survival in an age without the NHS and modern conveniences.
It is, of course, a detective story in itself, and while the structure of alternating chapters named after titles of prominent golden age authors (Christie, Allingham, Sayers, Doyle, Tey…) with short pieces by Maud herself was also a record of the journalistic research journey, it meant that, necessarily, there could never be a smooth storyline woven throughout, but each chapter revealing a little more of the character of the industrious sleuth, while concentrating on thematic issues such as types of crime (divorce, blackmail, drugs) and the detection methods (disguise, shadowing, and so on).
Naturally, with a personality like Maud's - self-publicist and part-adventurer - the author was as often confused as I was about what was truth and which fiction, but in the end it's another look at a period which in the imagination, at least, removed from the horrors of those wars and the living conditions of the time, is as much romanticised by us, authors of historical fiction, film-makers and TV studios, as Maud romanticised her profession. We're not too interested in the grime beneath the surface colour, even if the subject is crime in all its indignities. What emerges is a patchwork of pentimenti, but a nonetheless fascinating look at a period and a personality that fills in certain gaps between the whodunnits and mysteries of a golden age of the genre, which create a very personal map of the era in our minds.
I enjoyed the journey - but I must say, I could never undertake such hard work over so long for such a work, of historical non-fiction. I'll stick to the made-up stories. It seems so much easier.
September 9, 2019
This ‘biography’ (I use this term loosely, as discussed below) of Maud West, a lady detective operating in London during the first half of the twentieth century, was in turns both interesting and frustrating, but never turned into the book I hoped it would be (and was advertised as) and therefore was something of a disappointment.
The tag-line ‘The life and times...’ may be strictly true, but it is far more the latter than the former, and there are many more comprehensive volumes on the social and societal structures of these eras, and particularly with regards to the role of women, should one be interested in this. As someone who is extremely keen on these topics, I would not have paid a fair chunk of money for this book had I realised that it would be treading old ground, and in a relatively superficial way. But that’s more personal preference than anything else.
When it comes to Maud itself, I’m not sure that I left the book with much more understanding of her than I started with - very little. I understand the challenge - she was secretive about her private life and highly selective when it came to the public persona she cultivated, with the majority of evidence (particularly with regards to cases) coming from Maud’s own writings or interviews, and although Susannah Stapleton sought corroborating evidence to confirm the degree of truth to them, she found very little. Yet she also seemed to place a fair amount of blind trust in Maud’s words, despite several examples of cases proving to be either entirely untrue, or in direct contradiction of other evidence.
At times, she went so far as to make sweeping assumptions, or used quotes and small hints to fit into her sense of the time, or her own vision of what she would like Maud to be.
This, for me, was the crux - Stapleton appeared extremely attached to her own vision of Maud’s life (she admits as much on one occasion) and I felt that this book was as much about her journey and personality than that of Maud’s. In a way, this can be argued as a positive aspect of the book - the author recognises the subjective nature of biography and her own role in its creation, but the repeated use of the phrase ‘I like to imagine that...’ suggested that it had skewed too far in that direction.
As a general glance at the time period, and the difficulties of obtaining biographical evidence, it was fine. I just wish it had been more explicit about that from the beginning.
The tag-line ‘The life and times...’ may be strictly true, but it is far more the latter than the former, and there are many more comprehensive volumes on the social and societal structures of these eras, and particularly with regards to the role of women, should one be interested in this. As someone who is extremely keen on these topics, I would not have paid a fair chunk of money for this book had I realised that it would be treading old ground, and in a relatively superficial way. But that’s more personal preference than anything else.
When it comes to Maud itself, I’m not sure that I left the book with much more understanding of her than I started with - very little. I understand the challenge - she was secretive about her private life and highly selective when it came to the public persona she cultivated, with the majority of evidence (particularly with regards to cases) coming from Maud’s own writings or interviews, and although Susannah Stapleton sought corroborating evidence to confirm the degree of truth to them, she found very little. Yet she also seemed to place a fair amount of blind trust in Maud’s words, despite several examples of cases proving to be either entirely untrue, or in direct contradiction of other evidence.
At times, she went so far as to make sweeping assumptions, or used quotes and small hints to fit into her sense of the time, or her own vision of what she would like Maud to be.
This, for me, was the crux - Stapleton appeared extremely attached to her own vision of Maud’s life (she admits as much on one occasion) and I felt that this book was as much about her journey and personality than that of Maud’s. In a way, this can be argued as a positive aspect of the book - the author recognises the subjective nature of biography and her own role in its creation, but the repeated use of the phrase ‘I like to imagine that...’ suggested that it had skewed too far in that direction.
As a general glance at the time period, and the difficulties of obtaining biographical evidence, it was fine. I just wish it had been more explicit about that from the beginning.
August 5, 2019
The Adventures of Maud West, Lady Detective, by Susannah Stapleton and published by Picador, is subtitled ‘Secrets and Lies in the Golden Age of Crime‘. With a title like that I thought it sounded just the sort of book I would like – and I did.
It is so intriguing – was Maud West really who she said she was? Susannah Stapleton discovered that she really did exist and was indeed a private investigator with her own detective agency, based in London in the early part of the twentieth century, from 1905 onwards. The book gives plenty of extracts from Maud West’s own accounts of her investigations under Golden Age crime fiction titles such as The Lady Vanishes, The Body in the Library, and They Do It With Mirrors, for example. But these accounts had me wondering just what was the truth and what was fiction. They are so incredible! Maud was truly an amazing person – a master of disguise, equally able to pass herself off as a man, or a fortune teller, or a parlour maid, and skilled with a revolver, able to face down blackmailers. There are photographs of Maud – at work in her office and in a number of disguises. And it was not just in Britain – she worked all over the place including New York, Cape Town, Brazil, and Jakarta.
But what makes the book so good, and what kept me glued to the pages are the details of how Susannah Stapleton went about her research, included within the main narrative of her book. I haven’t come across this before – usually an author lists the sources used at the end – and there is just such a list (a very long and comprehensive list) at the end of this book. I was more intrigued by Stapleton’s own methods of research into finding out about Maud than I was by Maud herself.
I also loved all the details of the changing society in which Maud lived – the role of women in the struggle for equality, details of the living and working conditions and of the crimes that real life private detectives investigated – divorces, missing persons, adultery and theft.
It more than lived up to my expectations, but I am still wondering did she really do what she said she did? Whatever the truth she was a complex woman and a very private one at that.
Many thanks to the publishers, Picador, for my review copy via NetGalley.
It is so intriguing – was Maud West really who she said she was? Susannah Stapleton discovered that she really did exist and was indeed a private investigator with her own detective agency, based in London in the early part of the twentieth century, from 1905 onwards. The book gives plenty of extracts from Maud West’s own accounts of her investigations under Golden Age crime fiction titles such as The Lady Vanishes, The Body in the Library, and They Do It With Mirrors, for example. But these accounts had me wondering just what was the truth and what was fiction. They are so incredible! Maud was truly an amazing person – a master of disguise, equally able to pass herself off as a man, or a fortune teller, or a parlour maid, and skilled with a revolver, able to face down blackmailers. There are photographs of Maud – at work in her office and in a number of disguises. And it was not just in Britain – she worked all over the place including New York, Cape Town, Brazil, and Jakarta.
But what makes the book so good, and what kept me glued to the pages are the details of how Susannah Stapleton went about her research, included within the main narrative of her book. I haven’t come across this before – usually an author lists the sources used at the end – and there is just such a list (a very long and comprehensive list) at the end of this book. I was more intrigued by Stapleton’s own methods of research into finding out about Maud than I was by Maud herself.
I also loved all the details of the changing society in which Maud lived – the role of women in the struggle for equality, details of the living and working conditions and of the crimes that real life private detectives investigated – divorces, missing persons, adultery and theft.
It more than lived up to my expectations, but I am still wondering did she really do what she said she did? Whatever the truth she was a complex woman and a very private one at that.
Many thanks to the publishers, Picador, for my review copy via NetGalley.
June 20, 2019
Brilliant read!! I loved everything about it: from the voice of the narrator to the entire process of researching Maud West, so well detailed and therefore so satisfying, to everything in between: Maud's articles, the photos, all the historical details about detectives and their job but also changes in law and custom and the impact on society.
What I loved best, apart from actually discovering the life of this extraordinary woman, was the love-hate relationship the researcher/author had with Maud West. It was really endearing how honestly she wrote about her ever shifting feelings: love, hate, fear of unearthing more and having to change her views. I believe a researcher does start to feel attached to the person/s he/she is researching, it is inevitable as they become more than just a job, they become an tiny part of the researcher and they almost live again.
What I loved best, apart from actually discovering the life of this extraordinary woman, was the love-hate relationship the researcher/author had with Maud West. It was really endearing how honestly she wrote about her ever shifting feelings: love, hate, fear of unearthing more and having to change her views. I believe a researcher does start to feel attached to the person/s he/she is researching, it is inevitable as they become more than just a job, they become an tiny part of the researcher and they almost live again.
April 21, 2021
The author’s sentence, in chapter 5, “Could one ever trust a private detective?” is the driving thought she is writing from throughout the entire book.
I found this a negative toned read, with Stapleton trying to prove that Maud is a fake and a liar: the later portion of the title is the clue, Secrets and Lies in the Golden Age of Crime with the main secret and lie in this book being Maud herself.
While some of the supporting historical details are interesting this is not a title I’ll be recommending to those in any of my book reading groups.
The audio does need to be sped up as Clare reading of the Adventures of Maud West becomes rather slow and ponderous after a while.
I found this a negative toned read, with Stapleton trying to prove that Maud is a fake and a liar: the later portion of the title is the clue, Secrets and Lies in the Golden Age of Crime with the main secret and lie in this book being Maud herself.
While some of the supporting historical details are interesting this is not a title I’ll be recommending to those in any of my book reading groups.
The audio does need to be sped up as Clare reading of the Adventures of Maud West becomes rather slow and ponderous after a while.
October 26, 2022
A real lady detective back in the early 1900’s. Sounds like it might be good. It was ok. The reality of a detectives life was highlighted very well. The absolute mindless drudgery of having to watch people for days on end, not to mention the endless research without the luxury of Google. The authors research was very well done and I would give her 5 stars. There was so much fiction to Mauds life however that it was impossible to believe a lot of it.
November 1, 2019
I really enjoyed this book--it's not quite what I expected. Yes, there's the interest that drew me to the subject, Maud West, Lady Detective, but as Susannah Stapleton tries and tries to unravel fact from fiction, the book becomes about the roles of women at a certain time in England's past. The result is highly readable, and, at time, moving.
October 22, 2021
Really enjoyed this. Loved the digressions into life and techniques, all excellent background for a frustratingly sketchy life story. Also huge kudos for structuring the book around the author's own research, which is rewarding as an insight into biographical work and life writing in and of itself. Truly fascinating.
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