The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Female Detective – Sara Lodge

12 October, 2025 at 3:00 pm

From Wilkie Collins to the adventures of Sherlock Holmes, the traditional image of the Victorian detective is male. But women detectives successfully investigated Victorian Britain, working with the police and for private agencies, which they sometimes managed themselves. Sara Lodge recovers these forgotten women’s lives including a detective from Sheffield. She also reveals the sensational role played by the fantasy female detective in Victorian melodrama and popular fiction, enthralling a public who relished the spectacle of a cross-dressing, fist-swinging heroine who got the better of love rats, burglars and murderers alike.

Dr Sara Lodge is senior lecturer in Victorian literature and culture at the University of St Andrews.

“…. Lodge’s book races along like the detective stories at its heart …” Noreen Masud