Revelations of a lady detective

Revelations of a Lady Detective is only the second novel ever published featuring a female detective and was pipped to the post by just 6 months by Andrew Forrester's The Lady Detective published in the same year, 1864 (republished by The British Library in 2012).

These two are truly the pioneering lady detectives since there would be no other fictional female detectives after them for nearly 25 years.

Mrs Paschal, the heroine of the novel, is a very different character from her predecessor.

For a start, she is shown smoking on the front cover - smoking was considered very modern and daring for women, even in the late 19th century.

She carries a Colt revolver, trails suspects and searches houses.

This much racier female detective is equally inventive, intuitive and insightful as she works her way through a variety of cases involving theft, murder and kidnapping.

The publication of this very rare novel will be welcomed by all fans of Victorian crime fiction.