Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

I loved reading about the history of female detectives and private investigators. The women were able to get divorces thanks to the Divorce Act, but they must prove adultery. And prove it they do. They often befriended other women who would investigate other women's husbands. It was incredibly fascinating.

This was a really interesting academic deep dive into the history, both fact and lore, of female detectives.

I especially liked how the author explored the way in which gender roles were sometimes more fluid than we imagine them, but the sheer breadth and depth of the study makes it perhaps not the most accessible text for the average reader. I know sometimes I did feel it was a bit of a slog just because of the sheer amount of detail. But the writing style was engaging (if very British), and it was a fascinating window into a lesser known aspect of history.

This is a fascinating book because it talks about women who were "real" detective but it also talks about women's history and I liked how well researched and written is.
It's a fascinating and informative read that I recommend.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Darby introduces this book as an attempt to track woman as they develop careers as private investigators or detectives from the mid 1850s to a time when more “professional” options were available. It recognises that by its very nature detection might require a measure of secrecy that inevitably means that even mentioned women will not be named. Also that women might be working in male run businesses and not be reflected in historic record sources available and that further some may be doing this work part time and may” travel” under other professions. But equally she considers that this might be a trade that is exciting and gives women a chance of daily independence that some would enjoy.
Much of her information is derived through the brilliant online British Newspaper Archive. T-his allows a “broader” brush view than might be otherwise easily available. But it has it limits too in that women investigators will be only presented in certain situations and through a sexist and often sensationalist viewpoint. Darby (while recognising the need not to stand on other researchers’ toes) also considers the role of the woman detective in fiction as both a possible public vision of the role, but an exemplar that will normalise women acting in this way and thereby draw more women into the profession.
Through this book while maintaining a largely chronological stance - reflecting the evolution of the role and changes – she also picks what she sees as key entry points or dominant aspects of their actual employment. Obvious entry points are of course links to family members in the police – an organisation that will require undercover agents for some investigations. Commercial premises – the big shops for instance – will require undercover investigators to deal with persistent crime and carry the criminals forward to prosecution or compensation. In the days before “easy” divorces when they were based on “fault” they would require “independent evidence” to proceed, female investigators could pass more easily in household staff rosters, or more easily winkle out confessions from women who might be involved.
Which women would be most likely to enter the profession? Darby has identified that women have always been involved in informal managing of crime in their communities. But as it becomes more formalised women with links to the police might be selected and given levels of training and support. Actresses with their dual persona might be considered suitably adept, and later those involved in spiritualism can also be identified – not least as this activity was apparently rife with scammers and frauds. Others might just answer adverts which became more common as the century progressed.
Just as many investigators travelled under cover a few became celebrities in their own right, with press articles which might be self created and which -while acting as a good source of publicity - gave a possibly skewed view of reality. With identified names (even aliases) Darby has been able to track the lives and professional developments of these rarer women.
Taken together this makes for an interesting book that draws attention to one aspect of the increasing professionalization of women through one sphere, but the difficulties they also faced. Darby, to be fair, does say that this is an early stage of wider research to come. Readers should be aware of this, because the book is at time slight and some chapters feel in need of more research. But otherwise using a small group of women in this way this is a good general window to a profession that talks to so many other women’s issues.

The book is well-researched but unfortunately it reads as too academic. Though I don’t mind a bit of scholarly reading, I fear it might be off-putting to a casual enthusiast. More troubling was the choppy writing style. The author’s points are inconsistent and jumbled. While there are interesting bits of information, they can get tangled up in the muddled presentation.

Since my introduction to the world of Nancy Drew and Miss Marple I have been an avid reader of mysteries featuring female sleuths of all kinds. This book is a must for anyone who wonders about the real world of women detecting.
The 1857 Divorce Act opened the door for women to work as investigators, gathering the evidence need in court. Often it was a on again off again form of employment but some women were able to make a living at it. Many were in the theater which makes sense as they were gifted at roles and disguise. Besides digging up dirt on a spouse for a divorce, women were able to take on the role of a house maid in cases of suspected theft. Women of the time were often ignored and overlooked - women tend to be more observant and trusted. Before England had a police force the victim of a crime had to be their own police, doing the investigating, often with help of family and friends and then presenting their case to the local magistrate. When the Bow Street Runners were formed and later Peel and his "Peelers", women who who were related to the men who policed the community learned a lot by observation. As society evolved in its attitude to women, women found a new place in it. Pinkerton was the first detective agency to hire a woman and the British were watching.
As the author says, information on these female inquiry agents was hard to find but what she did manage to uncover made for an excellent read. I learned so much and I'm certain that the next historical mystery I read featuring a female sleuth will be all the more enjoyable with my new found information.
My thanks to the publisher Pen and Sword History and to NetGalley for giving me an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

The 1857 Divorce Act paved the way for a new career for women: that of the private detective. To divorce, you needed proof of adultery - and men soon realized that women were adept at infiltrating households and befriending wives, learning secrets, and finding evidence. Whereas previously, women had been informal snoops within their communities, now they were getting paid for it, toeing a fine line between offering a useful service and betraying members of their sex for money.
Dr. Nell Darby look at the rise of “lady detectives” from the Victorian ages, through the 1920’s “golden age of crime” on to the decline of the profession after WW2 as women police officers became more mainstream.
It was recognised quite early that women made excellent detectives as they were able to pass unnoticed as domestic servants, ordinary shoppers or fellow attendees as a social occasion. In their various roles, they were able to infiltrate daily life & gain information in a very natural way through friendship & gossip and also demonstrate their excellent powers of observation.
The book was interesting but rather more academic than I was expecting (25% of the book is sources/footnotes etc!). I would have liked more examples of the cases that the women worked on but I would still recommend it for fans of women’s history, or those who are interested in the development of policing/detectives.
Disclosure: I received an advance reader copy of this book free via NetGalley. Whilst thanks go to the publisher for the opportunity to read it, all opinions are my own.

#SisterSleuths #NetGalley #BookReview

This is a history of woman private investigators, primarily in England. There is not a lot of information out there, so this author painstakingly went through decades of census records and newspaper archives to piece together biographies of some of these women.

The book ended at 70 percent; the rest was all sources and notes!

In the 1880s, England passed a divorce act, which opened the door to not only become more independent but to support themselves as private investigators, known then as lady enquiry agents.

Any fan of history, women’s history, or British history should be fascinated with this. The writing has a very pleasing style with a focus on accuracy and staying disinterested. I just wish there was more information about individual cases out there.

I received an ARC from NetGalley.

Every so often, I read non-fiction if it's an interesting subject (and particularly something I don't know much about already), so Sister Sleuths sounded exactly like my cup of tea. It's about the history of women detectives in Britain, specifically looking at the period between their first emerging in early Victorian times and the point at which it became possible for women to join the police force.

To be honest, I get the feeling that the author had to work hard here to get the material she did and do as much as she could with it. This is one of those non-fiction books that definitely supports the aphorism: absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Much is made of both newspaper articles and census records to support the idea that women were entering the role of detective professionally long before any of them were allowed to do it within the police. They would, of course, have a specific role to play in this period in the acquiring of evidence around adultery (the so-called 'criminal conversation' familiar to anyone reading novels of the period), as they would be able to access places male detectives never could.

There's also some reference to the place of female detectives in the fiction of the time, when it seemed that the fictional detective was more commonplace than the real thing. The real thing were often part-timers, or jobbing actors between roles who found it easy to take on a part in order to get the information they were paid to find. It's telling that, now there are more options for women in terms of investigation, there seem to be very few women in this line of work in the present day (a very small percentage, according to the Association of British Investigators, which is the governing body for that sort of thing).

If there's one flaw the book has, for me at least, it's that it seems to just stop. Although it's slightly out of the remit, perhaps a conclusion taking us through the experience of women in the police or even commentary from women working in that field today would have capped the book off in a more complete way. It's still an interesting read, if a bit frustrating as a result.

I received a free copy of this book from the publishers and Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Sister Sleuths: Female Detectives in Britain by Nell Darby is an incredibly intriguing new non-fiction book. I've always been interested in hidden women's history and real life (and fictional) female detectives from the Victorian era especially is a topic I've always been interested in. This new release is a primer that discusses many from that era. There are some recognizable names, but quite a few were new to me and it made made want to learn all the more about them. It's so cool to see how fiction inspired real life, and also vice versa.

What could possibly be a more interesting topic for those who love to read about mysteries, sleuthing, poking around to discover secrets, disguises and the suffrage movement? Dr. Nell Darby has written this book encapsulating all this but what makes it even more fascinating is that the majority of it is set in the Victorian and Golden Age era and, as is obvious by the title, about women. Societal dictations played a huge role. Female sleuths sometimes chose investigating out of necessity (to find something out or financial purposes) or because there was a niche unfilled by male policemen. Some chose it for adventure and escapism, American and British alike.

Initially, women either took it upon themselves or were hired (one-time job, part time or full time) to investigate extramarital affairs and these women were called (or called themselves) private inquiry agents. The Divorce Act in 1857 offered alternatives but which was worse...to be granted a divorce or have their intimate details sounded in court?

Another facet which hadn't crossed my mind enough is the parallel between actresses and sleuths and the fact that several sleuthed after acting. This really makes sense as sleuthing involves slipping into roles. At first women were known for "hue and cry" but actively became involved. The book delves into the history of police as well. Allan Pinkerton was one of the first male investigators to hire females. Women made excellent detectives (still do!) for power of observation, keeping a low profile, befriending. They were often hired as domestic servants to spy on employers and to find thieves.

Many women agents are introduced here including Kate Warne, hired by Pinkerton, who investigated major cases. Another is Caroline Smith who was able to live on her earnings. Mary Burridge was one of the first known to include her occupation on the census. Some of the most infamous are Maud West, Kate Easton and Antonia Moser. You will read about many of the cases they were involved in, too. Read the molten lead story.
Soon detectives were advertising their skills in newspaper. Then females began pretending they were detectives in order to profit, such as living accommodation reductions and food. Authors soon wrote about women detectives and created them as characters in their books.

So much to love about this book. The photographs and illustrations add a personal touch. My favourites are of Frances Power Cobbe and Maud West who is photographed in a disguise!

My sincere thank you to Pen & Sword and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this utterly enthralling book in exchange for an honest review. I appreciate it very much.

Although we are familiar with female detectives (Miss Marple, Mrs Bradley, Agatha Raisin to pick three at random without any thought whatsoever), most of us tend to think of them – rightly or wrongly – as being the creations of Golden Age or later authors starting with Agatha Christie and Gladys Mitchell and now Francis Brody and Diana Xarissa. However, The Female Detective by Andrew Forrester (a pseudonym for James Redding Ware) was first published in 1864. That’s generally accepted as the first book featuring a female detective, although Catharine Crowe published Adventures of Susan Hopley; or, Circumstantial Evidence in 1841, over twenty years before Forrester’s book, in which Ms Hopley investigates accusations against her brother.

Sister Sleuths by Nell Darby tells us about the real-life counterparts of these fictional characters. She takes us briskly through history up to the 1850s, suggesting that women were better able to notice details, e.g. of dress or behaviour, that men would overlook and fail to recall. The book focusses on the period from the 1850s to the 1930s with a final handful of pages taking us from WWII to 2019. Darby states that the book focusses upon the private detective (aka private investigator) rather than police detectives and that’s true. This means that the book relies heavily upon newspaper archives rather than company or other organisational records.

Kate Warne was working for Allan Pinkerton in 1856 and was running his female Detective Bureau in 1860. She inspired the Pinkerton’s National Detective Agency’s motto – “We never sleep”. Pinkerton was brilliant at publicity and Kate’s obituary with (possibly exaggerated) details of her exploits was used by papers in the US and the UK. Papers in those days were quite happy to copy news from others rather than employing local correspondents.

Darby points out that undercover female detectives had been used on specific projects for some years before Kate’s exploits became widely known. Examples include men and women employed to pose as visitors at the Great Exhibition of 1851 and to watch for potential thieves. However, the UK’s Matrimonial Causes Act of 1857 made it possible to obtain a divorce via the courts rather than by a private Act of Parliament. The petitioning spouse had to prove adultery and obtaining this proof generated work for private investigators. Also, the newly formed police forces (Metropolitan Police 1829, other counties 1829-1856) would pay women to help with surveillance but don’t appear to have employed any females directly. Several female private investigators were actresses – the ability to play a part was important.

I’m glad I had the opportunity to read the book (thanks, NetGalley and Pen & Sword!) in exchange for a review, but I’m afraid it did feel a bit of a chore at times. Darby has done a lot of research: many women were mentioned and some are cited in several chapters, but most of them seemed to be interchangeable and few were very memorable. The conclusions - that some women from all classes of society enjoy opportunities to be independent and self-employed, earning money doing an interesting (and yes, sometimes dangerous) job that has mostly been perceived as a masculine one – could be applied to many jobs.

I wonder if the material would have worked better with Part 1 as a list of case studies; and Part 2 drawing out the themes and conclusions.
#SisterSleuths #NetGalley

Nell Darby’s Sister Sleuths presents a short history of the origins of the British lady private detective and her glamorous fictional counterpart.

It turns out that the history of the lady detective is as much about the story as it is about the job. Newspaper reports of manhunts and captured rogues made for thrilling journalism. Add a lady detective to the mix and you have sensational news. Working in the 1850s, American Kate Warne is considered the first professional female investigator. Her obituary, packed with legendary exploits, was reprinted time and again in Britain, smoothing the way for the independent British lady detective.

Over 17 chapters, Nell Darby looks at the types of assignment undertaken by private inquiry agents, the consequences of the Matrimonial Clauses Act, the connection between actresses, lady detectives, and suffragettes, the popularity of penny dreadfuls and dime novels, and the effect of the First World War on opportunities for women. She also includes brief biographies of the few lady detectives whose stories and cases were recorded.

The problem Darby faces is scarcity of information: “...as is so often the case with women’s history, the archives do not adequately record their lives…” (Ch. 12)

What is particularly interesting is how Darby draws social conclusions from fiction, and how the “young and fascinating” fictional detectives helped prepare the public for the real thing. It's also interesting to note how detective agencies recognised the marketing power of the lady detective, leveraging the feminine gender.

Though there is some repetition in this book, Sister Sleuths makes an easy-reading, enjoyable introduction to a fascinating profession.