Summary:
What is a young lady like Loveday Brooke doing in a private detective agency? She’s working there, as a clever sleuth, a female Sherlock Holmes of sorts. Excerpts: “Loveday Brooke, at this period of her career, was a little over thirty years of age, and could be best described in a series of negations. “She was not tall, she was not short; she was not dark, she was not fair; she was neither handsome nor ugly. Her features were altogether nondescript; her one noticeable trait was a habit she had, when absorbed in thought, of dropping her eyelids over her eyes till only a line of eyeball showed, and she appeared to be looking out at the world through a slit, instead of through a window. Her dress was invariably black, and was almost Quaker-like in its neat primness.”
But what one could say affirmatively about her was that Loveday Brooke was a naturally talented private detective, a chosen career that had cut her off sharply from her former associates and her position in society.
Group Reviews/Comments
I liked that these were short stories.
I really liked that the woman protagonist was a business woman and not an amateur sleuth. She was getting paid!
It was really interesting that the police paid a professional detective service! Sherlock Holmes was often hired by the police too.
I liked that there was nothing unusual about a woman being a detective. She was treated as valued and with respect and accepted. Her skills and professionalism were taken at face value without making a big deal about her being a woman.
I really liked how her competence is recognized without calling it out.
I liked her relationship with her boss.
It took me a while to get into it, especially since they were short stories. But I did eventually.
She was very much like Sherlock Holmes–but no Watson!
Delightful. I like smart characters!
You could really see how much Sherlock Holmes inspired these stories.
I liked it, but by the end I felt it was missing something. Not sure what.
Thumbs up. Thin–yes. But I liked how it was a woman detective written by a woman.
Thumbs up. Yes, formulaic. But a breath of fresh air too!
I liked that it was short stories. I wish the reader could have followed along and seen how she solved the mysteries in the moment rather than just her explanation. I liked the humor between her and her boss.
I found the plotting and the character development weak. Mysteries were formulaic. That said, I appreciated that this was the first of its kind –a woman author with a woman detective.
