The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective

By: C. L. Pirkis

Narrated by: Elizabeth Klett

Length: 6 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

Loveday Brooke is the first female detective created by a woman writer. Catherine Louisa Pirkis published stories about this smart, spirited sleuth in the 1880s, and they were collected into this anthology in 1894. In these tales, Loveday takes on cases involving wayward nuns, missing debutantes, a mysterious princess, and a ghost who resembles Napoleon, among other strange phenomena. Throughout, she is insightful, professional, and simply more intelligent than anyone else around her, indicating that Loveday and Pirkis were both ahead of their time. This collection includes seven stories: “The Black Bag Left on a Doorstep”, “The Murder at Troyte’s Hill”, “The Redhill Sisterhood”, “A Princess’ Vengeance”, “Drawn Daggers”, “The Ghost of Fountain Lane”, and “Missing”.

Public Domain (P)2020 Elizabeth Klett

Early Female Detective

This is a set of short stories, originally a magazine serial, featuring Miss Loveday Brooke, who works for a detective agency in London. Her services are much in demand, as her employer recognizes in Loveday's intelligence and gentility the traits of a valuable agent, and she is quick to repay his regard with success after success.

Pirkis was a contemporary of Arthur Conan Doyle, publishing her stories and novels during some of the same decades, and her plot formula is quite similar. Loveday, like Holmes, assesses and solves the situation quickly, reaching the right conclusion based on information rarely given to the reader. She then points out the malefactor, is shown to be right, and, finally, explains to an admiring audience how she solved the case.

The seven stories in this collection are generally interesting, some quite so, but they would have been much better if the clues had been provided for the reader. There is another reason, however, that Loveday -- unlike Holmes -- has been mostly forgotten: Loveday has no life, no personality, and the stories are equally emotionally flat.

The Loveday tales are important in their own way, though, as they are among the earliest written by a woman about a female detective. Given that, they would be worth reading to those interested in the history of crime fiction. Otherwise, I don't particularly recommend Loveday's experiences, even to fans of Victorian melodrama and mystery.

Ms. Klett's narration was average, with most voices distinctive and recognizable, but lacked a professional polish,

work to do

the best mysteries give the ability to gleen clues, there are no epiphanies, or revelations only available at the end, but clues asking the way to be read by all, the enjoyment comes from liking and understanding the characters and following the prices real time.

the best narration is one that provides intrigue much the same way as movie music in the background might.

the character was ill understood and epiphanies the norm. the narration seemed the sing song of the "valley girl" but British. suggestions: provide more depth of character, let the audience guess too and have the narration slower paced and with more range of tone and inflection. .