Revelations of a Lady Detective by William Stephens Hayward: book review

Revelations of aLady Detective (1864, reprinted 2013) was the second time in literature that the female protagonist was a professional detective (six months after the first fictional female sleuth). She – readers only know her as Mrs. Paschal – pre-dates the iconic Sherlock Holmes. Like the Sherlock books, WS Hayward (1835-1870) sets his fictional novel in London. It was 20 years later when the third female detective character was in print. Hence this is both a story and a retrospective glimpse of a genre in which there are few leading female characters.

What do we know of this well-experienced lady detective, Mrs. Paschal? She is “verging on 40” and “rarely acts before she thinks.” Not much else. The novel presents 10 cases – they are all brief and easily solved by the readers. Her unexpected presence as she solves crimes is rationalized in phrases such as “a woman is more likely to be successful in a thing of this sort, because men are thrown off their guard when they see a petticoat.”

There are no high-tech devices or in-depth forensics, nor a myriad of disguises. Neither does she (or the author) know their physics! Mrs. Paschal solves crimes the “old fashioned” way – through surveillance, observation, eavesdropping, police files, clues, infiltration, and working in situ (after applying for employment to be close to the scene of the crime – with no disguise except for a work uniform, if required).

The cases include robbery, forgery, a jewellery heist, and mistaken identity. But she does tackle murders too, such as the drowning of the “pretty shop girl” Laura Harwell.

One case, The Mysterious Countess, has the detective infiltrating the 25-year-old aristocrat’s home, employed as the third lady’s maid, on request of the London police to determine how she gained great wealth. Surprised that a man exited the room she had just been in (and had not seen him), she follows him right into an underground vault. Who is this midnight robber? The case of the Stolen Letters has the lady detective undercover in a post office, eventually following a man to his home where “the domestic hearth is something like wine. It shows men in their true characters.”

The Nun, the Will, and the Abbess is the case of a mother deciding, on the advice of Father Romaine when her daughter was but two years old, that at eighteen she would “retire from the world” and enter a convent. But the girl’s nineteen-year-old cousin, Alfred, fell in love with her and she reciprocated. The only way to marry her was to ask permission of her mother, or Father Romaine. On the “fatal” day, Alfred visited the chapel to witness Evelyn St. Vincent taking her vows. He watched as she fainted and was carried away. When Alfred went to the police, he was told it was “just the case for a Lady Detective” and so Mrs. Paschal became a noviciate in the convent to solve the case of Evelyn’s death.

Written in the first person, the writing often slips unelegantly into the third person. And the short cases don’t build suspense or engage the wit of the reader. For the linguists, there are quaint phrases, such as “When, ho! For the night mail, north.” But for the curious, the style is easy and light for reading on the train.