The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, La..., C. L. Pirkis
The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, La..., C. L. Pirkis
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The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective

Author: C. L. Pirkis

Narrator: Elizabeth Klett

Unabridged: 6 hr 34 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Spoken Realms

Published: 02/13/2021

Synopsis

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.”

About C. L. Pirkis

Catherine Louisa Pirkis (1839–1910) was a British author of detective fiction. She wrote fourteen novels between 1877 and 1894 and contributed stories to magazines such as Belgravia. The Loveday Brooke stories were serialized in the Ludgate Monthly from February to July 1893 and published in book form by Hutchinson in 1894. The series was notable for being the first collection of detective stories that featured a female heroine created by a female author. Loveday Brooke was dubbed the “female Sherlock Holmes,” and her stories were among the bestselling successors to those of Holmes.

About Elizabeth Klett

Elizabeth Klett is an English literature professor by day and an audiobook narrator by night. She has been a professional audiobook narrator since 2011 and has produced over 170 titles. She trained as an actor at Drew University and holds a doctorate from the University of Illinois. She loves reading (and teaching) fiction, drama, and poetry of all kinds, and delights in creating distinctive voices and accents for literary characters. An absolute Anglophile, Elizabeth has narrated dozens of books in a British accent, despite the fact that she’s originally from New Jersey. Her expertise in analyzing and understanding literature makes her recordings particularly enjoyable for her listeners.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Louie the Mustache on February 02, 2023

I am a huge Sherlock Holmes fan, and I was told that Catherine Louisa Pirkis had a Lady Detective the equal of Holmes. Good Lord was I sold a load of goods that were untrue. Sure, Loveday Brooke is a lady. Sure, she is a detective. In 1894, it is a hugely impressive feat to have a capable Lady Detec......more

Goodreads review by Kathy on July 22, 2015

The edition I found at Chicago's Public Library was published 1986 by Dover and part of its charm are the illustrations. Something close to it seems to exist by ebook and I would recommend doing search using her last name "Pirkis" on Amazon since there are very reasonably priced collections of the e......more

Goodreads review by Ana on February 07, 2025

This collection introduces one of the earliest fictional female detectives, written by a female author, but offering less than engaging mysteries. While the stories follow the “unfair mystery” style, where readers lack all the clues to solve them, the surprises make up for it. The charming main char......more

Goodreads review by Aniek on November 03, 2024

A fun, light read, though the stories vary between being completely predictable and unsolvable due to information that's being withheld until after Brooke has solved the case. "The Redhill Sisterhood" was my favourite.......more

Goodreads review by Elisabeth on September 23, 2021

Review to follow.......more

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