Move over, Holmes, the ladies have arrived!

It is the late Victorian era and society is both entranced by and fearful of that suspicious character known as the New Woman. She rides new- fangled bicycles and doesn’t like to be told what to do. And, in crime fiction, female detectives such as Loveday Brooke and Dorcas Dene are out there shadowing suspects, crawling through secret passages, fingerprinting corpses, and sometimes committing a lesser crime in order to solve a murder. Michael Sims, editor of The Penguin Book of Gaslight Crime, has brought together some of the era’s great crime-fighting females in a classic collection of suspense and charm.

PRAISE FOR THE PENGUIN BOOK OF GASLIGHT CRIME-

‘Excellent … The crimes are ingenious, and there are diamonds aplenty.’ - Los Angeles Times

‘Fun to read and evokes a bygone period of crime fiction … One can only hope for a sequel.’ - Library Journal

‘A genius cover design … Brilliantly edited by Michael Sims.’ - NewYorker.com