The female detective : [the original lady detective, 1864] /

This entry in the British Library Crime Classics series is mainly of interest in a literary historical sense, but as such, it is a very significant book. Forrester's collection of stories, first published in 1864, represents the first instance of a female detective in crime fiction. Forrester is the pseudonym of James Redding Ware, whose creation, Mrs. Gladden, or G, recounts her experiences solving crime in seven stories (a couple are almost novella-length). What's most interesting about G is how she writes about the advantages that women have in gaining access to people and their secrets since they can easily infiltrate businesses and households in the guise of a worker or a companion. What's disheartening here is the overblown language Forrester uses, which drains the stories of a lot of interest. Readers should definitely read the foreword by Alexander McCall Smith, whose Precious Ramotswe is a preeminent example of the contemporary female detective. The foreword sparkles with Smith's insights, and the stories will surely attract the attention of anyone with an interest in the history of the genre.--Fletcher, Connie Copyright 2016 Booklist

This republication of an 1864 mystery by Forrester (the pseudonym of James Redding Ware), with a heroine "usually regarded as the first professional female detective to appear in fiction," according to Mike Ashley's introduction, has some intriguing elements-such as the discussion of the significance of a dog not barking-but these are relatively few. Modern readers may struggle a bit to get through the accounts of seven cases the female PI relates, especially the first and longest one, "Tenant for Life," which centers on the identity of the heir to an estate. Dialect-soaked dialogue can be an obstacle (e.g., "I could not rersist that there thutty poun', bein' at that identkle time werry hard up"), as well as pronouncements by the sleuth that will elicit more head-scratching than awe (e.g., she comments "for that which is not white may fairly be guessed to be of some other colour"). And her prejudices also stand in the way of her being considered astute. In one case, she concludes that a murder must have been committed by "foreigners" because the "percentage of deaths from the use of the knife" by English people is so minimal as to not bear consideration. Many will find that comment, intended to showcase her wisdom, as evidence of the exact opposite: her closed-mindedness. (Oct.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.