Whether a housekeeper, secretary, lodger, or pawn-broker in a seedy area of Victorian London, the woman detective's powers of observation and deduction are also her most effective in uncovering and resolving both crimes and mysteries. Twelve Women Detective Stories is an entertaining anthology that gives us a glimpse at these female sleuths in twelve engaging mysteries. The woman detective is as prominent in stories written by men as in those by women. The detectives here may be young, educated and independent, or elderly and unmarried, illustrating the writers abilities to both use and subvert feminine stereotypes in fascinating ways. Included here are stories by Fergus Hume, Robert Eustace, Baroness Orczy, and Agatha Christie, to name a few. There are also less well-known stories which keep the reader guessing right down to the last sentence. Miss Marple, Carlotta Carlyle, Sharon McCone—the heroines of the detective novel are certainly some of the best loved and most memorable characters ever created. In Twelve Women Detective Stories, Laura Marcus presents some of the best ever written, in an absorbing tour of the world of crime, detection, and retribution.