Classic Mysteries

Let 'er Rip

I'm a bit late with this, but for fans of the irrepressible Mike Ripley, his latest "Getting Away with Murder" column is up on the Shots Ezine.

Mike's usual eclectic mix this month includes a number of reviews mostly of thrillers newly published (or about to be published) in the UK. This time, there are a couple about which he's less then enthusiastic, observing at one point, as he notes that the thriller also contained about 40 recipes at the ends of various chapters, "I mean, who apart from me reads spy-fiction writers for their cooking tips?"

It's all written with the author's usual good humor, and it's an excellent way to keep up with what they're reading across the Atlantic. Give him a try.

"Revelations of a Lady Detective"

Her name was Mrs. Paschal - no first name was ever given. She made literary history in 1864 by becoming only the second female detective ever to appear in a novel. The book was called Revelations of a Lady Detective, by William Stephens Hayward, and it is the subject of today's audio review on the Classic Mysteries podcast. You can listen to the full review by clicking here.

Mrs. Paschal was indeed a woman ahead of her time - it wasn't until 1883 that the English police began hiring women. But Mrs. Paschal's fictional exploits certainly proved popular with the reading public two decades earlier. A widow, left in dire financial straits by the death of her husband, Mrs. Paschal chose to put herself in what, at the time, was certainly not considered "a woman's work." In these stories, she works often with the official police force, though she also occasionally makes herself available as a private detective.

Revelations of a Lady Detective is a collection of ten episodes featuring Mrs. Paschal, a lady adept at disguising herself when she needs to go unrecognized, willing to use a gun if necessary, and quite good at following the clues uncovered and developed by her own intuition. She thinks nothing of following an apparent thief through secret passageways that take her into a room filled with treasure, or spying on a murderous secret society, or uncovering the evils of a kidnapping plot. She deals with murder, but also with lesser crimes, such as robbery, and even with a case of mistaken identity.

I suspect that a lot of readers will come across situations in this book which sound to them like cliches. Remember, however, that they were most certainly not cliches at the time they were written, for this book is among the very first crime novels of any kind. Mrs. Paschal herself is a memorable character, tough, but with a kind heart. Revelations of a Lady Detective has just been republished by the British Library with a new introduction by Mike Ashley, and the University of Chicago Press is distributing the book both in paper and as an e-book and provided me with a copy for this review. This book is far more than merely a literary curiosity - it is a collection of thoroughly entertaining tales about a woman who really was a pioneer in a field where Victorian women simply were not expected to tread.

I am entering Revelations of a Lady Detective in the Vintage Mystery Reading Challenge under way at the My Reader's Block blog, in the category "Wicked Women" - being fairly sure that, to a lot of Victorian readers, Mrs. Paschal probably fit the category as well!

The BEA Report

The annual publishing trade show, Book Expo America, finished its run for 2013 this afternoon, at the gigantic Javits Convention Center in New York City. My tired feet (and aching shoulders; those book bags get VERY heavy) are grateful for the rest.

The conference began, for me, with the Book Bloggers Conference - now retitled as the BEA Bloggers Conference - on Wednesday. There were a couple of interesting keynotes and several panels. I was a bit disappointed, as I was last year, that there was nothing really aimed at those of us who blog about mysteries, given the huge number of mysteries published each year - and what appears to me, at least, to be a significant number of blogs that comment primarily on the mystery/suspense/espionage/thriller genre.

At any rate, the conference was followed by the big show Thursday through Saturday. It's the show where publishers from around the world come to promote their authors and their latest books and to reveal the many titles that will be published in the months ahead. I don't know what the attendance figures are - probably several thousand; I know there were more than a thousand exhibitors and more than 600 authors in attendance.

I attended a couple of very interesting panels on some of the questions facing the industry - and its authors - about digital rights. Who owns them, particularly digital rights for books that were sold to publishers long before there was an internet to make electronic rights an issue? What about so-called "orphaned" works by authors whose works are in a sort of limbo because the authors have died and their estates may or may not have figured out what to do with selling republication rights? It's a complicated and tricky legal tangle.

I did have a chance to talk with some of the people from Open Road Integrated Media, which has been working with publishers such as Otto Penzler's Mysterious Press to republish some classic mystery writers as e-books. Open Road has been very active in seeking solutions to those tricky republication questions, and I wish them well in moving forward.

I also saw several authors whom I know from attendance at Malice Domestic and/or Bouchercon. I made some new friends and contacts as well.  I came home with a lot of new books, some of which I hope will be discussed here in the weeks and months ahead. And right now, I'm going to go soak my feet. And - maybe - read.