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Adventures of Maud West, lady detective : secrets and lies in the golden age of crime / Susannah Stapleton.
Van Pelt Library HV8083.W47 S73 2020
By Request
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Stapleton, Susannah, author.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- West, Maud (Detective).
- West, Maud.
- Women private investigators--Great Britain--Biography.
- Women private investigators.
- Private investigators--Great Britain--Biography.
- Private investigators.
- Crime--Great Britain--History--20th century.
- Crime.
- Criminal investigation--Great Britain--History--20th century.
- Criminal investigation.
- Great Britain.
- Genre:
- collective biographies.
- Biographies
- History
- Biographies.
- Physical Description:
- 376 pages : illustrations ; 20 cm.
- Place of Publication:
- London : Picador, 2020.
- Summary:
- Maud West ran her detective agency in London for more than thirty years, having starting sleuthing on behalf of society's finest in 1905. Her exploits grabbed headlines throughout the world but, beneath the public persona, she was forced to hide vital aspects of her own identity in order to thrive in a class-obsessed and male-dominated world. And as Susannah Stapleton reveals she was a most unreliable witness to her own life. Who was Maud? And what was the reality of being a female private detective in the Golden Age of Crime? Interweaving tales from Maud West's own casebook with social history and extensive original research, Stapleton investigates the stories Maud West told about herself in a quest to uncover the truth. With walk-on parts by Dr Crippen and Dorothy L. Sayers, Parisian gangsters and Continental blackmailers, The Adventures of Maud West, Lady Detective is a portrait of a woman ahead of her time and a deliciously salacious glimpse into the underbelly of good society during the first half of the twentieth century.
- Maud West ran her detective agency in London for more than thirty years, having started sleuthing on behalf of society's finest in 1905. Her exploits grabbed headlines throughout the world but, beneath the public persona, she was forced to hide vital aspects of her own identity in order to thrive in a class-obsessed and male-dominated world. And as Susannah Stapleton reveals, she was a most unreliable witness to her own life. Who was Maud? And what was the reality of being a female private detective in the Golden Age of Crime? Interweaving tales from Maud West's own 'casebook' with social history and extensive original research, Stapleton investigates the stories Maud West told about herself in a quest to uncover the truth. With walk-on parts by Dr Crippen and Dorothy L. Sayers, Parisian gangsters and Continental blackmailers, The Adventures of Maud West, Lady Detective is both a portrait of a woman ahead of her time and a deliciously salacious glimpse into the underbelly of 'good society' during the first half of the twentieth century.
- Contents:
- Prologue: The lady vanishes
- Chapter one: The documents in the case
- The creeping tiger by Maud West
- Chapter two: The body in the library
- The lady with blue spectacles by Maud West
- Chapter three: Crooked house
- The apaches of saint-cloud by Maud West
- Chapter four: They do it with mirrors
- The diamond necklace by Maud West
- Chapter five: The shadow in the house
- The prince of lovers by Maud West
- Chapter six: To love and be wise
- The Chelsea artist by Maud West
- Chapter seven: A kiss before dying
- A lady's folly by Maud West
- Chapter eight: The secret adversary
- The clairvoyante case by Maud West
- Chapter nine: Wanted: Someone innocent
- The countess and the snowman by Maud West
- Chapter ten: Tracks in the snow
- An unusual pastime: as related by the San Francisco Examiner
- Chapter eleven: Partners in crime
- The fatal letter by Maud West
- Chapter twelve: The wrong man
- A poisonous revenge by Maud West
- Chapter thriteen: Sweet danger
- The end of his tether by Maud West
- Chapter fourteen: Look to the lady
- Such a dull job! Or, fifteen minutes with a London woman detective: Interview with Maud West
- Chapter fifteen: A case of identity
- Chapter sixteen: Farewell, my lovely.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references.
- ISBN:
- 9781509867325
- 1509867325
- OCLC:
- 1155805873
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