Private Inquiries

The female private detective has been a staple of popular culture for over 150 years. But what about the real-life women behind these fictional tales?

Dismissed as 'Mrs Sherlock Holmes' or amateurish Miss Marples, mocked as private dicks or honey trappers, they have been investigating crime since the mid-nineteenth century - everything from theft and fraud to romance scams and murder. In Private Inquiries, Caitlin Davies traces the history of the UK's female investigators. Women like Victorian private inquiry agent Antonia Moser, the first woman to open her own agency and Liverpool sleuth Zena Scott-Archer, who became the first woman president of the World Association of Detectives. Caitlin also follows in the footsteps of her subjects, undertaking a professional qualification to become a Private Investigator. After a century of undercover work, it's time to reveal the secrets of their trailblazing forebears.