THE NINETEEN LIST: Linda Gordon Hengerer on Intrepid Female Sleuths


I love a mystery. And I love smart women who solve them, and aren’t afraid of the consequences of stepping outside the bounds of propriety to do so.

The 19th century had gentlewomen (well, perhaps some aren’t so gentle) who were smart and fully capable of solving life’s mysteries, and some wonderful contemporary authors relishing imagining them.

For your entertainment, I present a list of nineteen authors (alphabetized by last name) who write series mysteries about that sort of woman, along with the name of their fictional sleuths...and two honorable mentions who are slightly before or after the 19th century but too delightful to omit.





1


Lady Emily Hargreaves
 

2


Jane Austen
 

3


Elizabeth Darcy
 

4


Mrs. Jeffries
 

5


Dido Kent
 

6


Suzanne Rannoch
 

7


Lady Darby
 

8


India Black
 

9


March Middleton
 

10


Inez Stannert
 

11


Liberty Lane
 

12


Adrianna Hadley
 

13


Charlotte Pitt
 

14
Elizabeth Peters
Amelia Peabody
 

15


Lady Julia Grey
 

16


Jane Eyre
 

17


Frances Doughty
 

18


Sarah Brandt
 

19


Hattie Davish
 
 
Honorable mentions go to Imogen Robertson's Harriet Westerman, of the late-18th-century, and Laurie R. King's Mary Russell, of the early 20th. <

Linda Gordon Hengerer writes about Football, Food and Fiction. She is a member of Mystery Writers of America-Florida Chapter and co-chair of Sleuthfest 2014, its upcoming conference. Visit her at www.lindagordonhengerer.com. Image above via Tuesday Johnson, cropped from a photograph in the collection of Syracuse University Library, Ronald G. Becker Collection of Charles Eisenmann Photographs.