The adventures of Maud West, lady detective : secrets and lies in the golden age of crime / Susannah Stapleton.
Material type:
TextPublisher: London : Picador, an imprint of Pan Macmillan, 2019Copyright date: ©2019Description: 370 pages : illustrations ; 24 cmContent type: text | still image Media type: unmediated Carrier type: volumeISBN: 9781509867295; 9781509867301Subject(s): West, Maud | Women private investigators -- Great Britain -- Biography | Private investigators -- Great Britain -- Biography | Crime -- Great Britain -- History -- 20th century | Criminal investigation -- Great Britain -- History -- 20th centuryGenre/Form: Biographies. DDC classification: 363.289092 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.
| Item type | Current library | Call number | Status | Date due | Barcode |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| wnor- Book | Wundowie Wundowie Adult Non Fiction | B / WES (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | Available | 31111076427952 |
A remarkable true story -- On cover.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
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.
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