'Lady Detective' Loveday Brooke has her summer holiday in Brighton interrupted by a police request to investigate a stolen cheque. The case doesn't interest her, until she notices a detail which appears to connect it to reports of a Napoleonic apparition, said to be haunting nearby Fountain Lane...

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Catherine Louisa Pirkis (1839–1910), often credited as C. L. Pirkis, was born Catherine Louisa Lyne to a middle class family in London. She became a prominent author of detective and mystery fiction in the final quarter of the 19th century, publishing 14 novels between 1877 and 1894, after which she gave up writing in order to focus on campaigning for animal rights. She cofounded, with her husband Frederick Edward Pirkis and some likeminded friends, the British National Canine Defence League, which still exists today under the name 'The Dogs Trust'. As a writer she is best remembered for her last published work, 'The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective', a series of adventures featuring the eponymous sleuth, almost certainly the first professional female detective in fiction, and the first to be created by a female author. An insight into contemporary attitudes to the revolutionary nature of the character may be seen in an 1893 review in the Glasgow Herald, which, after praising Brooke's insights and detective skill, added "We are just afraid Miss Brooke is too clever in catching criminals ever to catch a husband." Almost inevitably "Miss Brooke" became known as "The female Sherlock Holmes"; she certainly shared Holmes' eye for detail and ability to see past the obvious solution to find the truth behind the crime. Pirkis died after a long illness in October 1910, just two days before her husband also died; they were survived by their two children.

'The Ghost of Fountain Lane' first appeared in July 1893 as part of 'The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective', a sixpart series of stories which appeared in the Ludgate Monthly magazine from February to July 1893; the series was subsequently published in book form by Hutchinson in 1894.

Recording © Bitesized Audio 2021.