These Last Two Weeks' Acquisitions
(When in England...buy some books.)
- Andrew Forrester, The Female Detective: The Original Lady Detective, 1864 (British Library, 2012). Reprint of a pioneering collection about "Miss Gladden" (or so she says), who works for the police. Forrester was the pseudonym for James Redding Ware, about whom more at the Independent. (British Library)
- William Stephens Hayward, Revelations of a Lady Detective (British Library, 2013). Short story collection featuring Mrs. Paschal, who works both for the police and on a private basis. (British Library)
- Charles Warren Adams, The Notting Hill Mystery (British Library, 2012). Paul Henderson tries to figure out if a nobleman murdered his wife. Initially serialized in 1862-63, and may or may not have invented the PD genre. (British Library)
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Uncollected Sherlock Holmes (Penguin, 1983). Anthology (which is half introduction!) of Doyle's "other" Holmesian writings, including parodies, a play, various prefaces, etc. (South Bank)
- Margaret Forster, Lady's Maid (Vintage, 2005). Reprint of Forster's historical novel about Elizabeth Wilson, lady's maid to Elizabeth Barrett Browning. (Foyle's)
- Thomas Keneally, The Daughters of Mars (Sceptre, 2013). Two Australian sisters serve as nurses during WWI. (Foyle's)
- Robert Edric, The Devil's Beat (Black Swan, 2013). Investigation of demonic visitations (maybe) in an early 20th c. rural village. (Foyle's)
- ---, The London Satyr (Black Swan, 2012). Photographer working at the Lyceum Theatre under Henry Irving and Bram Stoker finds himself involved with the pornographic underworld. (Foyle's)
- Sylvia Townsend Warner, After the Death of Don Juan (Virago, 1989). Reprint of Warner's 1938 novel imagining what might have happened if Don Juan returned to the woman obsessed with him. (OxFam)
- Maria McCann, The Wilding (Faber and Faber, 2010). Historical novel, set during the 17th c., about a young man's discovery of his family's increasingly convoluted and cruel history. (Henry Pordes)
- Ami McKay, The Virgin Cure (Orion, 2012). An adolescent girl tries to survive exploitation in late-19th c. New York. (OxFam)
- Rose Tremain, Merivel: A Man of HIs Time (Vintage, 2013). Sequel to Tremain's Restoration, featuring the later adventures of physician Robert Merivel, now relocated to Versailes. (Foyle's)
- Ronald Frame, Havisham (Faber and Faber, 2013). How did Miss Havisham wind up as herself? Tune in and find out. Of course, Dickens got a few things wrong... (Foyle's)
- David Dabydeen, Johnson's Dictionary (Peepal Tree, 2013). Experimental historical novel (in a way) involving eighteenth-century art, slavery, abolitionism, sex, and, of course, the Dictionary. (Foyle's)
- Belinda Morse, John Hanson Walker (Sutton, 1987). Monograph about the late Victorian/early 20th c. painter. (OxFam)