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Long before Charlie’s Angels, Jessica Fletcher, Miss Marple, and even Judith Lee, there was Ethel Boston, the first female consulting detective in America, a former associate of Nick Carter, trained by famous detective William Hopkins. Miss Boston was the prototype of the New Woman, who believed and fought for sexual and legal equality with men….
Thérèse Arnaud, a.k.a. Agent C.25, is a member of the French Deuxième Bureau secret service tasked with fighting enemy spies operating in WWI France. She is a thoroughly modern woman: independent, intelligent, sure of herself and of her calling. She deploys and controls her own network of sub-agents and poses as Mademoiselle Janine Félerat in…
Daughter of a detective, Ethel King takes up her father’s career in order to avenge his death, as well as that of her fiancé, both brought down the same day by an assassin’s bullet. King, like Miss Boston and Therese Arnaud, is an extraordinary woman, well ahead of her time. Although she practices a masculine…
Emile Gaboriau, who was Paul Féval’s secretary, penned these two masterpieces of early detective novels in 1867: The Orcival Murder: Poachers discover the lifeless body of Countess of Tremorel in the woods near her castle. Her home has been ransacked and her husband has vanished. Despite the myriad of clues left to mislead the police,…
The Secret Bureau (1849) is the first volume in a series of four that tells the story of the Hulet family which, for generations, has headed the government’s spy network, the Secret Bureau, that intercepts and opens all private mail. It follows the ambitious Henri Hulet as he tries to avoid the fatal destiny marked…
The Brothers of Death (1856) is the second volume in a series of four that tells the story of the Hulet family which, for generations, has headed the government’s spy network, the Secret Bureau, that intercepts and opens all private mail. From the execution of Charles I of England to the secret terror spread by…
Fortuné Du Boisgobey (1821-1891) was the chief of the followers of Émile Gaboriau, creator of Monsieur Lecoq. He was a prolific writer, with more than sixty works to his name, and one of the most popular French feuilleton writers. His novels dealt with crime, the police, and Parisian life. They had a high circulation, and…
Pierre Yrondy, the author of The Adventures of Thérèse Arnaud of the French Secret Service, penned those of Marius Pégomas, Marseille Detective, serialized in 35 installments published in 1936. Six of these are being translated here for the first time. Marius Pégomas is one of the first “regional detectives” and, physically, bears some resemblance to…
The Bloodied Girl (1857) is the third volume in a series of four that tells the story of the secret government’s spy network, the Secret Bureau, that intercepts and opens all private mail. In this tome, we discover how the downfall of Napoleon and the return of the bourbon King Louis XVIII to power in…
The Marquis de Lupiano (1858) is the fourth and final volume in a sprawling saga that tells the story of the secret government’s spy network, the Secret Bureau, that intercepts and opens all private mail. In this tome, we finally discover the hidden origins of the mercurial Marquis de Lupiano and his connection to the…
Towards the end of the 17th century, under the reign of the Sun King Louis XIV of France, in Brittany, Count Guy de Rohan is dispossessed of his great wealth and exiled due to the villainous schemes of the Royal Steward and Alain Polduc, a jealous relative. His son is dead, but his daughter, Valentine,…
Barry Barrison perfected his deductive skills through the teachings of Sherlock Holmes, of whom he was a contemporary. Murdered by one of his peers, his ghost is cursed and forced to wander forever through his former home, Tarford Manor. But even today, he continues to investigate the strangest criminal cases with the help of young…
Between 1894 and 1914, Paul d’Ivoi (1856-1915) wrote a series of 21 volumes, collectively entitled The Eccentric Voyages, clearly inspired by and updating Jules Verne’s classic Extraordinary Voyages. While not quite matching Verne for verve and invention, d’Ivoi succeeded in appealing to a new generation of readers by updating many of the great author’s ideas,…
After a fight in a seedy bar leaves three men dead, the police arrest a man who claims to be a circus performer. But a young detective named Lecoq suspects the man isn’t who he claims to be, and that there is more at stake than meets the eye… Written in 1869, Monsieur Lecoq is…
