Sayers, Parisian gangsters and Continental blackmailers, The Adventures of Maud West, Lady Detective is both 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. With walk-on parts by Dr Crippen and Dorothy L. Much of West's work was connected with divorce, missing persons and blackmail cases but she was an accomplished self-publicist and had risen to prominence as 'London's Lady detective' by the 1920s. 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. West worked as a draper's assistant before founding her detective agency in London in 1905, her office was in Albion House on New Oxford Street. Who was Maud? And what was the reality of being a female private detective in the Golden Age of Crime? 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. And - as historical researcher Susannah Stapleton reveals - she was a most unreliable witness to her own life. Maud West ran her detective agency in London for more than thirty years, having starting sleuthing on behalf of societys 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. Maud West ran her detective agency in London for more than thirty years, having started sleuthing on behalf of society's finest in 1905.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |