Lady Detectives in the "Golden Age"

The first was Lady Molly of Scotland Yard, a creation of Baroness Orczy, more famous for her "The Scarlet Pimpernel." Lady Molly started her sleuthing to free her unjustly accused fiancee. Her cases number only twelve, faithfully recorded by her adoring acolyte, Mary Granard.

The next to appear was Miss Maud Silver, created by Patricia Wentworth. She appeared in print much before her more famous "sister detective", Agatha Christie's Miss Jane Marple. However she appeared in 32 novels compared to 12 of Miss Marple. Both were elderly spinsters but Miss Silver was a governess in her younger days & a professional detective in her second innings. The popularity of Miss Silver is attested by the fact that her books are still in print. Ms. Niranjana Iyer Subramanian writes that Miss Silver is the cleverer sister of Miss Marple!

Miss Jane Marple is of course the most famous female detective created by the incomparable Agatha Christie. She features in 12 novels & 20 short stories. Numerous films are made of her adventures, played by many celebrated actresses. Unfortunately, her very popularity has given rise to film  adaptations, which are far from her creator's vision.

Dorothy Sayers also created Harriet Vane but she mostly played second fiddle to her eventual husband, the celebrated Lord Peter Wimsey.

The most famous female detective story writer to appear after "The Golden Age", P.D.James, also created a lady detective Cordelia Gray, who appeared in only two novels. When she is introduced to educated people, they instantly say "Love & be silent", referring to the famous line 61, Scene 1, Act 1 of Shakespeare's "King Lear."!