Blog tour: Private Inquiries

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Welcome to the blog tour for Private Inquiries: the Secret History of Female Sleuths by Caitlin Davies!

More about the book…

The female private detective has been a staple of popular culture for over 150 years, from Victorian lady sleuths to ‘busy-body spinsters’ and gun- toting modern PIs. But what about the real-life women behind these fictional tales – what crimes did they solve, and where are their stories.

In Private Inquiries, Caitlin Davies traces the history of the UK’s female investigators, uncovering the truth about their lives and careers from the 1850s to the present day.

Women such as

• Victorian private inquiry agent Antonia Moser – the first woman to open her own agency

• Annette Kerner, who ran the Mayfair Detective Agency on Baker Street in the 1940s

• Liverpool sleuth Zena Scott-Archer, who became the first woman president of the World Association of Detectives

Caitlin also follows in the footsteps of her subjects, undertaking a professional qualification to become a Private Investigator, and meeting modern PIs to disentangle fact from fiction.

Female investigators are on the rise in the UK – and despite the industry’s sleazy reputation, nearly a third of new trainees are women. After a century of undercover work, it’s time to reveal the secrets of their trailblazing forebears.

More about the author…

Caitlin Davies is a novelist, non-fiction writer, award-winning journalist and teacher.

She is the author of six novels and seven non-fiction books, including Bad Girls: The Rebels and Renegades of Holloway Prison, nominated for the Orwell Prize for Political Writing (2019), and Queens of the Underworld, a history of professional female crooks.

She lives in Kent and is a trained PI.

My impressions…

Wow, where do I even begin? What initially drew me towards this book is my passion for discovering women who have been overlooked by the history books, as I want to create a whole library of strong female figures for my girls to look up to and know that they can do whatever they set their mind to.

I soon found out that this book will appeal for so many other different reasons. Crime lovers, history buffs, gender studies students and so on and so forth… there is something for everyone, first and foremost people who appreciate well-researched and well-written non-fiction.

Well-researched doesn’t even cover it: the author went through the process of becoming a PI herself, thus lending so much more depth to her observations. 100% recommended.

Three words to describe it. Engaging. Eye-opening. Well-researched.

Do I like the cover? Yes, I love it!

Have I read any other books by the same author? No, but I would like to rectify that.

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