The first story in Women's Weird 2 dates from 1891 and is a delight. The central mystery is the horrific murder of the young British wife of a French banker - a crime in which a loyal watchdog deprives the killer of a finger. That would be interesting enough, but Edith Stewart Drewry (a writer new to me) adds another dimension by introducing a female French detective who dresses in men's clothes. Oh, those French.
Throw in a psychical element and you've got a nice little story. The framing narrative, in which the female sleuth tells her story to passengers in a snow-bound train outside London, is another splendid Victorian convention. Overall, the story reads like an attempt to cash in on the popularity of Sherlock Holmes, and as such is quite successful. As an early example of a story that suggests twins are telepathically linked in some way, it deserves to be better known.
Drewry seems to have been one of those prolific lady novelists of the second half of the nineteenth century. She produced a lot of serials and standalone stories, and had a lively no-nonsense style. As a first tale in the collection it is a solid start, a full-blooded crime story with a distinctly Gothic feel. I look forward to the next one with interest.
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