Mrs. Sherlock Holmes
The True Story of New York City's Greatest Female Detective and the 1917 Missing Girl Case That Captivated a Nation
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- $17.99
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
Nominated for the Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime!
This is the shocking and amazing true story of the first female U.S. District Attorney and traveling detective who found missing 18-year-old Ruth Cruger when the entire NYPD had given up.
Mrs. Sherlock Holmes tells the true story of Grace Humiston, the lawyer, detective, and first woman U.S. District Attorney who turned her back on New York society life to become one of the nation's greatest crime-fighters during an era when women were still not allowed to vote. After agreeing to take the sensational case of missing eighteen-year-old Ruth Cruger, Grace and her partner, the hard-boiled detective Julius J. Kron, navigated a dangerous web of secret boyfriends, two-faced cops, underground tunnels, rumors of white slavery, and a mysterious pale man, in a desperate race against time.
Brad Ricca's Mrs. Sherlock Holmes is the first-ever narrative biography of this singular woman the press nicknamed after fiction's greatest detective. Her poignant story reveals important clues about missing girls, the media, and the real truth of crime stories.
Mrs. Sherlock Holmes is a nominee for the 2018 Edgar Awards for Best Fact Crime.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Ricca (Super Boys) provides a fascinating account of Grace Humiston, a pioneering attorney in the early 20th century, dubbed "Mrs. Sherlock Holmes" by the press for her investigative prowess. The author effectively employs a novelist's techniques to heighten suspense; the first chapter features the discovery of a hole in the floor of a building, the significance of which is not revealed until much later. Ricca then depicts the tragic disappearance, in 1917, of 18-year-old Ruth Cruger, who had left her Manhattan home on an errand. Finally, he introduces Humiston, who in 1905 became one of "only a thousand female lawyers in the whole United States." Her intervention on behalf of a woman convicted of murdering an abuser in New Jersey showcases the intelligence, determination, and savvy that became her hallmark. Humiston's later exploits almost defy belief as she traveled to the South as a Special United States District Attorney to uncover the practice of slavery "through forced debt," an inquiry that came to the attention of President Theodore Roosevelt. Ultimately, Humiston gets involved in the search for Ruth Cruger, succeeding where so many others had failed. Her incredible life story, superbly portrayed by Ricca, is more proof that truth is stranger than fiction.
