Catherine Louisa Pirkis

Catherine Louisa Pirkis (1839-1910) was a British detective novelist. Born into a middle-class English family, she was raised among eight siblings and moved frequently in her youth. In 1872, she married Frederick Edward Pirkis, with whom she raised two children. Between 1877 and 1894, she published 14 novels and contributed frequently to periodicals and magazines. Towards the end of her life, she dedicated her time to animal rights activism, helping to found the National Canine Defense League in 1891. A popular novelist of Victorian England, Pirkis is remembered for her character Loveday Brooke, a fictional detective dubbed the "female Sherlock Holmes" for her appearance in The Experience of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective (1894), Pirkis' final published work of fiction.