Historically, it would be tricky to define exactly when the concept of the Female Private Investigator first appeared in fiction. But The Female Detective and Revelations of a Lady Detective -both published in 1864, independent of each other-proves that it was a genre whose time had come. And while Miss Gladden may be the first by all of 5 months, it's Mrs. Paschal who is more the not-so-frail ground breaker -and it should be noted that Conan Doyle was only 5 when these ladies hit the streets.

So what better way to present the modern female investigator than by gathering 15 top class authors and letting them tell you all about the exploits of their creations.