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Mary, Lady Molly's assistant has great respect for her mistress.  Throughout the stories, referring to her as "my dear lady", constantly touting her skills and acumen and giving compliments at what seems to be every given opportunity.  This kind of relationship demonstrates a clear superiority dynamic between Lady Molly and the rest of the working class, including Mary herself, and this disparity in social class and standing is introduced in Sir Jeremiah's Will, when it is revealed to the readers how Mary and Lady Molly came to the arrangement of solving crimes together, originally. We learn that Mary is Lady Molly's maid:
"I was maid to Lady Molly Robertson-Kirk at the time. Since then she has honoured me with her friendship." ('Sir Jeremiah's Will', pt. 2).

Despite this disparity in social ranking, Lady Molly appreciates Molly above other potential assistants and members of the police force.  "but somehow I feel that this is woman's work, and I'd rather have you, Mary, than anyone. " ('The Ninescore Mystery', pt 1). Notably, this is because Mary is a woman, and the very theme of the stories is centered around the powers of "feminine intuition"; a new asset to Law Enforcement that in itself, is a force to reckon with and one capable of solving what men alone, simply cannot. This female power duo is essential to the message Baroness Orczy seemingly wishes to send all readers: Women can do men's jobs and can offer a valuable perspective that should not be ignored and subdued by the restrictive gender roles that previously dictated a woman's choice of profession. As it is noted that this series of fiction preceded the actual employment of female detectives in Scotland Yard, one must consider Orczy's contribution invaluable and effectively empowering to the lives and appreciable skills and abilities of womankind when unrestrained by oppressive gender norms.

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Assigned Detective: Lady Molly of Scotland Yard 

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Assigned Detective: Lady Molly of Scotland Yard 

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Lady Molly of Scotland Yard has 522 ratings and 69 reviews. Tracey said: There was a comment recently on a Lord Peter discussion group about the Lady Mo...

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Lady Molly expresses admiration for some of her criminal counterparts.

For example, in 'A Day's Folly', she describes the young criminal Jane Turner as a 'remarkably clever girl'.

In spite of their differences -- in social class, and in their position in relation to the law -- there are a few parallels between Jane Turner and Lady Molly.
Within the story, they display similarity in their methods, both donning the disguises of older women in order to extract either money (Jane Turner) or information (Lady Molly) from those they are approaching.
The clever
resourcefulness and ability to deceive shown by both women here works to suggest that they are two sides of the same coin, one using their female ingenuity to work for the law and the other against it.

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Name: Jane Turner

Age: unknown, ‘a young woman’

Social Class: working

Profession: ‘employed in one of the large drapery shops in Bristol’, ‘a shop girl’

Charge: blackmail and fraud

Jane Turner was found bound and gagged in an apartment room in Weston-super-Mare during her annual holiday there. She claimed heard a female voice ask to enter her rooms, before suffering a blow to the head and having a chloroformed cloth pressed to her nose and mouth.

Lady Molly discovered that this assault was a complete fiction, concocted by Miss Turner herself. Miss Turner had been using a non-existent snap shot of Her Serene Highness the Countess of Hohengebirg in the company of a Mr. Rumboldt (whose ‘reputation had greatly suffered recently, owing to much talk of a divorce case’ and was ‘no longer a fit and proper acquaintance’ for the Countess) to extort money from the young Countess with the threat of scandal. During this extortion, Miss Turner donned the disguise of an old woman, whom the Countess thought to be Miss Turner’s mother, and as such created an imaginary accomplice and suspect for her own assault.

She had invented the assault in order to pretend that the snap shot had been stolen, and that the fictional criminals who had stolen this snap shot were demanding one thousand pounds from the Countess.

Motive: financial

Verdict: guilty, but, at the behest of the Countess, who still wished to avoid a scandal, escaped public acknowledgement of her crime, and so escaped punishment. Upon being discovered, Jane Turner attempted to hang herself in her rooms, and as such Lady Molly deemed her to have been ‘punished enough’.

Alias: none, but disguised herself as old woman, thought to be her own mother

Orczy, Baroness Emmuska, ‘A Day's Folly’, Lady Molly of Scotland Yard, <http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/orczy/molly/molly.html#VIII> , accessed 05.03.19. All references in this box to this text.

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Born on 23rd September 1865 in Tarna-Örs, Hungary, Emma Orczy was the daughter of Countess Emmuska Wass and Baron Felix Orczy, and as such spent her childhood as a part of Hungary's landed aristocracy. However, after an eruption of peasant violence towards the baron, the family left the country in 1868 to move to Budapest, where Emma Orczy and her sister went to convent schools in Brussels and Paris.
When Orczy was in her mid-teens, she and her family settled in London, and Emma spent the first six months of her life there dedicating herself to learning English. Her father rejected her pleas to go to Cambridge to pursue her higher education, but she was permitted to study music in Brussels and Paris, and then study painting at the West London School of Art and Heatherley's.

It was at Heatherley's that Orczy met Montagu Barstow, the illustrator who would later become her husband. Together they collaborated to translate and illustrate fairy tales, and Orczy began to write romance and adventure stories for popular press. Orczy's first novel, The Emperor's Candlesticks (1899), was a resounding failure, and her next work, The Scarlet Pimpernel, was initially rejected by 12 publishers. However, Orczy adapted this novel into a play performed at the Nottingham Theatre Royal in the autumn of 1903, subsequently managing to spark public interest in her work. The novel The Scarlet Pimpernel was finally published in 1905, to coincide with the London production of the play, and would go on to become Orczy's most famous work.

From this point onwards, Orczy wrote prolifically, and between 1905 and 1909 she composed her stories about The Old Man in the Corner, with which she 'invented the first armchair detective.' As remarked by Jessica Mann, the crimes of these stories might be solved 'with more twisting than reasoning', but they display 'the author's talent for presenting entertaining situations.'  [1]

In 1910 published her Lady Molly of Scotland Yard series, which features the first fictional female police detective. In the crime solving adventures of the beautiful and high-born Lady Molly, which repeatedly deal with notions of inheritance and scandal, the reader can see the class concerns of Baroness Orczy -- a high-born woman of the aristocracy, who experienced her own familial fall from grace and ended up writing successfully for profit.

In 1908, Orczy and her husband bought an estate away from London, and after WWI they moved to Monte Carlo. After her husband Montagu's death, Orczy returned to England, and died in London on 12th November, 1947.

[1] Mann, Jessica, 'Development' in Deadlier Than the Male: An Investigation into Feminine Crime Writing, (ebookpartnership.com, 2015). Kindle edition.
Mitchell, Jacqueline, ‘Orczy, Emma (1865-1947)’, Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopaedia, <https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/orczy-emma-1865-1947>, accessed 06.03.2019

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Sticking to the common tradition seen in many works of Detective Fiction,  the Lady Molly series is narrated by the detective's assistant: A close and trusted friend of the great mind, that documents the process, assists and runs errands for them. The character of the assistant is often thought of to be of slightly lower than the intelligence of the average reader, however, not so much as to make them appear to be clueless, or too unreliable to understand the proceedings by the end of the story.  It is often that the reader manipulates the reader's engagement levels by throwing them red herrings -- false steps that add to the excitement when it is revealed that the reader has been duped... After all, a perfectly predictable detective story is hardly one worth reading at all.  Lady Molly often playfully chides Mary on occasion, for being irritatingly too slow to follow, or becoming a hindrance to her process (as one will find in all walks of life, inevitable in the dynamic of working with others:  ""Mary, you are stupid," was all the reply I got." ('The Ninescore Mystery', pt 4). Thus, the role of the assistant is an important tool that the author can then use to mislead the readers by influencing their scope of perspective based on what the assistant "sees" and thinks he/she has grasped of the matter.  The detective will often reign in the lost assistant with an illuminating explanation of the circumstances, or, by correcting the assistant's obstructive/unhelpful behaviour.  This can be seen as the Detective educating the accomplice and subsequently the reader as the story moves along:  "Yes. Don't repeat all my words, Mary; it is silly, and wastes time" ('The Tragedy at Fordwych Castle', pt 1).

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These principles can be recognised in Lady Molly’s character. Orczy presents her as an overtly feminine character and consistently returns to the image of the detective’s ‘dainty fingers’ throughout her stories[2]. However, rather than constructing her femininity as an obstacle for the detective, her feminine demeanour is viewed as the reason for her success as a detective, and often gives her the upper hand over her male counterparts. Her sidekick Mary describes her as possessing a ‘feminine tact’ and a ‘marvellous intuition [that] might prove more useful than the more approved methods of the sterner sex’[3].  She possess a certain ability to understand the psychology of the human nature, especially that of females, that can only be achieved by taking advantage of the characteristics her gender provides her with. Stephen Knight says that ‘the presence of a woman author seems to have an impact: during her continuing investigations Lady Molly is not, like previous women detectives, restricted to a quasi-male role’ and by placing such a heavy emphasis on the way Lady Molly’s gender plays a key part in her investigative capabilities, the Baroness is justifying the creation of a fictitious role within the police force that did not exist in the real establishment at the time[4]. An overriding narrative arc throughout the collection is that the crimes are mostly committed by women and this creates a space where the male police officers were not as adept as a woman in solving them. Ellen Burton Harrington points this out when she comments that ‘The stories justify the existence of women detectives, but do so by advocating their superior intuition, rather than their logical or investigative capabilities’ which implies that Lady Molly does not necessarily rival male characters such as Conan Doyle’s Holmes or Poe’s Dupin, but hones her superior understanding of the female mind in order to deduce in a way they cannot[5].

Other critics such as Martin A. Kayman have found similarities in the ways Baroness Orczy presents both Lady Molly and the female criminals in her stories. He comments that ‘with disguise made thus respectable, room is created for the heroine’s other professional qualifications’ and implies that Lady Molly’s aristocratic position allows her to employ some of the same methods in her investigation as the working-class women use in their crimes. For example, Orczy writes ‘My dear lady looked, indeed, a perfect picture of appalling vulgarity’ when investigating a case of fraud in ‘The Man in the Inverness Cape’, and her use of disguise directly mirrors the way in which the antagonists play with identity in order to carry out a robbery [6]. Burton Harrington interprets this as another way in which Lady Molly is able to better her male colleagues when she writes ‘Lady Molly uses some of the same transgressive behaviour of criminal women to catch them, and she is well aware of the intelligence, determination, and abilities of women because of her own case’.

[1] Richardson, Angelique and Willis, Chris, ‘Introduction’, The New Woman in Fiction and in Fact: Fin-de-Siècle Feminisms, ed. by Angelique Richardson and Chris Willis (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002, pp. 1-38 (p. 9).
[2] Orczy, Baroness Emmuska, ‘The Bag of Sand’, Lady Molly of Scotland Yard, <http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/orczy/molly/molly.html#VIII> , accessed 05.03.19. All Further references to the stories to this website. [3] Orczy, Baroness Emmuska, ‘The Fordwych Castle Mystery’; Orczy, Baroness Emmuska, ‘A Day’s Folly’. [4] Knight, Stephen, Crime Fiction Since 1800: Detection, Death, Diversity, (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), p. 79. [5] Burton Harrington, Ellen, ‘The “Test of Feminine Investigation” in Baroness Orczy’s Lady Molly of Scotland Yard Stories’, Clues: A Journal of Detection, 26.4 (2008), pp. 24-34 (p. 27). [6] Orczy, Baroness Emmuska, ‘The Man in the Inverness Cape’.

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The detective figure of Lady Molly Robertson-Kirk features in Baroness Orczy’s short story collection, Lady Molly of Scotland Yard.  Lady Molly is an aristocratic woman who joins the police force in order to use her newfound legal power to exonerate her husband of a murder charge. Lady Molly has an official position at Scotland Yard, and is portrayed as a professional detective rather than an amateur sleuth. Orczy’s decision to do this is an interesting one as the collection was published in 1910 and the first female police woman with equal powers of arrest as a male officer was not introduced in Britain until 1915. Therefore, it could be said that the Baroness’s characterisation of Lady Molly is a progressive one that was in line with the concept of the ‘New Woman’ that surfaced in Britain around the time of the fin-de-siècle. The ‘New Woman’ figure in literature of that era is often depicted as a young woman with more agency, confidence and often an element of sexual impropriety. However, as part of an early feminist movement, the ‘New Woman’ has been described, by Angelique Richardson and Chris Willis, as wanting ‘to achieve social and political power by reinventing rather than rejecting their domestic roles’, which suggests that feminine qualities were not traded for masculine, but rather ‘New Women’ used their femininity to their advantage in male dominated environments[1].

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Name: Lord Edbrooke
Age: Unknown
Social Class: Upper
Profession: Landowner
Charge: The stabbing to death of Susan Nicholls, the sister of Mary Nicholls, Mary being the mother of Lord E's illegitimate child.
Motive: Mr. Lydgate had fathered the child of Mary Nicholls, a female of a lower class, before becoming Lord Edbrooke. He was a married man. Mary’s sister, Susan Nicholls, had been blackmailing Lord Edbrooke for over a year by threatening to reveal his secret and ruin him. As in other stories, Orczy brings class tensions to the fore in The Ninescore Mystery.
Verdict: Guilty (but Lord E commits suicide before he can go to trial).
Alias: Lord E does not have an alias but his murder victim has met him disguised as her sister which initially led police to believe it was Mary that had been murdered.

Orczy, Baroness Emmuska, ‘The Ninescore Mystery’, Lady Molly of Scotland Yard, <http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/orczy/molly/molly.html#VIII> , accessed 05.03.19. All references in this box to this text.

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Baroness Emma Magdolna Rozália Mária Jozefa Borbála 'Emmuska' Orczy de Orci was a Hungarian-born English novelist and playwright, most famous for her contributions to detective fiction with her work The Scarlet Pimpernel and its 12 sequels. She also had some of her paintings displayed in an exhibition at the Royal Academy in London, and, during WWI, formed the Women of England's Service League, designed to encourage women to persuade men to volunteer for active service.

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These are some of the crime suspects on whom Orczy is said to have based her stories

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Name: Lady Irene Culledon
Age: 24
Social Class: Upper
Profession: Lady of the House
Charge: Murder of Mr. Mark Culledon (her husband) by means of poison (morphia).
Motive: Her husband cheated on her, and Irene is threatened by the likelihood that the discovery of this would be made into a scandal, which would cause Mr. Culledon's rich aunt to revoke the inheritance fund she has set aside for him. Irene decides to murder her husband and make the causes look natural so that she can secure his inheritance for herself... "any scandal round her favourite nephew would result in the old lady cutting him–and therefore [her]–out of her will." (pt. 4).
Verdict: Guilty (But Lady Irene commits suicide before she can go to trial).
Alias: The Woman With the Big Hat/ Attempts to frame Miss Elizabeth Löwenthal by dressing in her idiosyncratically foreign fashion sense while committing the crime.

Orczy, Baroness Emmuska, ‘The Woman in the Big Hat’, Lady Molly of Scotland Yard, <http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/orczy/molly/molly.html#VIII> , accessed 05.03.19. All references in this box to this text.

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Name: Mrs Annie Haggett
Age: Unknown- 'a youngish woman'
Social Class: Working/servant class-  'dressed in a coat and skirt of shabby-looking black, and although her face might have been called good-looking–for she had fine, dark eyes–her entire appearance was distinctly repellent'--> Mrs Haggett's poverty is evident in her appearance and this causes her to appear unattractive to other characters. This could be a way that Orczy uses class tensions to influence the readers perception of a character's guilt or innocence.
Profession: Servant- wife to one of Major Ceely's gardeners, Mr Haggett.
Charge: Murder. She uses a knife to stab Major Ceely when her husband cannot face committing the crime. The crime is violent and cold, and she attempts to recommit by trying to kill her husband-  ‘she gave a hoarse cry, and snatching the knife from the poor wretch, she rushed at him ready to strike’. She is portrayed as a detached criminal without any sense of guilt or repentance.
Motive: Major Ceely dismisses her husband without a reference. It is a revenge crime- '"The Major was a cruel, cantankerous brute'", this quotation demonstrates the hatred Mrs Haggett has for her husband's former employer. Her language is violent, just like her actions, and once against portrays her as a cold blooded killer.
Verdict: Guilty
Alias: N/A

Orczy, Baroness Emmuska, ‘A Christmas Tragedy’, Lady Molly of Scotland Yard, <http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/orczy/molly/molly.html#VIII> , accessed 05.03.19. All references in this box to this text.

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Primary Text:

Orczy, Baroness Emmuska, Lady Molly of Scotland Yard, <http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/orczy/molly/molly.html#VIII> , accessed 05.03.19

Secondary Texts:

Anthony, Barry, Murder, Mayhem and Music Hall: The Dark Side of Victorian London (London: I B Tauris, 2015)

Burton Harrington, Ellen, ‘The “Test of Feminine Investigation” in Baroness Orczy’s Lady Molly of Scotland Yard Stories’, Clues: A Journal of Detection, 26.4 (2008)

Hartman, Mary S, Victorian Murderesses (New York: Schocken Books, 1976)

Kestner, Joseph A., ‘Emmuska Orczy: Lady Molly of Scotland Yard,’ South Central Review18.3(2001) pp.38-53 https://www.jstor.org/stable/3190352 Accessed 05.03.19

Klein, Kathleen Gregory, The Female Detective: Gender and Genre (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1995)

Knight, Stephen, Crime Fiction Since 1800: Detection, Death, Diversity, (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004)

Mann, Jessica, Deadlier Than The Male: An Investigation into Feminine Crime Writing, (ebookpartnership.com, 2015). Kindle edition.

Moser Maurice and Charles F. Rideal, Stories from Scotland Yard (London: George Routledge and Sons., 1890)

Richardson, Angelique and Willis, Chris, The New Woman in Fiction and in Fact: Fin-de-Siècle Feminisms, ed. by Angelique Richardson and Chris Willis (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002)

Summerscale, Kate, The Suspicions of Mr Whicher: or the Murder at Road Hill House (London: Bloomsbury, 2008)

Dr. Andrew, Lucy and Saunders, Samuel , A Study in Sidekicks: The Detective’s Assistant in Crime Fiction (website: https://www.captivatingcriminalitynetwork.net/blog/call-for-abstracts-a-study-in-sidekicks-the-detectives-assistant-in-crime-fiction, 2017) Accessed 06.03.19