Ricca, Brad.

Mrs. Sherlock Holmes : the true story of New York City's greatest female detective and the 1917 missing girl case that captivated a nation / Brad Ricca.

364.15 R 2016

First Edition.

New York : St. Martin's Press, ©2016.

viii, 436 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : black and white illustrations ; 25 cm

Presents the true story of the first female U.S. District Attorney and traveling detective who found missing eighteen-year-old Ruth Cruger when the entire NYPD had given up.

"In 1917, on the day before Valentine's Day, eighteen-year-old Ruth Cruger disappeared. When the police gave up, a mysterious woman in black vowed to find her. Mrs. Sherlock Holmes tells the true story of Grace Humiston, the detective and lawyer 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 rarely involved with investigations. After agreeing to take the sensational Cruger case, Grace and her partner, the hardboiled 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. Grace's motto "Justice for those of limited means" led her to strange cases all over the world. From defending an innocent giant on death row to investigating an island in Arkansas with a terrible secret, from the warring halls of Congress to a crumbling medieval tower in Italy, Grace solved crimes in between shopping at Bergdorf Goodman and being marked for death by the sinister Black Hand. Grace was appointed the first female U.S. district attorney in history and the first female consulting detective to the New York Police Department. Despite her many successes in social justice, at the height of her powers Grace began to see chilling connections in the cases she solved, leading to a final showdown with her most fearsome adversary of all. 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 the relationship between missing girls, the media, and the real truth of crime stories. The great mystery of Grace's life--and the haunting twist ending of the book--is how one woman could become so famous only to disappear from history completely."--Dust jacket.

Humiston, Grace (Mary Grace), 1869-1948.

Women private investigators -- New York (State) -- New York -- Case studies.

Women lawyers -- New York (State) -- New York -- Case studies.

Missing persons -- Investigation -- New York (State) -- New York -- Case studies.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 371-418) and index.

True detective mysteries -- The missing skater -- The coroner's cabinet -- The Heatherbloom girl -- These little cases -- Army of the vanished -- The mysterious island of Sunny Side -- The giant and the chair -- The Manhunter of Harlem -- The pale man -- A door to the underworld -- A second guess -- The pointed finger -- The man who laughs -- The sliding number -- Mrs. Sherlock Holmes -- The marked neck -- Her last bow -- Army of one -- The assassin strikes -- The invisible places -- The witnesses' revenge -- Her dark shepherd.

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