The Revisited Mystery Classics series by Byrd Nash features female detectives written by women. Each volume will include a foreword by Byrd, and a new, original story that uses the classic characters. These are offered only at Amazon (be sure to look for Byrd’s name to get the right volume) and at Byrd’s website. If you join the newsletter you will actually be offered these two for free!

There are now two volumes in the Revisited Mystery Classic series: Lady Molly of Scotland Yard, and The Old Man in the Corner by Baroness Emma Orczy, with additional stories by Byrd Nash.

Baroness Emma Orczy (1865–1947) wrote many stories that had themes which were later used by other writers: the character with the secret past (Lady Molly of Scotland Yard), the unreliable narrator (The Old Man in the Corner), the girl reporter, the woman detective, and the dashing aristocrat hero in disguise (Scarlet Pimpernel).

She loved using heroes with secret identities and her most famous was The Scarlet Pimpernel where the aristocrat Sir Percy Blakeney concealed under a foppish exterior his real work of rescuing the French nobility from the guillotine. This character is the blueprint that many others have followed, even the Batman series.

My interest in Baroness Orczy

I really liked haunting old book stores and I was always on the lookout for something obscure, especially if it was post Victorian or turn of the century. This era and genre really caught my interest probably because of my long love for Sherlock Holmes.

There was a bookstore in Oklahoma City on 23rd street (the store location mentioned in this article actually came much later), located on the top landing of an antiques furniture store called Spiveys. I loved prowling the stacks looking for old books with lovely covers that promised adventure and mystery. Oh, and horse books. I was always up for horse training books.

At some point I ended up buying a book on sale at a mall bookstore that was about the history and development of the mystery novel.

Along with a trip to England when I was in college where I also hunted old books, it all came together and I ended up falling for Baroness Orczy, Rafael Sabatini, P.C. Wren, and many others that most readers have long forgotten.

When I wrote the Madame Chalamet series, I started thinking it would be fun to revisit some of these authors which inspired my love of reading and that awakened my love for adventure, mystery, and romance.

Lady Molly of Scotland Yard

Lady Molly may only be a woman, but she is ruthless in pursuing justice. She is no weeping violet, and as one of the earliest women detectives in fiction, Lady Molly is Scotland Yard’s ‘last hope.’ Called in when the Yard is mystified, Lady Molly uses her woman’s intuition and understanding of human nature, as well as her ability to see clues others don’t, to bring murderers and thieves to justice.

To perhaps save her reputation or to conceal her past, Lady Molly doesn’t use her real name. It’s not until the last two stories do you learn who she is and why she became a detective. Through her adventures she is accompanied by her female Watson, Mary Granard, who serves as narrator.

This volume includes 12 stories by Baroness Emma Orczy and a bonus, 13th tale by Byrd Nash: The House on Church Street. Byrd’s story is an original mystery using the Lady Molly character, and gives a prequel of how she meets her future boss at Scotland Yard and how she is drawn into working as an agent of the Yard, something Orczy never fully explains.

12 stories by Baroness Emma Orczy:

The Ninescore Mystery
The Frewin Miniatures
The Irish-Tweed Coat
The Fordwych Castle Mystery
A Day’s Folly
A Castle in Brittany
A Christmas Tragedy
The Bag of Sand
The Man in the Inverness Cape
The Woman in the Big Hat
Sir Jeremiah’s Will
The End

The Lady Molly of Scotland Yard (published 1910-12) is presented here in an unabridged edition, along with their original artwork. Written over 100 years ago they reflect values at the time which may be out-of-date now. Mystery lovers will enjoy the valuable historical insight about the fictional development of female detectives.

The Old Man in the Corner

One day over lunch reporter Polly Burton meets a mysterious man who seems to have all the answers to famous crimes making headlines in the news.

You probably have seen shows inspired by the The Old Man in the Corner and didn’t even know it – such as The Booth at the End television series. While the Old Man doesn’t grant wishes he is a morally gray character and an unreliable narrator. The Unreliable Narrator will conceal certain information or perhaps even give outright lies to the reader, most often than not this reveals a twist ending.

We don’t know the Old Man’s name, what he does for a living, or why he picked Polly to tell his solution to the hottest public crimes. Readers also don’t know how he came by his photographs or his knowledge that leads to him solving the mystery through his wits.

Unlike Lady Molly, the Old Man doesn’t care about justice. In most of the tales, the villain walks free. He’s only interested in solving the mystery and having Polly be amazed at his reasoning skills. The last story in the series by Baroness Orczy makes our Old Man an Unreliable Narrator indeed!

In adding a foreword and alternate ending story, I’ve given the Old Man’s perspective and more background on why Polly is chosen to receive his oratory at the cafe, and changed the reason for the crime at the end as I never felt like the original story did the Old Man justice.

The Old Man in the Corner (published 1908) is presented here in an unabridged edition, along with their original artwork. Written over 100 years ago they reflect values at the time which may be out-of-date now, but they do offer an interesting view of the times from an aristocrat.

This volume includes 2 NEW stories by Byrd Nash using characters from Baroness Orczy’s Old Man in the Corner series, including A Modern Girl which gives an explanation on why the Old Man chooses Polly for his conversations; and The Percy Street Mystery which gives an alternative ending to Orczy’s. After reading the original I was never happy with how she wrapped up this collection and it begged for something better.

The Collection includes 10 stories by Baroness Orczy:
The Fenchurch Street Mystery
The Robbery in Phillimore Terrace
The York Mystery
The Mysterious Death on the Underground Railway
The Liverpool Mystery The Edinburgh Mystery
The Theft at the English Provident Bank
The Dublin Mystery
The Regent’s Park Murder
The Mysterious Death in Percy Street

Other Revisited Mystery Classics coming soon

In exploring these books, I stumbled across Anna Katherine Green’s work, an American writer, who in my opinion, has better mystery plots than Baroness Orczy. I’m excited to share some of her work with more original stories in the near future!

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