The true story of Mrs. 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 weren't even allowed to vote. This is the first-ever literary biography of the singular woman the press nicknamed after fiction's greatest detective.
I found this to be a most interesting read even if it took me awhile to plow through. I primarily picked up this title to give Mr. Whicher his female equivalent. I ended up being amazed at her strength and the lengths she went to find justice for her clients. My favorite part of this book was at the end where Mr. Ricca provides short biographies of how all the major players spent the rest of their years. Something that Ms. Summerscale did as well--also one of my favorite parts of her book.
The backstory of this work is white slavery and the sheer number of people who go missing in every year. The truth of the matter is that this is a topic that still to this day gets swept under the rug. At the time of his writing 2014 the numbers he reports are astonishing: 466,949 missing children, 1.1 million reports of sexual exploitation of children and young adults, 100,000 to 300,000 children at risk for entering the U.S. commercial sex trade, 600,00-800,000 people are trafficked across international borders every year of which 80% are female and half are children. I applaud Brad Ricca for his efforts in to shining a light on this horrible reality.
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