ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the liminal position in society of nineteenth-century detectives, both real and fictional. Such liminal qualities were reflected in fiction from the early days of female sleuths to present-day detective narratives. To illustrate their representation, this chapter addresses ground-breaking works such as The Female Detective (1864) and Revelations of a Lady Detective (1864), among others, to later move to contemporary rewritings. It analyzes three television showst—Houdini & Doyle (2016), The Bletchley Circle (2012–14), and The Pinkertons (2014)—together with the graphic novel published in 2018 My Favourite Thing Is Monsters. Finally, it focuses on the Baztan trilogy written by a Spanish author, Dolores Redondo, seen as a rewriting of the liminal Gothic heroine, and, hence, also an echo of former narratives.
