The Fortunes of Mary Fortune

Mary Fortune (c. 1833-1910?) migrated from Canada to the Australian goldfields in 1855. She published her first detective stories in the Australian Journal in 1865, using the pseudonyms of 'Waif Wander' and 'W. W.'. In all, she wrote over 500 detective stories over 40 years, most featuring Detective Mark Sinclair. Her one book, The Detective's Album (1871), is the first known collection of detective fiction stories by a woman. She died an alcoholic, the date and place still unknown - somehow fitting for this pioneering woman of mystery.

Lucy Sussex was born in New Zealand in 1957. She has degrees in English and Librarianship from Monash University, and is a freelance researcher, editor and writer. She has published widely, writing anything from literary criticism to horror and detective stories. In addition she is a literary archaeologist, rediscovering and republishing the nineteenth-century Australian crime writers Mary Fortune and Ellen Davitt. Her short story, `My Lady Tongue' won a Ditmar (Australian Science Fiction Achievement Award) in 1988. In 1994 she was a judge for the international Tiptree award, which honours speculative fiction exploring notions of gender. Her first adult novel, The Scarlet Rider, is about biography, Victorian detective fiction, voodoo and a ghost.