title: The Ascent of the Detective: Police Sleuths in Victorian and Edwardian England
author:  Haia Shpayer-Makov 
description: <br>"[W]ell written and exhaustively researched....The writing is extremely clear and precise, and the author's choice of illuminating examples enlivens her analysis considerably."--<em>Journal of Modern History</em>
zlib_text: ![](images/00001.jpg)
  
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  Disappearances  
    
  
  
  This page copyright © 2001 Blackmask Online.
  
  
  
  
  
  http://www.blackmask.com
  
  
  # Disappearances
  
  
  ### Elizabeth Gaskell
  
  
  
  
  
  This page copyright © 2001 Blackmask Online.
  
  
  
  
  
  http://www.blackmask.com  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  I am not in the habit of seeing the Household Words regularly; but a friend,
  who lately sent me some of the back
  
  
  numbers, recommended me to read "all the papers relating to the Detective and
  Protective Police," which I
  
  
  accordingly did—not as the generality of readers have done, as they appeared
  week by week, or with pauses
  
  
  between, but consecutively, as a popular history of the Metropolitan Police;
  and, as I suppose it may also be
  
  
  considered, a history of the police force in every large town in England. When
  I had ended these papers, I did not feel
  
  
  disposed to read any others at that time, but preferred falling into a train
  of reverie and recollection.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  First of all I remembered, with a smile, the unexpe