Law And The Lady - Wilkie Collins

Valeria Woodvilles First Act As A Married Woman Is To Sign Her Name In The Marriage Register Incorrectly, And This Slip Is Followed By The Gradual Disclosure Of A Series Of Secrets About Her Husbands Earlier Life, Each Of Which Leads On To Another Set Of Questions And Enigmas. Her Discoveries Prompt Her To Defy Her Husbands Authority, To Take The Law Into Into A Labyrinthine Maze Of False Clues And Deceptive Identities, In Which The Exploration Of The Tangled Workings Of The Mind Becomes Linked To An Investigation Into The Masquerades Of Femininity. Probably The First Full-length Novel With A Woman Detective As Its Heroine, The Law And The Lady Is A Fascinating Example Of Collinss Later Fiction.