Mary Fortune (1833-1911) was a pioneering writer of crime fiction. Born in Belfast, she emigrated to Australia in 1855 with an assignment to write about the gold rushes. A bigamous marriage to a policeman, along with her experience of life in the goldfields and in bohemian Melbourne, provided source material for the detective stories she began writing in the 1860s. Clyzia, the pick of her several novels, is a historical horror novel and clearly shows the influence of the Gothic that runs through much of her fictional work. Fortune published under pseudonyms, so she could shield her identity and earn a precarious living even when she was jailed for drunkenness, or had no fixed address. Her actual identity was almost lost forever, but dedicated research has revealed an extraordinary woman and her story. LUCY SUSSEX is a novelist and literary historian. Her fiction includes The Scarlet Rider, a novelized account of her search for Mary Fortune. She is also the author of Woman Writers and Detectives in Nineteenth-Century Crime Fiction and Blockbuster! Fergus Hume and The Mystery of a Hansom Cab, and the co-author (with Megan Brown) of Outrageous Fortunes, a biography of Mary and her career-criminal son, George Fortune.