Here’s my full interview with Susannah Stapleton, who I spoke to last year for episode 20 of the podcast, The Lady Detective. Susannah has a fascinating job — she’s a freelance historical researcher who basically seeks to answer questions that can’t easily be solved with a quick internet search, and that’s how she came to get interested in Maud West, a real life lady detective. Having come across a brief mention of her, it was really hard for Susannah to find out any reliable information online, which triggered her curiosity and lead to months of research and, ultimately, a really interesting book on the subject. I hope you enjoy hearing about her research process and about the life of her subject.

Just a note, we tried to be careful in the interview not to spoil the ending of her book, which although it is non fiction has twists worthy of any detective novel. SO if you haven’t had a chance to read of listen to it yet, you can still listen to this and not spoil the experience. I would recommend the audiobook, by the way, Susannah recorded it herself and it’s really good.