Who were the Women Attending Berkeley in 1880-81?

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In Scholarly Pursuits (now available), I set the mystery on the University of California campus at Berkeley during the spring term of 1881. The university, first opened in 1863, didn’t enroll any women until 1870, and between 1874 and 1881, only ten percent of the bachelor’s degrees granted by the university went to women. This is not surprising, given that one of the decade’s most popular books was Sex in Education (1873), a book by Edward Clarke, a Harvard medical school physician, who argued that women who were educated in the same fashion as men would face an inability to conceive and produce healthy children, life-long illness, and possible death. Clarke only produced anecdotal evidence to support his claims, nevertheless, his views gave a veneer of science to already held prejudices against women attending institutions of higher education, particularly co-educational institutions Read more…


Scholarly Pursuits arrives Tomorrow

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As you can tell, I am excited about the launch of Scholarly Pursuits, the  sixth book in my Victorian San Francisco Mystery series, the first full-length novel since Pilfered Promises came out in July 2017. While I have published two novellas since then, I do know that is a long time for some of you to have waited, and I apologize. But if you pre-order today, the book should show up first thing on your eReaders tomorrow morning, and the print book is already available to order.  Meanwhile, I was just sent the link to this video featuring “Nine Enthralling Long-running Mystery Series” that I thought you all might find fun. My Victorian Mystery Series is number six on the list. M. Louisa Locke,  March 4, 2019


In loco parentis: A comparison of 19th century and 20th century coeducation

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Introduction: I confess, that like many historical fiction writers, I often choose my characters and plots as a way to explore certain subjects. For instance, my primary goal in starting to write my Victorian San Francisco Mystery series was to further explore and tell stories about the women I had studied for my history doctorate. Consequently, during the past ten years I have researched jobs women held in a variety of occupations including domestic service, spiritualism, public school teaching, the printing industry, and department stores. However, while doing the research about public school teaching for Bloody Lessons, the third book in my mystery series, I discovered that the University of California had opened up its door to women in 1870, and I decided that at some point I would like to see what life was like for women attending a coeducational Read more…


Scholarly Pursuits Now Available for Pre-order

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“Something is rotten in the state of Berkeley” –1881 Blue and Gold Yearbook, University of California: Berkeley In Scholarly Pursuits, the sixth full-length novel in the USA Today best-selling Victorian San Francisco mystery series, Locke explores life on the University of California: Berkeley campus in 1881, where Laura and her friends face the remarkably modern problems of fraternity hazings, fraught romantic relationships, and fractious faculty politics.  While Annie and Nate Dawson and friends and family in the O’Farrell Street boardinghouse await a blessed event, Laura Dawson finds herself investigating why a young Berkeley student dropped out of school in the fall of 1880. No one, including her friend Seth Timmons, thinks this is a good idea, since she is juggling a full course load with a part-time job, but she can’t let the question of what happened to her friend go Read more…


Victorian SF Mystery and Caelestis Series News

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Victorian San Francisco Novellas collection now Available This collection brings together three novellas: Violet Vanquishes a Villain, Katherine Catches a Killer, and Dandy Delivers.These shorter works contain the light romance, humor, and suspense of the novels in her cozy Victorian San Francisco mystery series and are an excellent introduction to the gas-lit world of late 19th-century San Francisco. Violet Vanquishes a Villain: In this novella set in August of 1880, Annie and Nate Dawson’s trip down the San Francisco peninsula to San Jose was supposed to be a pleasant romantic interlude and a chance for Annie to get to know Nate’s family better. When the visit takes a serious turn, Annie races to expose a criminal who could ruin a young man’s life, getting help from an unexpected quarter. The events in Violet Vanquishes a Villaincome right after Deadly Proof, the Read more…