It does take some patience to get through ‘The Lady and the Law,’ because it is not ‘The Moonstone’ or ‘The Woman in White.’ It *is*, however, one of the earliest detective novels with a female protagonist who does relies on her own ingenuity and intelligence to solve the seeming murder of her husband’s first wife. Valeria Woodville discovers on her honeymoon that her husband is not who she thought she was, and she makes it her mission to exonerate her husband and clear his reputation. Male friends escort her through this journey—it is, after all, late 19th-century Scotland—but Valeria drives the action, remarking along the way about how extraordinary she knows this is. The real problem with this story is the characters: Valeria and her husband remain ciphers and one Dickensian eccentric, Miserrimus Dexter, dominates whole sections. He holds the key to the mystery; unfortunately, he also ruins the book with his inexplicable behavior. The resolution is forensically fascinating, however, and makes the book worth reading, if only as a curiosity.