Allie Baldwin is the daughter of a newspaper magnate in New York, and we meet her as she attempts to report on a Womens’ Suffrage protest. The first book in the Gilded Age Heiresses series introduces us to THE UNFORGETTABLE MISS BALDWIN and equally to her causes and concerns. The streets are bustling and protest marches are not popular. Plenty of men – and some women – think women belong in the home, so agitators cause trouble for the suffragettes. Allie shouldn’t be covering this story in the first place, as her papa refuses to print the topic in case of losing readers. But she is tired of writing about high society balls.

Peter Harrison is the hands-on boss of the Harrison Detective Agency started by his father. He works to ensure the suffragettes don’t come to harm. His first run-in with the brave Allie leaves him laughing, but later he is called upon to escort Allie and a friend to various trouble spots. Not only are thugs on the streets, someone has been sending Allie unpleasant missives. They work together to resolve the case of a stolen baby, and Peter starts to wonder if Allie could mean more to him than a client’s daughter. But Allie is, of course, set against early marriage. There is so much more she needs to achieve.

I liked the principle of THE UNFORGETTABLE MISS BALDWIN but found the story sometimes dragged where polite society was emphasised and gentle walks in the park replaced finding out what happened to the women union organisers. Allie has a Great Dane called Captyn, a hilarious source of amusement and mayhem. For as much as Allie engages in lengthy debates on grown-up topics, she exhibits great immaturity, running away (generally home) any time someone disagrees with her, right to the end of the story, even leaving her dog behind. I lost count of how many times she fell in the mud on her shapely derriere. Nonetheless, this varied romance story has a good eye for the times – the difficulty of travel to the countryside in poor weather, the way in which the rich handed their babies over to nursemaids. . . Gail Ingis, a Brooklyn native, describes the city with great accuracy. THE UNFORGETTABLE MISS BALDWIN reminds us that even when women were accepted in new careers, such as news reporter, doors were still barred to them and only the braver and more determined could face down the dangers involved.