By the time The Law and the Lady appeared in 1875, The Woman in White and The Moonstone had already established Collins as the leading practitioner of 'sensation fiction'. The Law and the Lady builds on this tradition by introducing one of English literature's earliest women detectives, Valeria Woodville, who investigates the murder of her husband's first wife, in the attempt to prove him guiltless. Rich in plot and characters, including the extraordinary áman-machine' Miserrimus Dexter and his female cousin 'Ariel', the novel exposes the repression of Victorian domestic life and marriage.