The Hourglass Factory by Lucy Ribchester

London, 1912, the suffragette movement is reaching fever pitch, and the police are desperate to stop them from causing civil disruption.  Women are hauled off to prison and subjected to force feeding.  Ribchester has used the suffragette movement and its major figures as a basis for a rather flamboyant murder mystery.  Our detective is a wannabe female journalist (yes, there were a few in that period), eager to get a story, who gets involved in the murder investigation when a trapeze artist/suffragette she is sent to do a story about disappears.  Ebony Diamond turns out to actually have been the target in two murders, and our intrepid hero, "Frankie" George sets out through the London underworld to find her.  The story has the feel of an early silent movie, with cliffhangers, plot twists, and a variety of offbeat characters.  While a bit of a romp through London, Ribchester has thoroughly researched the period and manages to give us a good feel the climate of the city during those days.  502 pages