The Golden Slipper, And Other Problems For Violet Strange

by Anna Katharine Green

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Genres: Mystery, Classics, Short Stories, Mystery Thriller, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical

440 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1915

About the author

Anna Katharine Green (1846-1935) was an American poet and novelist. She was one of the first writers of detective fiction in America and distinguished herself by writing well plotted, legally accurate stories. Born in Brooklyn, New York, her early ambition was to write romantic verse, and she corresponded with Ralph Waldo Emerson. When her poetry failed to gain recognition, she produced her first and best known novel, The Leavenworth Case (1878). She became a bestselling author, eventually publishing about 40 books. She was in some ways a progressive woman for her time-succeeding in a genre dominated by male writers-but she did not approve of many of her feminist contemporaries, and she was opposed to women's suffrage. Her other works include A Strange Disappearance (1880), The Affair Next Door (1897), The Circular Study (1902), The Filigree Ball (1903), The Millionaire Baby (1905), The House in the Mist (1905), The Woman in the Alcove (1906), The House of the Whispering Pines (1910), Initials Only (1912), and The Mystery of the Hasty Arrow (1917).

Reviews

[Tweety · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's only after reading all these short mystery stories that the full force of the titles hit you. I don't know which was the worst, but I think perhaps The Doctor, His Wife, and The Clock was the most awful of them. Or was it Missing Page 13? No, it was The Second Bullet.

Anyway, here's a brief review of each story.

The Golden Slipper Three Stars
This was the mildest of the whole lot, focusing on a society family and a hidden thief among a group of friends. A golden slipper is the only clue that will help Violet find who the real thief is.

The Second Bullet Three Stars
Of all the stories this one is the most tragic and I almost wish Violet hadn't been able to solve it. When a man seemingly commits suicide and incidentally takes his child with him, Violet must prove that it was murder, not suicide so the man's widow can receive his life insurance.

An Intangible Clue Three 1/2 Stars
An old woman is murdered for seemingly no reason. The criminal took nothing, leaving behind a wallet full of money and blood stains all through the house. Why was she killed? Why did the criminal leave without anything? There are no clues, or are there... This was quite good and had a satisfying as well as cheerful ending.

The Grotto Spectre Five Stars
This is my favorite, along with Page Thirteen. A dysfunctional family of an older man, his gambling son and young grandson along with a caretaker. The son has an unsavory past and now, suddenly he wants to know the truth about his unhappy family. A horrible suspicion as to his wife's killer is eating away at him and he must know the truth even if it further destroys his broken family. What hint of the past does the grotto he and his wife secreted hold? Will he ever be able to clear his name from the sigma of murder? Violet agrees to help out, but only because she can't say not to the pain in his eyes.

The House of Clocks Four Stars
On the outset this story is simple enough, an old woman who hates her stepdaughter and is making out her will so as to leave nothing to the girl. The girl is insipid and wasting away for no apparent reason and the caretaker who seems sane goes around winding the clocks at night and listen to them say 'yes, yes, yes!' But he only listens to the biggest of the clocks which always tells him 'no'. What is his secret? Does it have anything to do with the old woman? Does he know more than he lets on? Violet goes to this house of clocks and carful unwinds the mystery.

The Doctor, His Wife, and the Clock Four Stars
What does the blind doctor and his beautiful wife have to do with the murder across their street? Seemingly nothing. But the murder reports don't add up and it appears the the Doctor's Wife holds the missing clue.. At Violet Strange's proposition, the police, The Doctor and his wife go to solve the mystery with a clock and a pistol. This was good, you know the answer fairly early on but keep hoping to be wrong and find another way of solving the story.

Missing: Page Thirteen Five Stars
At an engagement party in a recluse's home one night two inventors, one the bridegroom, and the other a friend of the bride, get together taking about their inventions and hopes for getting a patent. Through some unfortunate events though, one Inventor's formula goes missing, page thirteen, when he's all alone in a paneled room and the only man who could have taken it was the bridegroom. Swearing he will not marry the next day if his name is not cleared a guest calls his friend Violet Strange. She's got only a few hours to solve the mystery. This was AMAZING. We have family secrets, an old recluse, a sealed off room and a reappearance of the man from The Grotto

Violet's Own Four Stars
Once again, we have the man from The Grotto Spectre and here we get a bit of him and Violet together, as well as the reason for Violet's own strange behavior. Why would a society lady who hates murders and has everything she could possibly want, choose to solve gruesome mysteries for the paycheck? Not really a mystery but more of an explanation for her actions. Good in a satisfying way but not exciting.

PG Some ugly murders but nothing is graphically shown. Some are really horrible without seeing them. A few swears.

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have always loved Anna Katharine Green's mysteries, and I'm happy to report that I loved this one just as much as her others. This is a collection of loosely connected short stories (usually Violet herself is the only connection) and has some elements of horror in it also (especially the old house with the sealed up secret passage, and the cave by the sea). Violet is a very interesting and unusual sleuth, a gentle society girl who secretly moonlights as a professional detective.

Content: a couple minor swears; some death, murder, and mayhem

[Lorena · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book, more a series of classic short mysteries. Violet Strange is a turn-of-the-century New York socialite. As she solves increasingly high-stakes mysteries among her set, the reader also gradually picks up clues as to why she would risk her own reputation to act as a detective. Highly recommended for the vintage mystery fan.

[Bev · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Golden Slipper & Other Problems for Violet Strange (1915) is a collection of stories by Anna Katharine Green featuring an early edition of that familiar figure, the "girl detective." Violet Strange is a pretty young debutante with a wealthy father and the spare time to secretly investigate various matters within her social sphere. As becomes a young lady of her station, she is almost always pulled reluctantly into the situation--particularly if there is any bloodshed or violence involved. But the man who introduces her to these problems manages to appeal to her sense of justice and sympathetic interest...or to her need of money. He's not entirely sure why she, a child of fortune, should desire money enough to take on "uncongenial work," but I suspect it is because she wants a sense of independence that having access to your own funds gives. She is free to spend it on what she likes--or to use it support just causes if that is her wont.

I fond myself liking the stories which were primarily pure puzzle far more than those with a Gothic or highly emotional bent ("The House of Clocks" and the second half of "Missing: Page Thirteen") and the ones where Miss Strange was less centrally involved were also less satisfying. Overall, a good collection of stories from the early 20th and a nice peek at an early female detective. ★★★ and 1/2.

A Brief Synopsis of Each "Problem":

"The Golden Slipper" Miss Strange proves who is behind a series of high society thefts. It would seem to be one of group of friends known as "The Inseparables"--with suspicion focused on one of the young ladies in particular. Miss Strange uses her own jewels as bait to catch a sneak thief.

"The Second Bullet" In this story, Miss Strange sets out to discover proof of a second bullet--proof that will remove the stigma of suicide from a man's death and allow his widow to collect much needed insurance money.

"An Intangible Clue" This story involves Miss Strange in a "sordid" murder case--something she never intended to be part of. But...without her observations in the needlewoman's home, the perpetrator would never have been caught.

"The Grotto Spectre" Miss Strange is called upon by a man who once represented one of society's grand families and who is now shunned because of his ill-chosen marriage (to a woman who led him into the clutches of gambling) and the rumors that he caused her death (though cleared at the inquest). He, however, suspects that his father may be responsible and asks Miss Strange to settle his suspicions once and for all.

"The Dreaming Lady" This time Miss Strange stipulates that her next case must not contain any kind of horror or death. Her conditions are met when Mrs. Quintard, sister of a well-known financier, is in desperate need of someone to find a missing will.

"The House of Clocks" A strange (no pun intended) Gothic piece. There really isn't much of puzzle for Miss Strange to unravel. It is all told to her by the faithful servant of an evil step-mother....


"The Doctor, His Wife, and the Clock" Miss Strange is given a bundle of papers describing an unsolved murder from before her interest in puzzles began. Her job? To find an entry to the home of a doctor who had lived beside the murdered man. Her real involvement in the resolution? Minimal--it is her employer who really solve this one. It would seem that Miss Strange's career as a sleuth is petering out....

"Missing: Page Thirteen" Miss Strange decides to take just one more case--at the instigation of Robert Upjohn (the man involved in the "Grotto" mystery). This time, she is busy tracking down a missing scientific formula relating to explosives [aren't they always?]. She quickly solves the mystery of the missing page and is then made privy to another, older secret.

"Violet's Own" This is not really a problem--except that it is Violet Strange's telling of the initial problem that set her on her course for earning money as an investigator. And it proved my thoughts on her motives to be right--she did, indeed, want money (not of her father) that she could spend as she chose.


First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks.

[Ren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nancy Who?

[Julie Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I always enjoy these older mysteries when they feature female detectives. This is a series of short stories where a well placed debutante, Violet Strange, is commissioned to investigate different crimes. What is making these especially interesting is that she never wants to detect anything and must be almost lured into doing it. And the person who commissions her detecting is very mysterious. His name is never used and we know no details about him at all. So there is an overall mystery within the shorter mysteries!

The stories were uneven but good enough overall. I liked the last chapter which explained why Violet was solving the crimes in the first place.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Violet is the Nancy Drew of her generation. (1900's) She is quick and clever. Unfortunately, Green has such a melodramatic way of writing, It spoiled my enjoyment of the book.

[Surreysmum · Rating 3 out of 5]

My interest in Anna Katherine Green was piqued by a survey of women detective fiction writers, and this set of linked short stories featuring detective Violet Strange was available free on the web, so I took the opportunity to read through it. Although this book was published in 1915 and is set contemporaneously with that, I was actually taken aback a little every time an automobile or a telephone was mentioned, so thoroughly nineteenth-century did the rest of Green's world seem. I was intrigued by the notion of an upper class woman, a socialite, doing detective work for money, albeit altruistically. Here, I think, is the American aspect - such a notion would have been completely anathema in English fiction. Even the redoubtable Miss Marple thirty years later wouldn't dream of being a professional! But Violet Strange is a professional very much on her own terms, and her methods lie ambivalently scattered across the divide between the sexes which Green is in no hurry to disrupt (when I found out later she was opposed to women's suffrage, it did not surprise me). So though Violet is described as intelligent and focused, and does indeed give evidence of considerable reasoning power, setting traps for her suspects, she thinks of her own strengths in terms of her intuition - her "soft skills", if you like, in understanding people, as is entirely appropriate to a woman. And, unlike her male counterparts, she is not allowed to depart a violent case without being emotionally disturbed and decidedly guilt-ridden about any part she has taken in it. Here are just a few quotations that struck me enough to scribble them down:

Who could dream that back of this display of mingled childishness and audacity there lay hidden purpose, intellect and a keen knowledge of human nature.

"When I hear or read of a case which contains any baffling features, I am apt to feel some hidden chord in my nature thrill to one fact in it and not to any of the others."

[when challenged by her male "boss"]: "My opinion is a girl's opinion, but such as it is you have the right to hear it."

"... she, Violet Strange, on whom strong men had come to rely in critical hours calling for well-balanced judgment."

"A woman's mind is strangely penetrating, and yours, I am told, has an intuitive faculty more to be relied upon than the reasoning of men."

In the end, Violet's "own problem" is that her sister has been disowned by her father, and requires financial as well as moral support. Since it involves the exercise of a womanly virtue (family compassion), this is, it seems, adequate pretext for Violet to cross the gender boundaries into the world of detecting. But now I would like to read some of Green's earlier work, where she also has female detectives, to see if this view of the feminine, so bizarre to a modern sensibility, is characteristic, or if she rang the changes in her female types over the course of her very long career.

[Celebrilomiel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this and was quite interested to begin it (one of the first female detectives in literature!), but it was stylistically annoying and the interlinked short stories felt more like they were trying to be psychological thrillers than proper mysteries. The clues necessary for solving each case were almost always withheld from the reader until the end, which was galling, and the amount of head-hopping, time-skipping, and tense-switching made the narratives hard to follow. The stories got a little more interesting as the book progressed, but they also got more tragic. My impression of the book as a whole is of a shadowed and flimsy ambiance limned by purple prose and populated by women described as fairies and men who fall in love with them on sight. You could make quite the drinking game by taking a shot every time a woman fainted.

2.5 stars

[Diana Long · Rating 5 out of 5]

What I took for a short story collection is actually one story and the slipper and problems are cases, investigated by socialite Violet Strange. I was pleasantly surprised by this author, I had no idea that she inspired authors like Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie. The protagonist of the story is a young Violet Strange who is in want of money, personally earned for something special which is not revealed until near the end of the story. Violet is hired by a private detective to assist in cases that has law enforcement baffled, she has a unique ability to look at a case with a different perspective. I thought the different cases given her to solve were excellent and I thoroughly enjoyed the mysteries with all their twists and turns and some surprise outcomes. I highly recommend this short read and look forward to reading more from this author.

[Tam May · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve become a big fan of Green but this wasn’t one of my favorite books. Maybe because it was short stories but the mysteries seemed too simplistic to me. Also, I wasn’t a big fan of the main character. I felt she was shallow and a little arrogant. An interesting view of mystery in short story form, though.

[Daniy ♠ · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was bored for most of the short stories, and If this was a whole book I would have dnf it

it took me years to finally be done lmao

[Catyche · Rating 2 out of 5]

This novel is a collection of short stories where each story is a description of one of Violet' s (the female detective narrator) cases. They take place in early 20th century New York. I found the mysteries very clunky. They were completely unsolvable on the part of the reader because a lot of the information needed to solve the mystery is known by the narrator Violet but held back from the reader. The book showcases one of the first fictional female detectives so I can appreciate these stories as the foremother to later, better mysteries with female detectives such as Agatha Christie' s Miss Marple stories but in evaluating them just as as mysteries I didn't really enjoy them. I found them boring, sentimental and extremely unbelievable. Unless you have an academic interest in the history of the female detective I'd advise a prospective reader to skip it.

[Portobellord · Rating 3 out of 5]

Is this the first instance of the girl detective? A collection of short stories featuring Violet Strange, a well to do girl who for some reason is called in every so often to help solve crimes. Violet is a bit of a cipher, we do not know why she is solving crimes, only getting vague hints every so often that her father would not approve of this work. The final story reveals this information, but it is rather anti-climatic. The stories tend toward the melodramatic, and her method for solving crimes is more often than not trying to get the criminal to slip up and confess. Still, they are pretty fun to read.

[Claire Gilligan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Different from other detective stories, though I couldn't at first put my finger on how. These were unexpectedly macabre (for the sleuth, but also for the reader!), but very well done in every case, and the familiar setting (NYC, if a century ago) was a plus. Distinctly interesting, in the genuine meaning of the word.

And the last story provided a sort of closure that I didn't realize I'd wanted until it was offered to me. Bravo!

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

I do so appreciate the role of the Internet in keeping alive many old books and series. This book is one I would probably have never found if it hadn't been issued as an ebook. I value it as much for the glimpse of life for a New York socialite of a century ago as for the detective puzzles. Not often you run across a detective that has to have her brother accompany her on cases in order to observe the proprieties.

[Susan]

Made it through two cases and gave up. Despised the protagonist though should probably like her more given she's probably the first of her kind (intelligent female detectives) and it's opening up the opportunities for later authors.

It's like telling me to like Hedda Gabler for her symbolic role in literature. I can appreciate the symbolic role but that won't make me like the work any more.

[Melissa’s Bookshelf · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a vintage mystery collection of Violet Stranges' cases written by the author who supposedly inspired Agatha Christie. It was fun to read about this spunky, intelligent New York socialite who takes on some grisly cases. It is set in the early 1900's. When finished, it made me want to read more to find out what happens to Violet.

[Jenn Estepp · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although I liked this far more by the end than I thought I was going to initially, it feels more like something that I appreciate as an aficionado of detective fiction than something I actually enjoyed as a reader. I appreciate the historical significance of it and some of the puzzlers were real corkers, but Ms. Violet Strange is a difficult character to really love, I think.

[Christianne Lupher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Discovering this marvelous debutante detective, created by the "mother of detective fiction" at the same time that Conan Doyle was still writing Sherlock Holmes, was a true joy. Getting to narrate the audiobook version of her stories was an even greater delight. I hope you find as much pleasure in the adventures of this petite, dimpled, boundary-pushing socialite from 1915 as I did.

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Violet Strange, a society girl, solves difficult problems for a private detective on a case by case basis. Short and petite, Violet Strange has a keen intellect and intuition that surprises most of the people she works for. This collection of mysteries is set in the 1910's.

[Jeff Hobbs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read so far:

The Golden Slipper--3
The Second Bullet--4
An Intangible Clue--3
The Grotto Spectre--3
The Dreaming Lady--3
The House of Clocks--2
The Doctor, His Wife, and the Clock--2
Missing: Page Thirteen--2
Violet's Own--2

[Bettie · Rating 2 out of 5]

New York socialite-cum-detective Violet Strange probes four rich women suspected of multiple thefts. Stars Teresa Gallagher.

Broadcast on:
BBC Radio 7, 11:15am Wednesday 16th December 2009

[Cindy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not crazy about these. I didn't like the main character, Violet Strange, and the whole thing was really dated.

[Christina · Rating 4 out of 5]

A set of short mysteries starring Violet Strange, a socialite whose vivacious manner hides her true calling as a detective. Some of the stories were surprisingly grim.

[Dayle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Diminutive society debutante solves crimes/mysteries and the final story tells the reason she risks her Father's wrath to do so.

[Gregory Moses · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anna Katherine Green was one of the progenitors of modern detective fiction. Although she was extremely prolific, such modern-day fame as she has seems to rest on two pillars: The Leavenworth Case (her first novel, and one of the first detective novels, period, published in 1878) and these stories (published at the tail end of her career in 1915), which are anthologized fairly often. While I thought the Leavenworth Case was tedious and bloated, a lot of this is better; Green benefits from a word limit.

Violet Strange is a mystery herself. She's a wealthy society figure (or at rather, her father is wealthy) who is secretly a detective, shades of Bruce Wayne, Lamont Cranston, and dozens of lesser-known pulp heroes. But while those male successors are basically putting on an act, Violet Strange isn't. In general, she seems to resent being forced to play detective; she especially resents being involved in crimes of violence (“I should not be asked to touch the sordid or the bloody … what do you see in me, or miss in me, that you should drag me into an atmosphere of low-down crime?”). Violet Strange will always take the cases, though, due to a private need for money (the reason for which will be revealed in the last chapter).

The individual stories are inevitably a mixed bag. “The Dreaming Lady” strikes me as a failure; it's a “find the missing will” story, and it's brutally difficult to extract interest from someone wandering around a room looking for a piece of paper. “An Intangible Clue” is the most traditional story, which makes it the creakiest; it's not fair to judge these stories by modern standards, but it's hard for me to be excited about the clue that gives the story its name. “The Doctor, His Wife, and the Clock” is a weird bit of self-plagiarism, being originally an Ebenezer Gryce novella, and not at all benefiting from having Violet Strange into it (she doesn't even get to solve the mystery, as her nameless employer takes the role of Gryce; especially awkward because the whole thing is extremely obvious, so it's painful to see our detective flail around in the dark). “Missing: Page Thirteen” is an insubstantial mystery that segues into a flashback that is not a mystery, and has nothing to do with Violet Strange; Green was clearly struggling to fill this volume, and after “Doctor” and “Page Thirteen,” she quickly brings things to a close with “Violet's Own,” a non-mystery that reveals her motives, about which I can only say: sure, whatever, I guess. About what you'd expect, although a sad awakening for readers who want Anna Katherine Green to have been some sort of early feminist.

On a more positive note, “The Golden Slipper” surprised me with its ending. “The Second Bullet” somehow didn't impress me that much when I last read it in an anthology, but I liked it much more this time; the solution is really quite ghastly, and also totally believable. “The Grotto Spectre” and “The House of Clocks” are Gothic melodramas, so your appreciation of those will depend on whether that appeals to you. Personally, I like it, and I tend to find that, ironically, stories from this era benefit from being “dated.” Historic interest aside, hundreds of modern authors could write “An Intangible Clue” as well or better than Green did, but no modern author would be likely to write “The House of Clocks.”

Anna Katherine Green will never be among my favorites, but given her influence, it's nice not to have to totally dismiss her; I couldn't stomach the thought of reading more of her novels, but I might dip into her other short story collections, one of these days.

[Gypsi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Violet Strange is a popular, pretty, sparkling society belle of America's Gilded Age. Secretly, however, she is an agent for a private investigator, willing to use her intelligence and powers of observation to do work she finds unpleasant for a salary that she doesn't appear to need. Her secret is revealed slowly in a larger story arc that surrounds the nine stories of her cases.

Green (1846-1935), justly popular at the time and one of my favorite American authors, was among the first authors of the modern "detective story". Violet is often credited as the first "girl detective".

Tantor Audio does a disservice to the stories by referring to them as "mystery stories"; they are in fact, her adventures or experiences or, in some cases, just stories that Violet appears in as a more minor character. Expecting them to be mysteries will cause unfulfilled expectations in the reader, making the book less enjoyable.

As mentioned above, these stories are not really detective stories; they are, as Green's original title states, "problems". In some, Violet sets up a trap so that whoever the malefactor is, they will give themselves away. In others, her intelligence and powers of observation serve her to find a missing object or see an obscure element of the case. In one instance, she doesn't come to the right conclusion at all. They are still good tales, though, as Green was good at interesting plots and surprising solutions. The main flaw in this collection is that Violet is shoehorned into them all even though it's a stretch to do so, and there are times when she doesn't fit in at all. If Green had written them without Violet and with no connection to each other, this would have been a four star -- if not five -- collection of intriguing puzzles.

I still recommend them, for those who enjoy mysteries from this time period, as long as the reader takes the above into consideration.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Young society lady of New York, Violet Strange, investigates various cases
1 The Golden Slipper - who really is responsible for various thefts
2 - The Second Bullet - When George Hammond dies,is it suicide or murder. Finding a second bullet would mean mirder and finalcial relief for the widow.
3 - An Intangible Clue - When Mrs Doolittle is murdered there seems to be no clue to the murderer.
4 - The Grotto Spectre - Roger Upjohn, widower, a year after his wife's death needs to know the truth regarding his suspicions,
5 - The Dreaming Lady - Mrs Quintard sister to C Dudley Brooks, dead, has lost his latest will which has changed the main beneficiary to her family away from her brother's step-son.
6 - The House of Clocks - Arabella Postlethwaite, of Gloom Cottage, wants her will drawn and invites lawyer to her home, but it is the fate of the step-daughter that concerns him
7 - The Doctor, his Wife, and the Clock - It has been several years since the murder of Mr Hasbrouck, a crime that is still unsolved, until a confession is made, but is it the truth
8 - Missing: Page Thirteen - Mr Cornell believes his honour is at stake when a page with a formula on goes missing from a document. But what secrets will be revealed.
9 - Violet's own - Violet reveals the family secret to her future husband on the eve of her wedding.
A set of enjoyable short mysteries

[Zander · Rating 4 out of 5]

Compare to modern mysteries and modern women these stories can seem slow and simple and the characters unsympathetic and misogynistic but for stories written in 1915 they were both quite modern and thrilling. Much is made about how posh and disliking murder and violence Violet is but her actions display none of that and while the author perhaps to justify her heroine's transgressive behavour is constantly pointing out how sensitive she is, how delicate and how she possesses every delicate womenly ideal, Violet also is shown to use all those "traditional" charm and expectation to do her detective work.

I enjoyed the stories because they were honest about how restrictive an existence a woman in even upper class wealth and in a major city had and how Violet used those expectations to her advantage. I also liked how varied the cases were as well as the methods she used to solve them.

If you like historical fiction and vintage authors of the 19th and early 20th century you will enjoy this. If you want modern stories and characters that are just set in a version of early 20th century then you wouldn't find these stories that were actually written in 1915 all that interesting.