Female Sleuths Multipack 2

Fans of girl detectives are in for a treat with Volume 2 of Female Sleuths Megapacks!

Lady Molly of Scotland Yard, Amelia Butterworth and Loveday Brooke (from Female Sleuths Megapack 1) were not the only gals busting crimes in the shadows of Sherlock Holmes. Here is another testosterone-free triumvirate of savvy sleuths: Violet Strange, Zizi and Betty Gordon.

A thousand page plus selection of gynocentric short stories, novellas and full-length books.  

VIOLET STRANGE

New York based author Anna Katharine Green (1846 – 1935) was known as "the mother of the detective novel." She was one of the first writers of detective fiction in America and distinguished herself by writing well plotted, legally accurate stories. With the character of Violet Strange she invented the 'girl detective' – in this case, a debutante with a secret life as a sleuth.   

All nine Violet Strange mysteries – or ‘problems’ as Green called them – are collected here:

• "THE GOLDEN SLIPPER"  
• "THE SECOND BULLET"
• "AN INTANGIBLE CLUE"
• "THE GROTTO SPECTRE"
• "THE DREAMING LADY"
• "THE HOUSE OF CLOCKS"
• "THE DOCTOR, HIS WIFE, AND THE CLOCK"
• "MISSING: PAGE THIRTEEN"
• "VIOLET’S OWN"

PENNINGTON WISE AND ZIZI  

Around 1910 author Carolyn Wells heard one of Anna Katherine Green's mystery novels being read aloud and was immediately captivated by the unravelling of the puzzle. From that point onward she devoted herself to the mystery genre. Among the most famous of her mystery novels were the Fleming Stone Detective Stories. Another of her popular creations was psychic detective Pennington “Penny” Wise, a psychic private investigator, and his female sidekick Zizi, who solved crimes together in New York City and New England. While the man is clearly in the lead her, Zizi was more than just a pretty appendage or a chronicler of events a la Watson to Sherlock Holmes. She does a lot of the clue-cracking and crime-busting herself and together they are a formidable detection team. Six of their mystery adventures are presented here: The Room with the Tassels, The Man Who Fell Through the Earth, In the Onyx Lobby, The Come-Back, The Luminous Face and The Vanishing of Betty Varian. 

BETTY GORDON

Founded in 1904 by Edward Stratemeyer, the Stratemeyer Syndicate was a group of authors sworn to secrecy, who collaborated to write a number of serial mystery and adventure books for children and youth. Edward Stratemeyer created the series and wrote plot outlines, but the books themselves were written by a number of ghostwriters.

One of their most popular titles featured girl detective Betty Gordon whose adventures were published under the fictitious name Alice B. Emerson. The writers taking up the pen of Alice B. Emerson are not all known. However, books 1-19 of the Ruth Fielding series were written by W. Bert Foster; books 20-22 were written by Elizabeth M. Duffield Ward, and books 23-30 were written by Mildred Benson.  

Collected here are four of the best Betty Gordon mystery tales:

• Betty Gordon in Washington, or, Strange adventures in a great city 
• Betty Gordon in the Land of Oil, or, The farm that was worth a fortune 
• Betty Gordon at Boarding School, or, The Treasure of Indian Chasm 
• Betty Gordon at Mountain Camp, or, The mystery of Ida Bellethorne 

*19 books total plus image gallery.