Mystery Stories of Violet Strange

By: Anna Katharine Green

Narrated by: Shelly Frasier

Violet Strange is no ordinary well-to-do young New York City debutante. Unbeknownst to family and society friends, she leads a secret life as a professional sleuth for a private detective agency. On a mission to raise money for an undisclosed project, the determined and gutsy young debutante diligently snoops around sleepwalking widows, violent and sinister characters, whispering clocks and concealed tombs, connecting clues to solve tales of murder, mystery and intrigue.

The quirky tales of detection include:

The Golden Slipper

The Second Bullet

The Intangible Clew

The Grotto Spectre

The Dreaming Lady

The House of Clocks

The Doctor, His Wife, and the Clock

Missing: Page Thirteen

Violet's Own

©2002 Tantor Media, Inc. (P)2002 Tantor Media, Inc.

Puzzles, Not Mysteries

The Golden Slipper, and Other Problems for Violet Strange
by Anna Katherine Green
(note: audiobook produced by Tantor Audio as Mystery Stories of Violet Strange)

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.

Ms. Frasier's performance was disappointing at times, as she only had a limited number of voices for males, and not many more for females.

A little dark but good!

An excellent series of short mysteries with nice character development throughout. Iconic mystery author who inspired so many others.

Interesting Mystery Stories

Collection of mystery stories from a long time ago. Good to listen to during day and in the evenings.

Mysteries with a Twist of Gothic Angst

Definitely a type of storytelling from a different era, but engaging. And a pleasure to have this smart young woman sorting things out.

I really enjoyed this one!

This is a series of short stories of the society girl, Violet Strange, who does detective work. The stories are very enjoyable and a bit dated since they take place at the turn of the 19th century. I really enjoyed this series.