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The Millionaire Baby

(1905)
A novel by Anna Katharine Green

Book DescriptionThis is an early mystery story in which a child is missing and believed to be kidnaped and our sleuth, down on his luck, has high hopes of solving the crime, returning the child to her family and collecting $50,000 as a reward - a big sum in 1900. The author was one of the first American women to write detective stories; she influenced the genre and was very popular in her time. Green (1846-1935) is often called "the mother of the detective story."

A contemporary reviewer sated that Green had "proved herself able to write an interesting story of mysterious crime as well as any man living." In fact, when her first novel, "The Leavenworth Case" appeared, the New York papers assumed the author was a man. This work employed a number of devices that would become staples of the genre; a map of the scene of the crime, clues, suspects, lists of deductions and possibilities, expert testimony, etc.

In addition to her famous detective Gryce, she introduced two female sleuths of note; Miss Amelia Butterworth ( a prototype for Miss Marple) and Violet Strange, (a prototype for Nancy Drew.)

A silent film based on the book was made by Selig in 1915.

Genre: Mystery

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