Madame Storey
Classic Woman P.I. Out of Print for 50 Years! Madame Rosika Storey was one of the most celebrated fictional female private investigators during the Golden Age of the mystery (1920-40) The Encyclopedia of Mystery and Detection calls her, "a stunningly beautiful young woman who describes herself as 'a practical psychologist--specializing in the feminine." Madame Storey, Private Detective, reissues the very first Madame Storey novel and a bonus Madame Storey mystery short--both from the early-1920s. When multimillionaire financier Ashcomb Poor, a married man with a taste for high-living and women, is murdered the suspects are few. Most of the household had been out that evening, leaving only the spunky, brainy Miss Philippa Dean, Mrs. Poor's secretary, and Mrs. Batten, the aged housekeeper at home with the lascivious millionaire. Philippa Dean. After Philippa Dean's pistol is found at the crime scene, she quickly confesses but refuses to explain herself or to have an attorney represent her at her murder trial. Soon Madame Storey is called in on the case--by the prosecuting attorney! Suspects begin to mount up, a mysterious army pilot, a jaded man about town, several of the dead man's former mistresses, even his wife, who appears to have an unbreakable alibi. Madame Storey becomes convinced Philippa Dean is innocent. But can even she save a woman who swears she committed the crime?
Born William Hulbert Footner in Hamilton, Ontario, and traveled to New York in 1898. In the United States, he attempted an acting career, which he eventually gave up on. His first published works were travelogues of canoe trips on the Hudson River, as well as in the Northwest Territory along the Peace River, Hay River and Fraser River. He also wrote a series of northwest adventures during the period 1911 through 1920, including The Sealed Valley (1914) and The Fur Bringers (1920).
Career as a crime writer
About 1920, Footner began to write detective fiction, his first series detective character being Madame Rosika Storey. Footner's other series detective is Amos Lee Mappin, a successful, middle aged mystery writer whose crimes tend to occur in New York's cafe society. Mappin is unusual in that his "Watson" (at least in some of his tales) is a young woman, his secretary Fanny Parran. She is one of the few female "Watsons" in fiction, an example of how unusually female-oriented Footner's fiction was.
This is a great ebook that comes in PDF or Plain text format