Anna Katharine Green is often called “the mother of the detective novel” (though that laurel should properly be worn by the little-remembered Seeley Regester). Her first ambition was to write romantic verse. However, Green achieved immediate success with her first novel, The Leavenworth Case: A Lawyer’s Story, published in 1868, featuring New York police detective Ebenezer Gryce. The book was not only popular but well-received critically; Agatha Christie herself later expressed that the book influenced her writing. In three later novels, Gryce is joined by a nosy spinster named Amelia Butterworth. Green produced almost forty books, and she was highly regarded for her ingenious plots and careful use of evidence. Green’s father was a lawyer, and her understanding of criminal law is well in evidence throughout her work. Green also wrote nine stories about a young female detective, Violet Strange, who is a debutante and secretly works with a detective agency. These were collected in The Golden Slipper, and Other Problems for Violet Strange, first published in 1915.