The Millionaire Baby [Paperback]

Anna Katharine Green (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2005

1905. An American detective-story writer, Green's many thrillers were characterized by logical construction and a knowledge of criminal law. The Millionaire Baby begins: The morning of August eighteenth, 1900, was a memorable one to me. For two months I had had a run of bad luck. During that time I had failed to score in at least three affairs of unusual importance, and the result was a decided loss in repute as well as great financial embarrassment. As I had a mother and two sisters to support and knew but one way to do it, I was in a state of profound discouragement. This was before I took up the morning papers. After I had opened and read them, not a man in New York could boast of higher hopes or greater confidence in his power to rise by one bold stroke from threatened bankruptcy to immediate independence.

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Kessinger Publishing (June 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1417900245
• ISBN-13: 978-1417900244
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,257,666 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Basis for a silent movie in 1915, March 6, 2006

By 

My Fathers Business "my_fathers_business_" (Willoughby) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The millionaire baby, (Hardcover)

Considered the mother of the detective story, this powerful author was the first in the mystery genre to introduce powerful methods in her books, such as expert testimony and clues and suspects making her books very popular for the mystery reader even today. This book is worthy of display and would make a fine addition to any library. It would also be a fun reader for any mystery fan.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars IF you love Christie, or Rinehart, you'll love this book too!, September 4, 2009

By 

Richard Moore "Possibilist" (Miami, Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Millionaire Baby (Paperback)

I'm so happy to see some of the great works of Anna Katherine Green; she has become one of my favorite writers, after I ran out of Christie's books to read. I found out that Agatha Christie, got into writing after reading Greens' books, who was a bestselling author who publishing about 40 books. I read she was first poet and later became a novelist to get attention to her poetry, however, she was so successful at mystery plotting, (she was an expert at the gradual unfolding of the mystery through the successful unearthing of clue after clue), that she dove right into mystery writing only.

She was one of the first writers of detective fiction in America and distinguished herself by writing legally accurate stories, something like Law and Order in the way that the stories are accurate and sometimes based on actual cases. Her many fans besides me, include such literary luminaries as Arthur Conan Doyle, Wilkie Collins, Mary Roberts Rinehart, and Agatha Christie. In fact, not just Christie, but Rinehart wrote that it was the novels of Anna Katharine Green which first inspired her to become writers of mystery fiction to.

Just got started in this book, and already enjoying it, the detective in the story is a odd ball guy who needs money, and seems like the kind that you found in Humphrey Bogart movie. The baby is kidnapped, and ransom is demanded. It has really started well....I can't get enough Green!

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A perfect mystery!, September 11, 2009

By 

Christine Richardson (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Millionaire Baby (Paperback)

I'm one of those people addicted to British mysteries, both on TV and in print. I enjoy the older TV crop, Rumple of the Bailey, Miss Marple, Poirot Frost, etc, but I do enjoy some of the new TV productions that the British offer too. As far as books, I am also of the old school, Sherlock Holmes, Miss Marple, Poirot, Tommy and Tuppence, etc. Of course, all the authors I like have passed on, and while I do re-read their books over and over, I miss new mysteries of the old school. I say that because if any of you feel as I do, I can offer you a wonderful solution that I surprised and delighted me, and that is the works of Anna Katherine Green. I know there are lots of better informed reviewers on Amazon, so please forgive me if I am preaching to the choir, but I had never heard of Green before, let alone that she was the inspiration of Agatha Christie, Conan Doyle, Mary Roberts Rinehart, etc. I just had never heard of her, (some American TV producer should read her books and make a US mystery series in the British manner since we have exhausted Christie, Doyle, and Rinehart!), but I digress.

Here is really what I wanted to say, if you love Agatha, and the rest, and miss new mysteries, and are tired re-reading from your existing library, (because you know `whodunit'), than here is a wonderful surprise, you can read the works of Anna Katherine Green! Short and sweet, she `wrote the book' on these types of `locked door' mysteries, or they type favored by you and I. She was American, but the method, the situations, the characters and motives are all as good as the British authors she inspired. However, please don't get me wrong, I'm not anti-American, I'm an American, but its the style that Green started in the US, and picked up by the British, that I love so much. I think you know what I mean.

Drink from the well that was the source, and enjoy some fresh mysteries! It's nice for a change NOT knowing whodunit!