I recently got the volume The Scrap of Lace, which is the first collection of stories with Madame Storey by Hulbert Footner (1879-1944). Footner was a Canadian author who wrote for the pulps, as well as books, first westerns, then adventure tales set in the Canadian Northwest, and later detective stories.
His Madame Storey series ran for 30 stories in Argosy All-Story from 1922-30. He later created another detective in a series of books, Amos Lee Mappin, set in New York’s “cafe society”.
Most of the stories are novelette length, so there are few recurring characters, and we don’t get much background on many. We meet Madame Rosika Storey (or is it Rozika?) in the first one. Her occupation is “practical psychology, specializing in the feminine.” She doesn’t present herself as a detective, per say, as she solves all sorts of human problems, not just those dealing with crime. Other past and current cases are mentioned by name. She is unmarried, probably in her 30s, well dressed for the time. We don’t get anything on her background. Oh, and she has a pet monkey, Giannino, whom she brings to her office, but it doesn’t play a role. At least not in these tales.
Her assistant, her “Watson,” is Bella Brickley, who we are also introduced in the first story, as we see her get hired after Mme. Storey puts in an ad looking for a “woman of common sense” to work for her. She narrates all the stories, so is our entry into them.
And there is Fred, the “hall boy,” or I guess page boy, at the building where Mme. Storey has her offices. He has a minor role in the first story, but is only mentioned in the last two.
Mme. Storey apparently has a cadre of agents working for her, what with the many cases she has. Some are mentioned, but one, Sidney Farren, along with his younger brother, makes an apperance in the second story, and Sidney Crider makes an appearance in the third story, also with a younger brother. Did Footner mean them to be the same characters? Will have to see if they reappear in further stories, or will we get other agents?
This volume has the first three stories, all dealing with murder, with Mme. Storey’s clients all being women.
First up is “Madame Storey’s Way” (March 11, 1922), which serves as our introduction to Mme. Storey and Bella Brickley. There has been a murder. While most of the household, along with his wife, are away at a performance, a rich man is at his home with the housekeeper and his wife’s private secretary. When the party returns home, they find the man shot in the back, dead. Suspicion falls on the private secretary, as it was her gun used, and she admitted to doing it. But the evidence is unclear. Is she instead trying to cover for someone else?
Mme. Storey is brought in by the assistant DA, who is a love interest to Mme. Storey. But he doesn’t appear in the other stories in this volume. After investigating, both physical evidence and interviews, she is able to cause the guilty party to confess.
In “Miss Deely’s Diamond” (May 26, 1923), a young lady brings to Mme. Storey a diary kept by her long-dead father, who had been confined to a mental institution. The diary gives a tale of him in India, with a rajah, suicide, insanity, a diamond, and a girl involved in it all. The diamond, the “Eye of Krishna,” is a real stone, as revealed in a book on gemstones, which recounts the same story, though doesn’t know the sailor involved. And the diary reveals the stone’s location. So it should be simple for the girl to retrieve it, sell it, and have a more comfortable life.
But instead, we get a case that involved insanity, the client being committed, betrayal, murders, and more before it’s all done.
Finally, “The Scrap of Lace” (Aug. 4, 1923) takes us into the upper crust of the nouveau riche of New York. A respected social secretary to a rich woman comes to Mme. Storey when her new assistant is found dead. There are rumours that she died unnaturally, and she wants to be sure. Thus we get a story of social manners and strange going ons, before the killer and their method is finally revealed. And it may be shock to you.
I found all of these stories well written. In some ways, Mme. Storey is a female Sherlock Holmes. She looks for physical evidence, sometimes aided by her evidence, but also interviews folks to figure out who has been doing what, often causing the guilty party to confess.
A second volume is already out with the next three stories. I suspect it will take about 10 volumes in total to reprint them all. I don’t know the source of the cover artwork as these stories weren’t cover featured at first. But it is a good choice as it’s how I image Mme. Storey’s appearance.
For those wanting to see female protagonists, this series is a great example of that. Check these out.
