After a young sewing girl goes missing from a Manhattan residence, the alarmed housekeeper calls the police. Bachelor and owner Mr. Holman Blake denies any knowledge of the girl, while blood found on the windowsill and the girl''s belongings remaining intact lead the investigator to believe there is more to this story than is being let on. The second book in Green''s detective series featuring Mr. Gryce, "A Strange Disappearance" (1880) is a riveting page-turner brimming with intrigue not to be missed by fans of classic detective fiction. Anna Katharine Green (1846-1935) was an American novelist and poet. Among the first writers of detective fiction in America, she is considered to be the "mother" of the genre for her legally-accurate and well-thought-out plots. Contents include: "A Novel Case", "A Few Points", "The Contents of a Bureau Drawer", "Thompson''s Story", "A New York Belle", "A Bit of Calico", "The House at the Granby Cross Roads", "A Word Overheard", "A Few Golden Hairs", "The Secret of Mr. Blake''s Studio", etc. Other notable works by this author include: "The Leavenworth Case" (1878), "One of My Sons" (1901), and "The Circular Study" (1900). Read & Co. Classics is proudly republishing this vintage detective novel now in a brand new edition complete with a specially-commissioned new biography of the author.