The Woman from 'Outside'

William Hulbert Footner (1879-1944) was a Canadian writer of non-fiction and detective fiction. His first published works were travelogues of canoe trips on the Hudson River and 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). About 1920 Footner began to write detective fiction. His first series detective character was 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 female-oriented Footner’s fiction is. Amongst his other works are: Two on the Trail (1911), New Rivers of the North (1912), Jack Chanty (1913), The Huntress (1917), Thieve’s Wit (1918), The Substitute Millionaire (1919), The Fur Bringers: A Story of the Canadian Northwest (1920) and The Owl Taxi (1921).