Patty's Fortune (Illustrated Edition) (Reprint of an Earlier ed.)

Carolyn Wells (1862-1942) was an American writer and poet.

She published around 170 books over the course of her career, initially concentrating on poetry, humour and children's books, before devoting herself to the mystery genre having been inspired by Anna Katharine Green's That Affair Next Door (1897).

Among the best-known of Well's mysteries are her Fleming Stone detective stories.

Before turning to adult fiction, Wells created several series of stories for girls, the two most popular of which were the Patty Fairfield and Marjorie Maynard series.

One of the later titles in the series, Patty's Fortune was first published in 1916.

In this book Patty is 20 years old and although now at an age when she might consider marriage, she is not encouraging any of her suitors.

On her deathbed, Patty's aunt wishes to secure a promise from Patty to marry Philip Van Reypen who has been Patty's ardent admirer for some time and is also kind, mature and wealthy, amongst other attributes.

Apart from being faced with this momentous decision, Patty is also mixed up in a drama involving a baby she finds abandoned in her car, and stands in for a missing opera singer at a hotel concert.

This edition includes four full-page illustrations by E C Caswell.