St. Denis: The Hollow Tree Mystery

Tam O'Brien investigates the disappearance of a small-town bank president. Going undercover, she finds herself in the midst of numerous suspects with both professional and personal motives to get rid of the missing Lynn Trevor. Tam O’Brien, as a young female detective, breaks more than a few of the literary cliches of Golden-Age Detective Fiction. She is smart, capable, well-trained, and unsusceptible to the allure of passing romance if it’s going to get in the way of her job. Her father, Rance O’Brien, is an ex-Chief of Detectives on the police force, so she grew up surrounded by officers and detectives. Inspector Pete McCoy is an old friend, willing to discuss and debate a case, though not above a little friendly competition. Dips is the young, streetwise lieutenant of her inquiry agency.

The Hollow Tree Mystery was published in 1930.