GRISELDA SATTERLEE

Full Name:	Griselda Satterlee
Nationality:	American
Organization:	X Division
Occupation	Other - Actress

Creator:	Dorothy B. Hughes
Time Span:	1940 - 1941

ABOUT THE SERIES

Griselda Satterlee is an actress.

Was an actress, at least, though the many people she meets who know of her think of her that way; it was how she had earned her fame even though she had decided she had enough of being in front of the camera and had chosen to travel to New York to start a new life as a fashion designer.

Satterleee, "barely out of her teens", had traveled to California several years before we meet her in order to spend time with her aunt. Shortly after arriving she was offered a part in a movie and that led to a starring role and then more and soon she was quite well known. Using the stage name of Mariel York, she had found that she did not enjoy it that much so had, despite a lot of offers for more money, left it behind to take a year off to plan her future. That new plan had her working on something she enjoyed a lot more than acting; fashion.

Now 24 years old, her trip to New York, where her adventures begin, brings her to the apartment of Con Satterlee, the man she had dearly loved but whom she had divorced several years previously. Obviously the affection was still strong because when they are reunited in the first recorded adventure, their love is rekindled and in the second tale, they are again married.

Griselda Satterlee is in this compendium because of Con as he is a member of the little known and still quite new X Division, a secret service based in D.C. run by a man named Barjon Garth, described as "the President's right hand man" and "the greatest man-hunter the country had ever known". He was also a reporter for the NBC radio network and still uses that position as a cover for his X Division work. Con is definitely a spy-hunter as he is routinely given the type of mission where he is on the hunt for people who steal the government's secret to sell to the highest bidder. For Griselda's part, she does not exactly ask to be pulled into the cases that Con get assigned but she nevertheless becomes enmeshed in them.

Described as "an exquisite beauty with lemon-ice hair", Satterlee's opinion of herself was less so: "People thought she had beauty. She didn't. Regular features were to be expected in ordinary people, and gray eyes were nothing. Hers looked big and bright because she needed glasses. Without glasses the straining widened the pupils. Her only real beauty was her hair, freak hair, naturally golden. It had retained unaided the gold of a child's hair, of a princess.

BOOKS

Number of Books:	2
First Appearance:	1940
Last Appearance:	1941


1			So Blue Marble Written by Dorothy B. Hughes Copyright: 1940 "At the age of twenty-four, Griselda Satterlee has already lived two lifetimes. A star of the silver screen, she gives up Hollywood after a year and moves to New York to become a designer. While her ex-husband, Con, is out of town, she is staying in his apartment. Walking back one night, she meets two cheerful young men who want to go home with her - and won't take no for an answer. David and Danny are twins, and they are the most beautiful men Griselda has ever seen. They are also the most dangerous. They want something from her: a lustrous blue marble, which they insist is in Con's apartment. Though they leave without hurting her, Griselda knows that next time, they won't be so amiable. To save herself, she must discover the secret of the marble - a secret with death at its core."

2			The Bamboo Blonde Written by Dorothy B. Hughes Copyright: 1941 "When Con Satterlee picked up the half-intoxicated blonde in the Bamboo Bar, Griselda was annoyed. When he walked out with the blonde, leaving Griselda flat, she was furious. She was frightened, too, returning alone to the isolated, ramshackle beach cottage. And this was to have been their second honeymoon! Con came back rattling a handful of shells which he said he had taken from the blonde’s revolver. But the blonde didn’t come back. The police found her corpse the next morning. And then Con was arrested. That left Griselda alone, behind a door with a lock that a bent hairpin could open. Quite defenseless, she had to face the sinister Major Pembrooke, who wanted something from Con; beautiful, lying Kathie; Dare, so very possessive as far as Con was concerned; and the debonair Kew, who was intent on helping Griselda, for selfish reasons."

MY COMMENTS

The two adventures from the early 40s that we have of Griselda Satterlee are mystery-suspense tales that happen inside the wrapping of spy fiction. Griselda is not a spy at first but she is really pushed into being one in the initial story and then sort of likes it.

The stories are suspenseful with a lot of things happening around the character that she has no clue as to their cause or purpose and has to struggle to cope. We the readers are also kept in the dark as to what is really going on so that the suspense does not dissipate. In the first book, when the very scary twins menace her so beautifully (and spookily), she is genuinely in fear for her life as well as bewildered as to what is happening. I for one was, of course, not fearful as it was all 80 years ago and fiction but I was also intrigued. Obviously the author did a darn good job! It is no wonder she is so fondly remembered.

GRADE

My Grade: B+

YOUR OPINIONS

Be the first to leave your own comments about this series.

Tell us what you think of the series. Give your grade and comments.

Your Grade:
Your Comments:

To give your opinion, you must be logged in.