The Golden Orange seems to be an old-fashioned whodunit. Called upon to protect Tess from a dangerous killer, Winnie begins to suspect that her father's death was a homicide. Later on, another suspicious death occurs, and he holds himself responsible until he begins to suspect his closest friend.

Wambaugh withholds information about the relationship between Winnie's friend Buster and Tess in order to keep the reader, as well as Winnie, in suspense. We know that Winnie is really a good person, despite his unfortunate addiction to drink, and that Tess is not a good person, because of the many hints Wambaugh provides. Tess is a temptress and a dangerous woman; she does all she can to corrupt the naive hero. In this sense, she is a direct descendant of the seductresses created by late romantic British poets of the nineteenth century, such as Algernon...