Novel 233: Anna K. Green, The Leavenworth Case (1878)
The superlatively beautiful nieces of a New York City plutocrat are suspected of his murder.
Anna Katharine Green (1846-1935) was a pioneer in detective fiction; this was her first and most successful novel.
Green “has worked up a cause célèbre with a fertility of device and ingenuity of treatment hardly second to Wilkie Collins or Edgar Allen Poe.” Christian Union, January 22, 1879
“An interesting story of mysterious crime. . . . The characters act and speak much as they might do in the circumstances, and every detail has been carefully thought out.” Academy, February 22, 1879
A (somewhat) contrasting view:
“It seems to us a defect in this story, that the very beginning of it gives a tolerably plain hint of the end. . . . Compression, too, might have been applied, with much benefit. . . . Still, The Leavenworth Case is a meritorious effort.” Spectator, March 15, 1879
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