That Affair Next Door - Softcover

The dead body of a woman was found under a large cabinet. But she had been dead four hours before the cabinet fell upon her. The owners of the house had been on vacation and the place empty. Who was she and why was she in the empty house all alone? One of the best detective stories ever written, in which the popular author of ‘The Leavenworth Case’ reaches the culmination of her peculiar powers.

"The success of 'That Affair Next Door,' Anna Katharine Green's latest novel, is something almost unprecedented. Of all the tales since 'The Leavenworth Case,' this has had the greatest vogue--which is saying considerable, for Mrs. Rohlfs enjoys the distinction of being one of the most widely read authors in this country. 'That Affair Next Door,' with its startling ingenuity, its sustained interest and its wonderful plot, shows that the author's hand has not lost its cunning, but has gained as the years go by."--Buffalo Inquirer“This story seems to prove that the hand of the eminent American artist in fiction who wrote ‘The Leavenworth Case’ has, instead of losing its cunning, gained in facility. Miss Butterworth, the inquisitive, but not unamiable, spinster, who sees a man and a woman arrive at the house next to her own, and subsequently finds this same woman – as she believed – lying murdered in the house, and sets to work to unravel the mystery, and bring the murderer to justice, does her work with great ability, and in doing so reveals a good deal of genuine American grit and character. To a certain extent the book resolves itself into a not unfriendly competition between Mr. Gryce, the professional detective, and Miss Butterworth, the amateur. If the professional is beaten in the long run, that is simply because old age is beginning to tell upon him, and success has produced too much confidence. Even the veteran reader of sensational fiction will admit that Mrs. Rohlfs – for this is the name now borne by the lady who will still, however, be generally known by her maiden designation of Anna Katharine Green – has preserved the secret of the murder till towards the very close. At an early stage in the narrative one may have some suspicion that the excited girl whose name turns out to be Ruth Oliver knows something of what has taken place. But no suspicion rests, or can rest, on the ‘society’ gentleman, Randolph Stone, until, when he is about to marry the heiress, Miss Althorpe, he is convicted of murder by the discarded wife, in mistake for whom he makes away with another woman. The domestic troubles among the members of the Van Burnam family, which help to send off the public and Mrs. Rohlfs’s readers on a false scent, form an admirable feature in the plot. Altogether ‘That Affair Next Door’ is a masterpiece in its way.” -The Spectator, May 29, 1897

“The story is equal in plot construction and thrilling incident to any work that this clever writer has done.” -Book News, Volume 15, September, 1896

“A sensational murder committed in Gramercy Park, New York City, is discovered through the persistent efforts of Amelia Butterworth to penetrate what she believes is a mystery in the house of her next-door neighbor. Murder having been proven, attempt is made to identify the victim through conflicting and mystifying evidence introduced by Mr. Gryce, the able detective in the “Leavenworth case,’ and the coroner. The results of the inquest and trial are arrived at in an unexpected way.” -The Annual American Catalogue, Volume 12, 1897

Anna Katharine Green was the most famous and prolific writer of detective fiction in the United States prior to Dashiell Hammett. Her first novel, The Leavenworth Case, was the bestseller of 1878. Green is credited with a number of “firsts” within the mystery genre, including the gentleman murdered as he makes out his will and the icicle as murder weapon. She created the first female detectives in American fiction. Her amateur spinster sleuth, Amelia Butterworth, became the prototype for numerous women detectives to follow, including Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple. Nosy, opinionated, and tenacious, Amelia Butterworth engages in a sustained rivalry with Ebenezer Gryce, a police detective. In the interaction between these characters, Green developed two more conventions adopted by future generations of mystery writers: the investigation as battle between the sexes and between the professional and the unexpectedly sharp, observant amateur.