This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

A story of mystery and crime . Horatio Leavenworth is a New York merchant whose material wealth is matched by his eminence in the community and reputation for good works. He is also the guardian of two striking nieces who share his Fifth Avenue mansion. Mary, her uncle\'s favorite, is to inherit his fortune at his death. As this mystery opens, that lamentable event has just occurred. Leavenworth has been shot to death and circumstances point to one of his young wards...

I was walking at a rapid pace up the avenue one raw, fall evening, when somewhere near the corner of Fifty——Street I was brought to a sudden stand-still by the sound of a child\'s voice accosting me from the stoop of one of the handsome houses I was then passing. "O sir!" it cried, "please come in. Please come to grandpa. He\'s sick and wants you." Surprised, for I knew no one on the block, I glanced up and saw bending from the open doorway the trembling figure of a little girl, with a wealth of curly hair blowing about her sweet, excited face. "You have made a mistake," I called up to her. "I am not the person you suppose. I am a stranger. Tell me whom you know about here and I will see that someone comes to your grandpa." But this did not satisfy her. Running down the stoop, she seized me by the arm with childish impetuosity, crying: "No, no. There isn\'t time. Grandpa told me to bring in the first man I saw going by. You are the first man. Come!" There was urgency in her tones, and unconsciously I began to yield to her insistence, and allow myself to be drawn towards the stoop. "Who is your grandpa?" I asked, satisfied from the imposing look of the house that he must be a man of some prominence. "If he is sick there are the servants"—But here her little foot came down in infantile impatience.

This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

Anna Katharine Green (November 11, 1846 – April 11, 1935) was an American poet and novelist. She was one of the first writers of detective fiction in America and distinguished herself by writing well plotted, legally accurate stories.Green has been called "the mother of the detective novel.

A Strange Disappearance by Anna Katharine Green

Anna Katharine Green was one of the earliest detective fiction writers, and some of her mysteries remain the most popular to be written by an American.

This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

The Anna Katharine Green Mystery Megapack selects 35 novels and stories by the classic author, including the complete Amelia Butterworth series and the complete Violet Strange series. If you are not yet familiar with Green's work, you will soon be a fan -- she was a major influence on the development of the modern mystery story and a strong influence on Agatha Christie. (Miss Marple was modelled after Amelia Butterworth.)

A daring debutante solves the crimes of upper-crust Manhattan in this groundbreaking story collection from the queen of American mystery Violet Strange has a secret. A vivacious socialite, she is one of the most sought-after women in New York—as a private investigator. Between well-heeled excursions to the opera and fabulous dinner parties, Violet uses her lively charms to investigate the dark side of Gilded Age society. From the daughter of an important businessman accused of theft on a grand scale, to the suspected murder-suicide of the husband and child of a society woman, to the lost will of a financier whose death greatly affected the money market, Violet expertly sleuths out hidden clues, all the while protecting her secret identity. But the greatest puzzle of all may be what compels Miss Strange to undertake this outlandish work in the first place, and what it may afford—or cost—her in the end. Originally published in 1915,...

This volume collects all three Amelia Butterworth novels by Anna Katharine Green: "That Affair Next Door," "Lost Man's Lane" and "The Circular Study." If you are not yet familiar with Green's work, you will soon be a fan — she was a major influence on the development of the modern mystery story and a strong influence on Agatha Christie. (Miss Marple was modelled after Amelia Butterworth.)