The Leavenworth Case

by Anna Katharine Green

"The Leavenworth Case" by Anna Katharine Green is a detective novel published in 1878. When wealthy merchant Horatio Leavenworth is found shot dead in his Manhattan mansion's library, detective Ebenezer Gryce and lawyer Everett Raymond investigate a locked-room mystery. No one could have escaped before the body was discovered. Leavenworth's two orphaned nieces, a maid, and a mysterious gentleman all become suspects in this groundbreaking American detective story that influenced Agatha Christie and helped establish conventions still used in mystery fiction today.