New York: Dodd, Mead, 1911. Hardcover first edition - Classic mystery novel by the first American woman to write detective fiction, set in New York City and featuring detectives Ebenezer Gryce. Sometimes referred to as "the mother of the detective novel," Green ""stamped the mystery genre with the distinctive features that would influence writers from Agatha Christie and Conan Doyle to contemporary authors of suspenseful 'whodunits.' In addition to creating elderly spinster and young female sleuths, Green's innovative plot devices included dead bodies in libraries, newspaper clippings as "clews," the coroner's inquest, and expert witnesses. (Kathy Hickman, "Sisters in Crime Hit the Local Library.") This book begins with a couple walking back to their hotel struck by the strange behavior of a man who had darted out from the hotel, and washed his hands in the snow, before taking off down the street, just as a heiress staying in the hotel is found murdered. - Color frontispiece by Arthur I. Keller. 356 pp.