Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, (1903). Hardcover first edition - Classic mystery by the writer considered the "mother" of the American mystery. "Although Anna Katharine Green was neither the first woman to publish crime fiction nor the first American to write a detective novel, her efforts were taken as distinctive advances in a genre that had only begun to emerge as a separate literary form. Many of the features with which mystery devotees were to become familiar were utilized in her works. With the wise and methodical detective as a pivotal figure, clues and evidence were adroitly dispersed about her narrative, and from a relatively small number of suspects, solutions that were startling and yet plausible were reached." (ebsco) An early review described it as "For originality of detail and cleverness of development this book is really unusual. This is something more than a mere detective story; it is a thrilling romance - a romance of mystery and crime where a shrewd detective helps to solve the mystery." Frontispiece by C. M. Relyea. Note: March is shown on the copyright page and "Katherine" is mispelled with an E on the title page and front cover, but it is correctly spelled with an A on the spine. 418 pp.