Agatha Webb

At the heart of this pioneering Victorian mystery lies a question that would shape an entire genre: who murdered Agatha Webb? Found dead in her own home, surrounded by the trappings of a respected life, she was beloved by all, so why does every clue point to someone close? Her husband has secrets. A servant has vanished. And in the shadowed woods beyond town, a guilty man may be running still. Miss Page, the cook's daughter and sweetheart of the prime suspect, watches the investigation stall from outside the parlor doors, a woman in an era when women neither investigated nor were believed. Green constructs her puzzle with Victorian precision, each alibi a locked door, each testimony a shadow. This is detective fiction in its infancy, before the genre knew its own rules, and Green was writing them. For readers who cherish the slow reveal, the gathering dread, and the pleasure of watching a master miss the obvious, this novel laid the blueprint that Christie would perfect decades later.