Doctor, his Wife, and the Clock

Anna Katharine Green invented the detective novel before Sherlock Holmes became famous. In this atmospheric puzzle, a respected doctor lies dead in his locked home, shot through the heart with no witness and no apparent motive. Detective Ebenezer Gryce must untangle the secrets of a household where the victim was blind, his wife was young and beautiful, and everyone has something to hide. The investigation leads Gryce from the doctor's prestigious neighborhood to the cramped quarters of the servants' quarters, from the silence of the victim's study to the whispered confessions of those who knew him. What emerges is a portrait of marriage and deception in Victorian America, where a woman's place was silence and a man's reputation was everything. Green's masterpiece endures because it proves that the most dangerous crimes are not committed in dark alleys but behind closed doors, in the spaces between what is spoken and what is true. For readers who savor the elegant architecture of early mysteries, when detectives relied on psychology and patience rather than forensics, this is essential reading.