The Leavenworth Case

By: Anna Katharine Green

Narrated by: Steve Marvel

The classic genre-defining whodunit, by the mother of the detective novel. Introducing the first American series detective, Ebenezer Gryce, The Leavenworth Case was published nine years before the debut of Sherlock Holmes, and made author Anna Katharine Green an enormously popular and influential writer who changed the mystery genre forever.

Showcasing Green's verve and style, The Leavenworth Case opens with the shocking murder of Horatio Leavenworth, a wealthy New York merchant, philanthropist, and well-known member of the community. His favorite niece, Mary, is to inherit his fortune, and all of the evidence seems to implicate her or her sister. Yet surprises greet Gryce at every turn - even before the second murder.

Public Domain (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

As we traveled.

Would you listen to The Leavenworth Case again? Why?

Four adults, including myself, recently took off across the country for a week of vacation. When conversation got a bit slack, I suggested a recorded book. We settled on this one because it was shorter than my other offerings. I loved the story. The mystery was very well spun and especially that little twist at the end. The 19th century vocabulary was funny. One of the men commented that he needed a dictionary quite often throughout the narration. But, that said, the outdated language, while sometimes funny, didn't make us lose our way throughout the story. It made our days of travel through South Dakota and eastern Colorado a bit more interesting.

too long

not my kind of book it got a little boring at times I am happy things and time chances how we investigate

Melodrama

A melodrama without the humor that you would need to actually stick to the story. if you get tired of the whole thing you can skip to the last chapter where it's all explained.

Well-crafted mystery suffers from dated prose

This book is a little too much of the period, and the author, even as she breaks new ground with respect to the detective novel, is very much of her time and class and place. The dialogue is stilted and unnatural, with every utterance verging on melodrama, which is typical of popular literature at the time. Interestingly, the detective - not the lawyer, but the actual detective, of whom there is surprisingly little in the story - is much more recognizable, and even foreshadows the "defective detective" trope by giving him a quirk: Gryce does not make eye contact with his interlocutors.

That being said, the mystery has a lot to recommend itself, and despite a few minor contrivances and coincidences, is largely put together in a way that, on re-reading, shows it to be traceable by the attentive reader. There isn't this tendency that Conan Doyle had, for instance, to have the base his far-fetched but invariably correct deduction on a clue denied to the reader until the end. Gryce works hard for his victory, and he earns the conclusions he comes to.

Great Victorian 'whodunnit'

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

If you like a good old-fashioned victorian mystery, you'll love this book. The characters are so detailed.

Who was your favorite character and why?

I like the lead character best - he could be anybody, and you feel for him! Like Alice stepping through the looking glass, he had no idea what he was getting himself into.

What about Steve Marvel’s performance did you like?

Mr Marvel really captured the characters - they were all so different, and his interpretation really adds depth to the story and the suspense. I love it when the narration makes the book better, and that is the case here.

Too dated

Unlike Mary Roberts Rinehart's books, Anna Catherine Green's prose doesn't stand up up to test of time. This is the second book I've read/listened to, and the mystery gets lost in the flowery, artificial language. The first book I tried I actually read. The narration gave this book an added depth it wouldn't have had in print.

I don't recommend this writer to anyone who reads just for pleasure. Stripped of the artifice, the motives and killer were obvious immediately.

worst book i have EVER listened to in Audible

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

This book is terrible from start to finish. The idea of the book is flawed and contrived. The language supposedly used by mid-late-19th-century americans is stupid (I am a ph.d. 19th-century u.s. historian). this book is terrible on every measure.

What didn’t you like about Steve Marvel’s performance?

The performer tried to do a good job with a very poor script. i don't hold him accountable for the terrible book. He did the best he could with very bad material.

Any additional comments?

Save your credits or money. Don't choose this book!

Overwrought

I wanted to like Green’s work as she is one of the earliest American writers of detective fiction but I found this one annoying and the writing overly dramatic. I found myself rolling my eyes and saying “such drama” much as I sometimes think in my head when my teenage students are being, well teenagers. I may try another of her books to see if it is just this one or I don’t like her style.