X. Y. Z. – A Detective Story

Description

X. Y. Z. – A Detective Story by Anna Katharine Green is not just any detective story – it is one of the best detective stories in English literature, a short, but intense masterpiece by the Mother of the Detective Novel.

The detective who is the protagonist and the narrator of the novel is employed by the government to investigate a case of money counterfeiting. He follows the track of a criminal to a small town in Massachusetts where he learns about the Bensons, a local family of a very strange and secretive lifestyle, so he decides to continue his activity by investigating the Benson family, dropping the counterfeit case altogether.

Anna Katharine Green was a master of weaving exciting detective plots, drawing peculiar, often very secretive characters and sceneries that match her stories, making the events during the investigation just as mysterious as the outcome of it. In this story she uses a very strange method to wrap everything in an even thicker veil of mystery – she does not give a name to the protagonist, the reader never learns his name. Being written and published in 1883, the novel keeps the reader engaged not only to find out what the detective’s next move will be and how the story continues, but also at the level of the language used – there are sayings in the book that were modern at the time the book was published, but seem rather archaic now, challenging the reader to find out their origin and meaning.

All in all, X. Y. Z. is a very entertaining book – if you are looking for an old-fashioned mystery story that keeps you guessing all the time, a quick read (the novel is less than a hundred pages long) to enjoy on a quiet and relaxing afternoon, Anna Katharine Green’s little masterpiece will surely amuse, challenge and entertain you.
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