Customer Reviews

That Affair Next Door and Lost Man's Lane

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Miss Marple had an American ancestor: Miss Amelia Butterworth, first fictional spinster sleuth, invented by Anna Katherine Green. These two novels, wittily narrated by Miss Butterworth, were published in 1897 and 1898.

Miss Butterworth is wealthy, keen-witted, minutely observant and utterly self-confident. She moves in the most exclusive New York society and has strict notions of propriety. Despite her outspoken, old-maidish ways, she has a kind heart.

Her debut as an amateur sleuth begins with a murder next door. The highly inquisitive Miss Butterworth notices some questionable activity in the empty mansion adjacent to her residence, and she prods a reluctant policeman into checking it out. Sure enough, there's a dead woman inside.

Sly old Inspector Gryce investigates, and soon he and Miss Butterworth are conducting competing inquiries. The complex case, full of mistaken identities and faulty deductions, is a fertile field for their very different talents. Gryce is finally brought to acknowledge Miss Butterworth's worth.

Which is why he persuades her to investigate Lost Man's Lane.

In a placid little village ninety miles from New York, four men have disappeared walking down a gloomy mountain road. Coincidentally, the three grown children of a (deceased) schoolmate of Miss Butterworth's live in one of the houses along this lane. And so Miss Butterworth pays the Knollys family a visit.

This novel is steeped in gothic elements. A phantom coach is sometimes seen rushing noiselessly down the lane. A mysteriously muttering old crone lives nearby. And the huge, decaying Knollys mansion has dozens of uninhabitable rooms crawling with beetles and spiders. Miss Butterworth encounters an uneasy welcome from the Knollys siblings, who behave quite strangely.

I love Miss Butterworth, and these two novels are a delight. I'd also recommend this edition over others. It's complete - and more readable than a digital reproduction.

Both are very good stories and some of the best by Anna Katharine Green. I enjoyed reading them!