The Leavenworth Case

Name: The Leavenworth Case
Author: Anna Katharine Green

The Leavenworth Case Everett Raymond, junior partner in the New York law firm of Veeley, Carr & Raymond, is summoned by James Trueman Harwell, private secretary to wealthy retired merchant Horatio Leavenworth, with the news that Leavenworth has been found shot dead at his library table. Since senior partner Mr. Veeley is away, Raymond goes to the Fifth Avenue mansion to assist Leavenworth's two orphaned nieces, Mary and Eleanore Leavenworth, whom their uncle raised as daughters. There Raymond meets detective Ebenezer Gryce, who is investigating the case. At the coroner's inquest, testimony from butler Thomas, secretary Harwell, cook Katherine, and maid Molly establishes that the house was locked and undisturbed all night, ruling out an outside burglar. Leavenworth was shot with his own pistol, which had been cleaned and reloaded and returned to a locked drawer. The lady's maid, Hannah Chester, vanished from the house that same night after leaving her room for toothache medicine, and cannot be found. Suspicion falls heavily on Eleanore: her handkerchief, stained with pistol grease, is found in the death room; she is seen taking a paper from the library table and later refuses to explain it; and a broken-handled key to the library, missing since the murder, is discovered hidden by Eleanore in a grate, having been detected there by Gryce's operative Fobbs. Meanwhile, Raymond and Gryce both privately overhear Mary accuse Eleanore to her face of the crime, though Mary publicly testifies she suspects no one. The will, read after the funeral, leaves the bulk of the fortune to Mary, with a smaller legacy to Eleanore. Raymond, increasingly infatuated with Eleanore, becomes convinced of her innocence after she swears her purity over her uncle's body, and concludes she is shielding someone else through her silence. He refuses to act as an ordinary informer but agrees to make the acquaintance of a mysterious gentleman, Henry Clavering, at Gryce's request, and to help secretary Harwell finish Leavenworth's manuscript on Chinese trade as a pretext for remaining close to the household. Mary, meanwhile, oscillates between hauteur and desperate emotion, hints she knows more than she says, and unsuccessfully tries to draw Raymond off the trail before an interruption—Clavering's arrival at her door—cuts short a confession she seems on the verge of making. Butler Thomas separately reveals to Raymond that Clavering (who first called under the name "Robbins" the night of the murder) was left alone and unaccounted-for in the house that same evening. Clavering unexpectedly visits Raymond's office, presenting a hypothetical legal question on behalf of "a friend": whether a secret marriage performed by a Methodist minister, without a license, before two witnesses (one now dead, one vanished), constitutes a valid marriage under New York law, given that the bride wishes to deny it. Raymond advises that such a marriage would be legally binding. Before this exchange, Harwell had glimpsed Clavering in the house and reacted with violent shock, naming him "the assassin of Mr. Leavenworth" before fleeing upstairs, refusing further explanation. Raymond sends Harwell a note demanding he explain the accusation, and the text breaks off as Raymond and Clavering conclude their interview at the lawyer's office, midway through Clavering's further remarks on proving his "friend's" marriage.

By Anna Katharine Green · First published 1904 · Genre: Mystery, Crime Fiction, Detective Fiction · 39 chapters · 135,397 words

First lines

"A deed of dreadful note." Macbeth.

I had been a junior partner in the firm of Veeley, Carr & Raymond, attorneys and counsellors at law, for about a year, when one morning, in the temporary absence of both Mr. Veeley and Mr. Carr, there came into our office a young man whose whole appearance was so indicative of haste and agitation that I involuntarily rose at his approach and impetuously inquired:

What this Textopian page supports

The Leavenworth Case is listed on Textopian as a novel by Anna Katharine Green, dated 1904 CE.

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Work type: Novel
Author: Anna Katharine Green
Date: 1904 CE
Language: English
Genres: Mystery, Crime Fiction, Detective Fiction, Suspense
Length: 135,397 words
Structure: 39 chapters, 3,148 paragraphs
Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)

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Genres

Mystery — The book is renowned as one of the first detective mystery novels written by an American and featuring several twists, turns and clues.
Crime Fiction — The Leavenworth Case revolves around the investigation of a murder case, featuring legal proceedings and police procedure.
Detective Fiction — The protagonist of the story is a detective out to solve the mystery of a murder, a key element of detective fiction genre.
Suspense — Throughout the novel, the writer maintains a sense of suspense and tension about the murderer’s identity and the outcome of the investigation.