7 h 19 minAudiobook17 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
At a lonely roadside inn, strangers come and go—but secrets refuse to leave.
In The Forsaken Inn, Anna Katharine Green makes an abandoned inn the setting for a Gothic mystery of concealment and dark deception. People arrive from elsewhere, bringing lives that others cannot fully know. In this shadowy place, the gap between what someone says and what they hide becomes a source of fear.
Green builds suspense through clues, patient reasoning and knowledge drawn out little by little. Who deserves trust when a public face conceals a private truth? The story invites you to weigh details and question appearances, while its measured pace lets uncertainty gather around the inn and the secrets it holds.
What you’ll discover
- An inn full of uncertainty Enter a lonely stopping place where passing strangers give suspicion room to grow.
- Secrets revealed by degrees Feel the pressure build as concealed knowledge comes into view little by little.
- Trust under a shadow Question the distance between the face someone shows and the truth they carry.
- Clues worth your attention Follow a carefully shaped plot that rewards patient reasoning and attention to detail.
- The pull of Gothic suspense Discover how a shadowy setting and measured pace can make uncertainty feel deeply unsettling.
Who will love it
Readers who love gothic mysteries, haunted houses and hidden rooms, and who enjoy old diaries, letters and a sharp-eyed narrator, will find a story of crime, love and justice beside the Hudson.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A Veiled Bride and a Heavy Box
- The Box Is Lighter Going Out
- A Secret Room Behind the Mantel
- A Grave in the Garden, Letters from Tamworth
- A Hermit's Tale of Two Women
- A Wedding Stopped, Another Held
- Two Elegant Strangers Watch the Oak Parlor
- The Landlady Listens at the Wall
- Guilt, Innocence, and a House That Remembers
Who’s who
- Clarissa TruaxThe sharp-eyed landlady of the Happy-Go-Lucky Inn, who trusts her instincts and writes down every clue in her diary, determined to see justice done.
- Edwin UrquhartA handsome, laughing gentleman with a heavy box, who wants wealth and an easy life and guards his secrets behind a polished smile.
- Honora DudleighA gentle, wealthy young heiress from Albany who longs for love and trust, and who is easily led by those she cares for.
- Mark FeltA plain, passionate man who retreats to a Catskills cave after losing the woman he loves, and who agrees to speak when justice calls.
- Marah LeightonHonora's dark, striking cousin, who craves luxury above all and has a way of making men follow wherever she leads.
- Mr. TamworthAn energetic Virginian, perhaps past eighty, who knows an old story about the inn and takes up the search for the truth.
- BurrittThe inn's loyal handyman, who senses at once that the heavy box is wrong and will not rest until he knows why.
- Madame LetellierAn elegant, commanding guest from France who watches the oak parlor closely and wants something from it for her beloved daughter.
Formats and delivery
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 7 h 19 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 17 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
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La posada abandonada
by Anna Katharine Green · 1890
A landlady finds a body behind her inn's oak paneling, then watches two elegant guests who want that very room.
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In short
The Forsaken Inn is a gothic mystery by Anna Katharine Green, an American writer best known for her detective fiction. It is set beside the Hudson River, between Albany and Poughkeepsie, in the years around the American Revolution.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A Veiled Bride and a Heavy Box
The story proper begins on January 28, 1775, in the diary of Clarissa Truax, who keeps the Happy-Go-Lucky Inn beside the Hudson. She cannot sleep. The night before, a couple arrived in a carriage followed by a wagon, and she cannot stop thinking about them. She decides to write down everything she saw, hoping that putting it in order will calm her mind.
The husband calls himself Edwin Urquhart. He is handsome and polite, yet he laughs too often and pays more attention to his luggage than to his wife. Above all he loves one enormous box, which he says holds books. He watches every hand that touches it. Mrs. Truax notices that he lets a stranger help his sick wife up the steps while he guards the box.
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What is The Forsaken Inn about?
It follows Clarissa Truax, a landlady on the Hudson River, as she tries to explain what happened when a strange couple stayed one night in 1775. Years later, a hidden room behind the oak paneling sets new events in motion.
Who wrote The Forsaken Inn and when is it set?
Anna Katharine Green, an American writer known for detective fiction, wrote it. The story is set beside the Hudson River in the years around the American Revolution, with diary entries dated from 1775 to 1795.
What does the oak parlor mean in the book?
The oak parlor is a gloomy ground floor room at the Happy-Go-Lucky Inn. It is the center of the mystery, and a hidden chamber lies behind its carved mantel. A warning about oak walls echoes through the story.
The author
Anna Katharine Green
1846–1935 · American detective novelist
Anna Katharine Green (1846–1935) was an American novelist born in Brooklyn, New York. She wrote detective fiction, including The Leavenworth Case, published in 1878, and That Affair Next Door, published in 1897. She married actor and furniture designer Charles Rohlfs in 1884. She lived in Buffalo, New York, where she died.
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