11 h 55 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 11 h 55 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the neighbor everyone overlooks sees more than the detective in charge?
Miss Amelia Butterworth knows her quiet New York street, and she trusts her own judgment. When a shocking event at the Van Burnam house next door draws her into a crime, this wealthy, unmarried woman refuses to stand aside. The family wants to avoid scandal. Amelia wants to know what happens behind its respectable doors.
In Anna Katharine Green's That Affair Next Door, Amelia tells the story with pride, humor, and firm opinions. Veteran detective Ebenezer Gryce takes charge, but he needs her knowledge even as he questions her meddling. Their wary partnership turns small observations into clues, while good manners and a clean name may hide lives neither investigator can take at face value.
What you’ll discover
- An unlikely investigator Follow a watchful woman whose sharp judgment makes being overlooked an unexpected advantage.
- Partners with competing methods Watch Amelia and Gryce weigh each other's insights while guarding their own authority.
- Clues in ordinary things Notice how clothes, rooms, and a servant's manner can matter to a criminal investigation.
- Respectability under suspicion Look beneath polished manners into a household where a good name carries real weight.
- A proud, funny voice Enjoy Amelia's confident account, where strong opinions give the puzzle a distinctly personal edge.
Who will love it
You will love this book if you enjoy fair puzzles, a witty narrator with strong opinions, old New York society, and a spirited woman who matches wits with a detective.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A curious neighbor watches the empty house
- Amelia builds a theory on a grocer's bill
- The Van Burnams fear the dead woman is family
- A broken pin and a hat point to a plan
- The inquest turns up a puzzling couple
- Howard tells two stories and is arrested
- A pincushion and a scrubwoman reveal a second woman
- Amelia follows a fugitive and Gryce accuses another
- Observation beats method, and clothes hide the truth
- Amelia tells the case in her own voice
Who’s who
- Amelia ButterworthA proper, sharp-eyed New York spinster who lives next door to the murder and sets out to solve it as Gryce's self-declared rival.
- Ebenezer GryceAn elderly police detective with a fatherly smile and a sly mind, famous for past cases and now matched against Amelia.
- Howard Van BurnamThe younger Van Burnam son, proud and stubborn, whose wife is missing and whose changing statements make him the chief suspect.
- Franklin Van BurnamHoward's polished elder brother, a respected businessman who holds the house keys and wants his family's name kept clean.
- Louise Van BurnamHoward's pretty, vain wife, never accepted by his family, who has come to New York hoping to win over his father.
- Mrs. BoppertA frightened, red-faced cleaning woman who knows more about the empty house than she dares say.
- Ruth OliverA sad-faced young companion in Miss Althorpe's house who hides a secret and shrinks from the Van Burnam name.
- Ella AlthorpeA kind and wealthy young woman, soon to be married, who takes in the stranger Ruth Oliver without questions.
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Quell'affare della casa accanto
by Anna Katharine Green · 1897
A woman at her window in Gramercy Park sees a couple enter an empty house, and by noon a body lies in the parlor.
Medium level10–20 hours to readItaliano
Excellent
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In short
Would you notice a cab stopping at an empty house in the middle of the night? Miss Amelia Butterworth does.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A curious neighbor watches the empty house
The book opens with a woman who insists she is not nosy. Amelia lives next door to the Van Burnams, a wealthy family supposed to be in Europe. In the middle of a warm night she hears a cab stop and goes to her window. She sees a young man and woman let themselves into the dark house with a key.
At noon Amelia urges a policeman to ring the bell, but nobody answers. Then a cleaning woman arrives, says she has come to air the house, and goes in with him. Soon she cries out that someone has been murdered.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1897
- Language
- Italiano
- Reading time
- 7 h 45 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Green, Anna Katharine. That Affair Next Door. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/that-affair-next-door.
Green, A. K. (2026). That affair next door. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/that-affair-next-door (Original work published 1897)
Green, Anna Katharine. That Affair Next Door. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/that-affair-next-door.
@book{green2026that,
author = {Green, Anna Katharine},
title = {That Affair Next Door},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/that-affair-next-door},
note = {First published 1897}
}
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What is That Affair Next Door about?
It follows Amelia Butterworth, a New York spinster who sees a couple enter an empty house at midnight. The next day a murdered woman is found there. Amelia investigates beside, and against, the police detective Ebenezer Gryce.
Who is Amelia Butterworth?
She is the narrator, a prim, curious single woman in her fifties from Gramercy Park. She takes pride in her manners and her sharp eye, and her habit of noticing small details helps her solve the case.
Is That Affair Next Door a true story?
No, it is a work of detective fiction by Anna Katharine Green, set in 1895. The setting is realistic New York, with real shops and streets, but the people and the crime are invented.
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.
More by Anna Katharine Green
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