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Audiobook edition · 10 h 45 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if a good name is the best hiding place for a terrible secret?
A violent death throws a community into confusion. The first facts seem to point one way, and suspicion settles quickly on someone people are ready to blame. In The Dead Letter, Metta Victoria Fuller Victor builds a murder mystery around a troubling question: what happens when appearances carry more weight than evidence?
Mr. Burton takes a slower path. He watches people patiently and looks beyond the obvious, rather than waiting for luck or a confession. Around him lies a world of letters, lawyers and gossip, where a polite manner can conceal the truth. Each fresh discovery gives you another reason to question what seems certain.
What you’ll discover
- A crime without easy answers Follow a puzzling clue through a case where early suspicion offers no safe guide.
- A patient eye for people Watch Mr. Burton study people closely instead of trusting the most obvious explanation.
- Respectability under suspicion Look beneath polite manners and good names to explore the secrets they can shelter.
- Suspense in each discovery Feel the pull of withheld information as chapters leave questions waiting to be answered.
- Early American detective fiction Explore a mystery from a time when the professional detective is still a new idea.
Who will love it
For readers who love clue-driven puzzles, secrets behind respectable faces, and detectives who test suspicion against evidence, and anyone curious about where the detective story took shape in America.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A crime that defies easy answers
- The detective reads people, not just clues
- Appearances can hide the truth
- How the story is told and read
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- 15-minute summary
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- Paperback
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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The Dead Letter
by Metta Victoria Fuller Victor · 1866
Mr. Burton follows a puzzling clue in a murder case where a respectable face can hide a terrible secret.
Medium level10–20 hours to read25 languages
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In short
The Dead Letter is an early American detective novel, published in the 1860s under the pen name Seeley Regester. Its real author was Metta Victoria Fuller Victor, a busy writer of fiction, poetry and magazine pieces.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A crime that defies easy answers
The novel opens on a violent death and the confusion that follows it. As in the best crime tales, the first facts seem to point one way, and suspicion falls quickly on a person the community is ready to blame. The book is interested in how a town, a family and the press can settle on a story long before the evidence is in.
A letter lies at the center of the puzzle. The title points to it, and the idea of a dead letter, a message that never reaches the person it was meant for, hangs over the whole book. It stands for words that were lost, delayed or misread, and for the harm that follows when someone does not hear what another person meant to say.
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What is The Dead Letter about?
It is a Victorian-era detective novel about a murder and the search for the truth behind it. A letter plays a key part, and a careful investigator tests the obvious suspicion against the evidence.
Who wrote The Dead Letter?
Metta Victoria Fuller Victor wrote it and published it under the pen name Seeley Regester. She was an American author who wrote fiction, poetry and popular stories in the nineteenth century.
Is The Dead Letter the first American detective novel?
It is often called one of the first American detective novels, and an early one by a woman. Earlier crime tales existed, so the claim depends on how a detective novel is defined.
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