12 h 31 minAudiobook13 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 12 h 31 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
A rich man lies shot in his Fifth Avenue library, and the people closest to him have secrets to keep.
In Anna Katharine Green's The Leavenworth Case, young lawyer Everett Raymond enters a wealthy New York household on the morning after a murder. Horatio Leavenworth is dead. His nieces, Mary and Eleanore, face questions about their lives, their prospects, and the fortune that divides them. As suspicion settles over the house, even silence begins to look like evidence.
Police detective Ebenezer Gryce works quietly, watching people and following proof wherever it leads. Raymond wants justice, but his concern for Eleanore clouds his judgment as her reserve draws suspicion. Rooms, timetables, testimony, and things left unsaid build a careful puzzle. How can he defend someone he admires without mistaking his own hopes for the truth?
What you’ll discover
- A household under suspicion Step inside a mansion where family affairs and hidden lives shape a murder inquiry.
- A detective worth watching Follow Gryce's patient attention to people who may reveal more than they intend.
- Two nieces, different prospects Meet Mary and Eleanore, whose contrasting positions place inheritance at the heart of suspicion.
- A lawyer's divided loyalties Watch Raymond struggle to separate his feelings for Eleanore from the demands of proof.
- The weight of silence Discover how unanswered questions turn an ordinary room or conversation into a source of suspense.
Who will love it
You will love this book if you enjoy fair puzzles, tense questioning of witnesses, old New York drawing rooms, and a narrator who falls for the person he is trying to understand.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Suspicion stays inside the house
- Gryce watches instead of guessing
- Household clues narrow the search
- The cousins make different impressions
- Eleanore refuses to explain the evidence
- Raymond follows loyalty into secrecy
- Charm can distort the evidence
- Money and loyalty pull against truth
- Belief must be tested against facts
Who’s who
- Everett RaymondA young New York lawyer who tells the story and puts his faith in Eleanore against all the evidence.
- Ebenezer GryceA portly city detective who studies doorknobs and inkstands instead of faces and plays a slow, patient game.
- Eleanore LeavenworthThe dead man's proud and dark niece, who keeps a costly silence for reasons she will not give.
- Mary LeavenworthThe fair niece and named heiress, charming and quick to tears, whose moods puzzle everyone who meets her.
- James HarwellThe dead man's private secretary, stiff and watchful, who guards his feelings and stays in the library.
- Henry ClaveringA handsome, polished Englishman who stays at the Hoffman House and secretly visits the family on the night of the murder.
- HannahThe ladies' maid who goes downstairs with a candle on the night of the murder and later hides at Mrs. Belden's house.
- Thomas DoughertyThe careful butler who locks the house each night and swears to its condition in the morning.
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The Leavenworth Case
by Anna Katharine Green · 1878
A millionaire is shot in his locked library, and a young lawyer must decide whether a beautiful woman is lying.
Medium level5–10 hours to read16 languages
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In short
What would you do if the one person who could clear an innocent woman refused to speak? That is the trouble facing Everett Raymond, a young New York lawyer, on the morning a hurried stranger walks into his office.
The Leavenworth Case at a glance
- Reading time
- About 7 h 10 min5 h 40 min fast, 8 h 30 min slow
- Length
- 102,100 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1878by Anna Katharine Green
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A secretary brings news of a murder
Everett Raymond, a junior partner in a New York law firm, is alone in the office when a pale young man hurries in. He is James Harwell, private secretary to Horatio Leavenworth, a rich retired merchant and an old client of the firm. Mr. Leavenworth has been found dead, shot in the back of the head at his library table. The pistol is missing, and nothing in the house has been stolen.
An inquest is to be held that very day. The dead man's two nieces, Mary and Eleanore, are alone in the house, and the family friend is out of town. Raymond does not know the ladies, but he agrees to go in his senior's place.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 13 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1878
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 8 h 10 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Green, Anna Katharine. The Leavenworth Case. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-leavenworth-case.
Green, A. K. (2026). The Leavenworth case. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-leavenworth-case (Original work published 1878)
Green, Anna Katharine. The Leavenworth Case. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-leavenworth-case.
@book{green2026leavenworth,
author = {Green, Anna Katharine},
title = {The Leavenworth Case},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-leavenworth-case},
note = {First published 1878}
}
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What is The Leavenworth Case about?
It is a murder mystery set in New York. A rich merchant is shot in his locked house, and a young lawyer named Raymond tries to clear a niece who is accused by the evidence while the detective Gryce follows the clues.
Who is Ebenezer Gryce?
Gryce is a portly city detective who studies small objects like doorknobs and buttons while he thinks. He guides Raymond, lets him follow his own theory, and returns in other novels by the same author.
When was The Leavenworth Case written and is it a true story?
Anna Katharine Green published it in 1878. It is fiction, but it draws on real practices of its time, such as coroner's inquests, police detectives and New York law on marriage.
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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