X y Z

I'd never heard of Anna Katharine Green prior to stumbling upon this X book for my Alphabet Soup challenge. I certainly had no idea of her legacy as a detective fiction author and, having now read XYZ, I wonder why she isn't as famous as Agatha Christie. Indeed, it's all too possible that Christie was inspired and influenced by Green's writing. Perhaps we need a similar book to Monster, She Wrote, but detailing early female crime fiction authors. Is anyone currently writing this book?

XYZ is an ingenious and cleverly plotted story. It's first person narrator never identifies himself other than to say that he is a detective, so he has a compelling level of mystery surrounding him especially as we learn very little about him as a person. We read his innermost thoughts concerning the investigation as it unfolds, but this isn't a man given to recounting past anecdotes or diverting from his focus. In fact, none of the characters are portrayed in any great depth. Green manages to put across their essential attributes through brief sketches which suits the feel of the story. XYZ is only about fifty pages long so spending more time on description would slow its pace right down. As it is, I felt I knew enough to envisage the people and locations while remaining gripped by the mystery. I very much enjoyed reading XYZ and would happily pick out more Anna Katharine Green books in the future.