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    X Y Z: A Detective Story
    X Y Z: A Detective Story
    X Y Z: A Detective Story
    Ebook98 pages1 hour

    X Y Z: A Detective Story

    By Anna Katharine Green

    3.5/5

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    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateJan 1, 2010
    Author

    Anna Katharine Green

    Anna Katharine Green (1846–1935) was an American writer and prominent figure in the detective genre. Born in New York City, Green developed an affinity for literature at an early age. She studied at Ripley Female College in Vermont and was mentored by poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson. One of Green’s best-known works is The Leavenworth Case, which was published in 1878. It was a critical and commercial success that made her one of the leading voices in literature. Over the course of her career, Green would go on to write nearly 40 books.

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    Reviews for X Y Z

    3.5/5

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    • 4/5
      The detective who is the central character, employed by the United States Government, is hot on the trail of some counterfeiters when he discovers that a Massachusetts post office is being used by a gang to drop instructions in envelopes addressed to X. Y. Z.Here is the "hook". Sometimes in the course of his experience, a detective, while engaged in ferreting out the mystery of one crime, runs inadvertently upon the clue to another. But rarely has this been done in a manner more unexpected or with attendant circumstances of greater interest than in the instance I am now about to relate.The gang have established a pattern in picking up the letters and so the detective's curiosity is piqued when a young man arrives at the "wrong time" and asks for X.Y.Z's correspondence. When the new arrival collects the letters he hands all but the last one back to the postmaster saying they are not for him. The detective decides to follow him and observes a murder.X. Y. Z. A DETECTIVE STORY is one of a number of Anna Katherina Green novels and novellas available free for Kindle from Amazon.My attention was drawn to it recently by Margaret@BooksPlease in the Crime Fiction Alphabet for Letter X.As Margaret says in her mini-review "It’s written in a somewhat formal and stilted style, and is melodramatic" but even so it is interesting to note how much it seems to have in common with writers like Edgar Allan Poe and Wilkie Collins, at the same time realising that the writer is a woman.Wikipedia says this of her: Anna Katharine Green (November 11, 1846 – April 11, 1935) was an American poet and novelist. She was one of the first writers of detective fiction in America and distinguished herself by writing well plotted, legally accurate stories.She apparently wrote about 40 stories, including The Leavenworth Case (1878), praised by Wilkie Collins, and the hit of the year.X.Y. Z is really a novella or an extended short story and takes almost no time to read.It is one of a number of Green's books available from Gutenberg Project if you are looking for something other than an .azw file.
    • 4/5
      1881 June. While investigating one crime an agent discovers another in Brandon.
      This novella has an enjoyable storyline
      Originally written in 1883

    Book preview

    X Y Z - Anna Katharine Green

    The Project Gutenberg EBook of X Y Z, by Anna Katharine Green

    This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with

    almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or

    re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included

    with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

    Title: X Y Z

    A Detective Story

    Author: Anna Katharine Green

    Release Date: September 10, 2010 [EBook #33695]

    Language: English

    *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK X Y Z ***

    Produced by Suzanne Shell, Julia Neufeld and the Online

    Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This

    file was produced from images generously made available

    by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)

    X. Y. Z.

    I.

    II.

    III.

    IV.

    V.

    X Y Z

    A DETECTIVE STORY

    BY

    ANNA KATHARINE GREEN

    AUTHOR OF THE LEAVENWORTH CASE, A STRANGE DISAPPEARANCE, ETC.

    NEW YORK

    G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS

    27 & 29 WEST 23D STREET

    1883

    COPYRIGHT BY

    G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS

    1883

    X. Y. Z.

    A STORY TOLD BY A DETECTIVE.

    I.

    THE MYSTERIOUS RENDEZVOUS.

    Sometimes in the course of his experience, a detective, while engaged in ferreting out the mystery of one crime, runs inadvertently upon the clue to another. But rarely has this been done in a manner more unexpected or with attendant circumstances of greater interest than in the instance I am now about to relate.

    For some time the penetration of certain Washington officials had been baffled by the clever devices of a gang of counterfeiters who had inundated the western portion of Massachusetts with spurious Treasury notes. Some of the best talent of the Secret Service had been expended upon the matter, but with no favorable result, when, one day, notice was received at Washington that a number of suspicious-looking letters, addressed to the simple initials, X. Y. Z., Brandon, Mass., were being daily forwarded through the mails of that region; and it being deemed possible that a clue had at last been offered to the mystery in hand, I was sent northward to investigate.

    It was in the middle of June, 1881, and the weather was simply delightful. As I stepped from the cars at Brandon and looked up the long straight street with its double row of maple trees sparkling fresh and beautiful in the noonday sun, I thought I had never seen a prettier village or entered upon any enterprise with a lighter or more hopeful heart.

    Intent on my task, I went straight to the post-office, and after coming to an understanding with the postmaster, proceeded at once to look over the mail addressed to the mysterious X. Y. Z.

    I found it to consist entirely of letters. They were about a dozen in number, and were, with one exception, similar in general appearance and manner of direction, though inscribed in widely different handwritings, and posted from various New England towns. The exception to which I allude had these few extra words written in the lower left-hand corner of the envelope: "To be kept till called for." As I bundled up the letters preparatory to thrusting them back into the box, I noticed that the latter was the only one in a blue envelope, all the others being in the various shades of cream-color and buff.

    Who is in the habit of calling for these letters? I asked of the postmaster.

    Well, said he, I don't know his name. The fact is nobody knows him around here. He usually drives up in a buggy about nightfall, calls for letters addressed to X. Y. Z., and having got them, whips up his horse and is off again before one can say a word.

    Describe him, said I.

    Well, he is very lean and very lank. In appearance he is both green and awkward. His complexion is pale, almost sickly. Were it not for his eye, which is keen and twinkling, I should call him an extremely inoffensive-looking person.

    The type was not new to me. I should like to see him, said I.

    You will have to wait till nightfall, then, returned the postmaster. He never comes till about dusk. Drop in here, say at seven o'clock, and I will see that you have the opportunity of handing him his mail.

    I nodded acquiescence to this and sauntered out of the enclosure devoted to the uses of the post-office. As I did so I ran against a young man who was hurriedly approaching from the other end of the store.

    Your pardon, he cried; and I turned to look at him, so gentlemanly was his tone, and so easy the bow with which he accompanied this simple apology.

    He was standing before the window of the post-office, waiting for his mail; a good-looking, well-made young man, of a fine countenance, but with a restless eye, whose alert yet anxious expression I could not but note even in the casual glance I gave him. There appeared to be some difficulty in procuring him his mail, and each minute he was kept waiting seemed to increase his impatience almost beyond the bounds of endurance. I saw him lean forward and gasp out a hurried word to the postmaster, and was idly wondering over his anxiety and its probable causes, when I heard a hasty exclamation near me, and looking around, saw the postmaster himself beckoning to me from the door of the enclosure. I immediately hastened forward.

    I don't know what it means, he whispered; but here is a young man, different from any who have been here before, asking for a letter addressed to X. Y. Z.

    A letter? I repeated.

    Yes, a letter.

    Give him the whole batch and see what he does, I returned, drawing back where I could myself watch the result of my instructions. The postmaster did as I requested. In another moment I saw the young man start with amazement as a dozen letters were put in his hand. These are not all for me! he cried, but even as he made the exclamation, drew to one side, and with a look of mingled perplexity and concern, began opening them one after another, his expression deepening to amazement as he glanced at their contents. The one in the blue envelope, however, seemed to awaken quite different emotions. With an unconscious look of relief, he hastily read the short letter

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