XYZ: A Detective Story: 4 Stars

XYZ: A Detective Story by Anna Katharine Green

Originally published in 1883, XYZ: A Detective Story is a short story. I, like quite a few others, stumbled across this one in search of an "X" book for the A-Z reading challenge.  I was done with the entire alphabet, except for X and was in search for something that looked somewhat decent. My mother actually found this one and enjoyed it, so I figured it was short and simple fix to my problem. 

While working on a counterfeit case, a detective gets a tip about some mysterious letters that have been showing up at the post office with no address. They are simply addressed to "X. Y. Z., Brandon Mass". The post office worker tipped off the detective thinking that this may be a clue to the counterfeit case.  But the post office worker was wrong.  The detective is about to stumlbe upon something much bigger, a murder.

This short story is definitely a bit dated (but seriously, how can it not be dated when it was written 180 years ago). But other than that, it was a fun read. I liked the story because it was unique. I somewhat expected the story to go back to the counterfeit case, but it didn't. The "clue" the detective received had nothing to do with the original case.  I found that very unique. Usually in stories we see on TV or in books nowadays, the detective would have solved both cases. This seemed far more believable.

Rating: PG