--- description: Find out why 'The Leavenworth Case' by Anna Katharine Green made the list. title: The Leavenworth Case: The 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf2fc25f2296dfd40/698a4085db2987ce6d2695ba/TheLeavenworthCase.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Oct 03, 2023 # The Leavenworth Case by Anna Katharine Green by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close  Before there was [Sherlock Holmes](https://time.com/3856098/arthur-conan-doyle-history/ "undefined"), there was Ebenezer Gryce. The character first appeared in Anna Katharine Green’s 1878 novel _The Leavenworth Case_, which has long been cited as instrumental to the development of the mystery genre. The book traces the fallout of the death of a wealthy New York philanthropist named Horatio Leavenworth, and accompanies Gryze as he investigates the man’s untimely and suspicious end. Though readers are likely more familiar with Arthur Conan Doyle and Holmes than with Green and Gryce, Green’s impact on mystery books is wide-ranging. She introduced essential building blocks of the genre through plots inspired by her knowledge of criminal law and legal proceedings. And in Agatha Christie’s 1977 autobiography, she wrote that _The Leavenworth Case_ was one of the novels that spurred her own desire to write detective fiction. —_Annabel Gutterman_ --- ### More from TIME --- **Buy Now:** _The Leavenworth Case_ on [Bookshop](https://bookshop.org/a/4973/9780486823508 "undefined") | [Amazon](https://amzn.to/44t4H9K "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309155/the-leavenworth-case/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309155/the-leavenworth-case/"},"headline":"The Leavenworth Case: Best Mystery and Thriller Books","datePublished":"2023-10-03T12:01:32.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T00:21:08.823Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309155/the-leavenworth-case/","keywords":["Books"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf2fc25f2296dfd40/698a4085db2987ce6d2695ba/TheLeavenworthCase.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf2fc25f2296dfd40/698a4085db2987ce6d2695ba/TheLeavenworthCase.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309155/the-leavenworth-case/","name":"The Leavenworth Case: Best Mystery and Thriller Books"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"How We Chose the 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books of All Time","description":"Here's how TIME created its 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books list. There are books from 15 different countries, and no author appears on the list more than once.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/bNzuDcsg/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2023-10-02T16:54:39.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/bNzuDcsg.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309155/the-leavenworth-case/","duration":"PT1M35S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309155/the-leavenworth-case/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```