Highly unlikable protagonist.

Note: I accessed digital review copies of this book through Edelweiss and NetGalley. ( )

1895. Miss Amelia Butterworth curiosity is engaged when late one evening she notices a couple enter her neighbours' house. The house belonging to the Van Burnams. And the next morning a body of a female is discovered within. Detective Gryce investigates but Miss Butterworth is determined to find the guilty party first.
An intriguing mystery, originally written in 1897 ( )

That Affair Next Door introduces Miss Amelia Butterworth, an insightful and observant woman who noticed a man and woman enter the next-door neighbor’s house and saw the man leave minutes later. It was odd enough that she went next door in the morning to check on the woman, getting a policeman to take a look. The woman is dead and at a glance, Miss Butterworth knows she was murdered.

When Detective Ebenezer Gryce comes on the scene, she can’t resist showing off her observation and inductive reasoning. He is impressed, but certainly much more confident in his own famed prowess. Miss Butterworth is determined to show him up.

From the first page of That Affair Next Door, I loved Miss Butterworth and was loving her combination of persnickety snobbery with biting self-awareness. She made me laugh out loud. However, about half-way through the tone shifted. She withheld information pursuing her own leads in order to let Gryce get it wrong and show him up. There was a long exposition from Gryce laying out his reasoning and then from her undercutting it with her findings. This was unnatural and dull and far different from the way the book began. This may have been the fashion in 1897 when the book was published, but the first half feels like it was written by someone today. The second half disappoints, but I am still looking forward to meeting Miss. Butterworth again.

I received an e-galley of That Affair Next Door from the publisher through NetGalley

That Affair Next Door at Poisoned Pen Press
Anna Katherine Green at Britannica

https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2020/06/03/9781464212956/ ( )

classic-crime, NYC, amateur-sleuth, law-enforcement, murder-investigation, sly-humor, 1890s*****

First published in 1897.
Delightful! First you have the problem of syntax and idioms of over a hundred years ago as well as the attitudes of people from one income bracket to another, but it's the telling of what we now call a cozy mystery that makes it a really good classic. The story is told by Miss Butterworth whose observations are very much tongue-in-cheek if not downright snarky. The characters are exceptionally well drawn and their quirks add to the fun. While it may seem a bit longwinded according to the page count, that does include some explanations of idioms and whatnot that are unknown today rather than reinterpreting the original. It's a great story with a totally unpredictable resolution and I hope that more of her books will be on offer soon!
I requested and received a free ebook copy from Poisoned Pen Press via NetGalley. Thank you! ( )

Miss Butterworth is the star, not Detective Gryce. ( )