Reviews for The Circular Study

The average rating for The Circular Study based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-09-28 00:00:00 Matthew Drummond This is I think the first of Anna Katherine Green's novels that I've read; it won't be the last, I'm sure. It's the tenth novel she wrote featuring NYC detective Ebenezer Gryce and the fourth (and last) to feature a spinster sleuth who helps him, Miss Amelia Butterworth; some regard Amelia Butterworth as a precursor of Miss Marple, but I don't see much resemblance myself. In this novel she has a fairly minor role. The reclusive owner of a distinguished house is discovered stabbed to death in the circular study at the heart of that house. The only other accupants are a deaf-and-dumb butler and a caged starling that can parrot occasional words it hears. Aided by some of Amelia's insights but more especially by an ambitious young cop, who displays exemplary enterprise and deductive skills, Gryce doesn't take too long to discover who the murderer is. About the last 35% of the book follows the murder's solution, which might sound like a recipe for literary disaster but in fact is the opposite: the first part was entertaining, but this second part is quite absorbing, and will undoubtedly be what remains with me when I think back on the book. Of course, I've started reading Green in the wrong place -- I had no idea that her books weren't all standalones. Well, that can easily enough be rectified . . .

Review # 2 was written on 2017-11-21 00:00:00 Josh Canter Absolutely brilliant! Where have you been all my life, Anna Katharine Green? Who needs Sherlock Holmes? Initially, the complex sentence structure is a bit cumbersome but, when the groundwork had been laid, I was whisked away in this captivating story. I listened to a record 6-hour audiobook in three days! Give me more! A note to readers ' at the end of Book 1, Chapter 8, there is a diagram which I happened to discover much earlier in the story and found quite helpful.