Author: STEVENSON, Burton E.
Title: The Marathon Mystery. A story of Manhattan.
Description: NY, Henry Holt 1904. Octavo publisher's decorated red cloth blocked in gilt and black (a bit marked and rubbed at tips); five colour plates by Eliot Keen. Minor signs of use but still a good, bright copy. ¶ First edition. One of his earliest thrillers, the second I think; he churned them out fairly regularly between other books over the next forty years. Fast paced stuff starring a former police detective now reporter detective. Stevenson does try harder than most though. There is a switch from the third person to an unidentified and for a while puzzling first person; I think it would have been easy for readers of the first book. Still, it's only near the end we find out just who this narrator is and why he gets a part. And while the villain is obvious the answer isn't until the end, and then there is a twist. The detective is Jim; his imperilled friend is Jack; our narrator doesn't have a first name. I wonder what this says about Stevenson being given the names Burton Egbert.

Keywords: literature fiction thrillers detective mystery New York c20th America