The Dead Letter and The Figure Eight

<div>Before Raymond Chandler before Dorothy Sayers or Agatha Christie there was Metta Fuller Victor the first American author-man or woman-of a full-length detective novel. This novel <i>The Dead Letter</i> is presented here along with another of Victor's mysteries <i>The Figure Eight</i>. Both written in the 1860s and published under the name Seeley Regester these novels show how-by combining conventions of the mystery form first developed by Edgar Allan Poe with those of the domestic novel-Victor pioneered the domestic detective story and paved the way for generations of writers to follow.<p>In <i>The Dead Letter</i> Henry Moreland is killed by a single stab to the back. Against a background of post-Civil War politics Richard Redfield a young attorney helps Burton a legendary New York City detective unravel the crime. In <i>The Figure Eight</i> Joe Meredith undertakes a series of adventures and assumes a number of disguises to solve the mystery of the murder of his uncle and regain the lost fortune of his angelic cousin.</p></div>