The Stillwater Tragedy

MP3 Audio CD. Considered to be the very first novel in English literature to have a detective for a protagonist, The Stillwater Tragedy by Thomas Bailey Aldrich was first published in 1880, but the story and the style are as fresh and as exciting today as they were more than a hundred years ago. Known principally for his poetic work and for his autobiography, Aldrich takes an excursion into the world of prose with this innovative novel that mirrors not only his poetic take on the world, but also his talent as a storyteller.

As it can be expected of any detective story, the novel starts with a murder and it ends with the identification of the murderer. What is in the middle is the life story of Richard Shackford, the primary suspect in the murder case, investigating his own case. The setting against which the story unfolds is Stillwater, a small manufacturing town in New England, with all the characters in the book being decent hard-working people whose lives are disturbed by the murder. Peace is restored by the end and the murderer is caught, but until that moment, the reader is in for a lot of suspense and will get to really like and care for the protagonist.

If this excellent novel has raised your interested and you are looking for some more from Aldrich, you should read his poems, his short stories and his semi-autobiography, The Story of a Bad Boy. If you prefer to read narratives, the autobiography is the best choice ? you will recognize the same excellent style that makes The Stillwater Tragedy so great and you will also learn a lot about how this wonderfully talented, sensitive writer viewed his own life and the life of those around him as well.

As The Stillwater Tragedy laid the grounds of the genre of detective fiction, The Story of a Bad Boy laid the foundations for "bad boys" literature ? the genre that has given Tom Sawyer.