Anna Katharine Green ( 1846 – 1935) was an American poet and novelist. She was one of the first writers of detective fiction in America and distinguished herself by writing well plotted, legally accurate stories. Green has been called "the mother of the detective novel".In this well-plotted, character-driven mystery,  Amelia Butterworth, a noisy middle-aged lady, finds herself helping Inspector Gryce: a strange murder has been committed in a room that seems to have been designed as a real trap;and the only witnesses are a deaf-and-dumb butler and a bird that sings a disconcerting tune with a clue ...