[bobcdy]

A disreputable sailor is murdered in the Marathon Apartments across from a police station. The only witness is a wealthy young woman who will not help the police...

Here's a review published in the same year as the book:


New York Times Book Review:
I happened to pick up yesterday a book which has been very little heralded, but which seems to me by far the best novel I have read this season, and I have read many of them—which is, indeed, in my opinion, one of the best detective stories in the language—"The Marathon Mystery" by Mr. Burton E. Stevenson. "The Holladay Case" by the same author, published last year, was a clever and interesting story, and won a well-deserved popularity, but I confess that it did not prepare me for the interest and ingenuity of the present book. Besides this excellence of plot it is so well written that it comes very near ranking as literature. For breathless suspense it has "The Masquerader" beaten two to one, and for sheer horror and unexpectedness I have never seen its denouement equaled. I am a lover of good detective stories, and have all of the best ones, from Monsieur Dupin to Sherlock Holmes, but "The Marathon Mystery" shall have the favorite place in my library after this. I know that this liking is shared by many people, and I wish to direct the attention of your readers to this really exceptionally interesting book. I am sure I shall deserve their thanks by doing so.
Waupun, Wis.. Dec. 3, 1904. R. A. S

The embedded font, AcademiaSSi, used for chapter headings had a problem with quotes that I corrected in the revised version 1.1.

Corrections and slight formatting changes were made in v 1.2.

More corrections, improved formatting, and inclusion of two illustrations from the 1904 book were made in v. 1.3