Showing results by author "Mary Roberts Rinehart" in All Categories

An essay on writing by Mary Roberts Rinehart. Rinehart, a contemporary of Agatha Christie, was a prolific writer in her time. This essay gives fascinating insight into her process and a glimpse into her thoughts on writing, which is, in fact, work.

A young lawyer survives a ghastly train wreck only to be accused of murdering a man who accidentally fell asleep in the wrong berth! This is another whirlwind of a whodunit by the author of The Circular Staircase.

The house called Sunset has been Marcia's summer home for her entire life. Both of her parents died there, and she and her brother spent their youth exploring its rambling hallways and seaside grounds. They love the old house, but Marcia's sister-in-law has never taken to it. Juliette loathes the sea, and soon comes to loathe her husband as well. After they divorce, Juliette pays a final visit to Sunset, demanding alimony. She is there for a few tense days before she disappears. It takes them a week to find her body.

As far as Carol Spencer is concerned, the war has spoiled everything. She and Don had been engaged for years and were on the verge of marriage when he was shot down in the South Pacific, leaving Carol on the verge of spinsterhood at 24. She wants to take some kind of job in the war effort, but her invalid mother demands that Carol accompany her to the family's summer home in Maine. But when they arrive at the faded mansion, they find it completely locked up. The servants are gone, the lights are dark - and there is a body in the closet.

Rinehart's The Man in Lower Ten, the first American detective novel to make the best seller list, follows the investigation of the murder of a man in a sleeping car on a train. In this fast-paced thriller, the investigating detective builds up a network of clues that absolutely incriminate three entirely different people---only one of whom can be guilty.

“This is the story of how a middle-aged spinster lost her mind, deserted her domestic gods in the city, took a furnished house for the summer out of town, and found herself involved in one of those mysterious crimes that keep our newspapers and detective agencies happy and prosperous.” So begins The Circular Staircase, a book which has been hailed as the best novel by the most important American woman mystery writer of our time.

Step into the world of mystery crafted by Mary Roberts Rinehart, the creator of the Had I but known genre. Follow Agnes Blakistons eerie journey as she navigates life in the old parsonage she rented per Miss Emilys suggestion. Haunting occurrences and a deeply buried secret of Miss Emilys make her question her decisions. Will she uncover the truth or fall victim to the mysterious happenings? Unravel the mystery by listening to this revealing narrative. (Summary by Annise)

Elizabeth Bell runs a quiet household, with no family and no more than the usual number of servants. She passes her time thinking about crime and working on her biography of a relative. When a young cousin comes to stay, life in the house becomes uncharacteristically lively. First, cousin Judy burns a hole in Miss Bell's desk. Next, they spy a burglar on the staircase - a shadowy figure who vanishes without a trace. And finally, Sarah, the nurse, takes the dogs for a walk and never returns.

Where There’s a Will is Mary Roberts Rinehart’s hilarious comedy involving a health spa, an heir, a would-be princess, and an impostor. The story is told by Minnie, who has essentially run the spa for years and inherited the care of its famous spring from her father. When the old doctor dies and leaves the Hope Springs Spa to his near-do-well grandson with the stipulation that he live on premises for two months in order to inherit, the grandson is nowhere to be found. So Minnie tries to save the spa by enlisting the help of family and friends to trick the lawyer....

Crescent Place was once a peaceful country green surrounded by five tasteful suburban houses and populated by polite, responsible citizens. But as the city enveloped it, the residents built a gate to keep the world out. With each passing year, the subdivision grew stranger and stranger - until it began to look like a time capsule of the 1890s.

The Birches was one of the grand mansions of the 1920s, with a ballroom, tennis courts, and, of course, a swimming pool. But after the crash of '29, when Lois and Judith's father killed himself to escape his debts, the family turned the summer home into a fulltime retreat from the world. Decades later, Judith is the queen of New York society, a fast-living beauty whose nerves are beginning to fray, while Lois still lives in the dilapidated old mansion, writing mystery novels to pay the bills. She is about to encounter a mystery of her own.

At a bustling neighborhood social club, a medium is invited as the evenings highlight. The medium recounts a gruesome tale about a violent death that leaves the attendees on edge. Later, the uncanny prediction unfolds as two members are summoned to a nearby house where a mysterious murder has taken place. Intrigued and unnerved, the club members set out on a quest to uncover the truth. Mary Roberts Rinehart artfully combines mystery and social comedy in this gripping novella. (Summary by Zach Hoyt)

In an elaborate house known as the Cloisters, Maud Wainwright rules supreme. The queen of society in the small town of Beverly, she has a table long enough to seat 100, and she keeps an iron grip on the guest list. Her right-hand woman is Pat Abbott, a local girl who is beautiful, innocent, and kind. Pat has no idea how cutthroat high society can be, but she's about to get a deadly first lesson.

This ghostly, sometimes ghastly, collection includes "The Buckled Bag" by Mary Roberts Rinehart, "The Tapestried Room" or "The Lady in the Saque" by Sir Walter Scott, "The New Catacomb" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and "The Lost Ghost" by Mary Wilkins Freeman.

Rachel Innes rents a summer house that is full of hidden rooms and sinister happenings. Chilling horror, romance, and rollicking humor permeate this suspenseful mystery novel.

The blood-stained rope and towel, the stray slipper, the broken knife - and the disappearance of the lovely Jennie Brice - were enough to convince Mrs. Pittman that murder had been committed in her boarding house. The police, however, were another matter. Without a tangible body, there could be no official murder charge.

Rinehart's first American mystery published in 1908, reminding Agatha Christie fans of her first country-house English mystery, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, published 12 years later. This book has servants, a secret room, multigenerational goings-on, and more like Styles did.

The state has accused beautiful young Elinor Norton of murder, and she refuses to mount a defense. Guilt is written all over her elegant features, but her childhood best friend cannot believe it when Elinor confesses to the crime. Forced into a dull marriage against her will, Elinor is just beginning to adjust to life with Lloyd when she meets the man who will tear her world apart. Blair Leighton is her husband's best friend and was his companion in the war, and he has a charm that makes Elinor quiver from the inside out.

There are so many kinds of love: romantic, filial, spiritual. The following stories by Mary Roberts Rinehart present all sorts of love. Many of the stories take place in hospitals, and two involve trans-Atlantic steam travel. Many have a light heart at their core, while some may induce the wonderment of social issues of their time and of ours. All end with an element of hope and happiness.

Rachel Innes, a middle-aged spinster, has barely settled in at the country house she has rented for the summer when a series of bizarre and violent events threaten to perturb her normally unflappable nature. A strange figure appears briefly in the twilight outside a window. At night, a rattling, metallic sound reverberates through dark halls, and - most disconcerting of all - the body of a strange man is found lying in a pool of blood at the bottom of a circular staircase.