Mary Roberts Rinehart

Mary Roberts Rinehart (August 12, 1876 – September 22, 1958) was an American writer, often called the American Agatha Christie,[1] although her first mystery novel was published 14 years before Christie's first novel in 1922. Rinehart is considered the source of the phrase "The butler did it" from her novel The Door (1930), although the novel does not use the exact phrase. Rinehart is also considered to have invented the "Had-I-But-Known" school...

Washington, D.C.-based attorney Lawrence Blakely has been asked by his partner to deliver some important documents to a client in Pittsburgh. In the course of his return trip, the occupant of the train berth opposite his - the lower ten, which Blakely was supposed to have taken - is savagely murdered. Was Blakely the intended victim, and did the crime have something to do with his briefcase full of vital evidence? When the murder weapon turns up underneath...

Set in the early 1900s, this story features a cast of memorable characters, mysterious happenings, and leads up to an astonishing conclusion!

An absorbing mystery from a modern master of the genre. Agnes Blakiston did not want to rent the old parsonage and soon came to regret it. At night the phone would ring and there would be unseen visitors. Was the house haunted? And did Miss Emily have a secret to terrible she would rather die than reveal it?

Elizabeth Wheeler lives in a small town, sings in the church choir, and dreams of a man who will sweep her off her feet. Instead, she is thrust into a series of events beyond her control leading to passion, madness, betrayal, and ultimately, murder! Can she ever set thing right?

This delightful comedy of errors tells the story of a bunch of society types who become sequestered together for a week when the house they are visiting is put under quarantine for smallpox. There are characters posing as a couple to placate a nosy aunt; missing jewels; and guests who consider it a struggle to survive a week without servants. A witty romp full of hilarious twists and turns.

From "Roughing it with the Men" to "Below the Border in Wartime" Mary Roberts Rinehart's The Out Trail features seven tales from her adventures in the West from fishing at Puget Sound to hiking the Bright Angel trail at the Grand Canyon. Though she was best known at the time for her mystery novels, Rinehart's travel writing, starting with her 1915 travels to the then young Glacier National Park, offers observations and insights into the fun and difficulties...

After inheriting an old seaside house, a professor finds it haunted by supernatural mysteries Though he likes to joke about the spirit world, William Porter does not really believe in ghosts. As a professor, he cannot afford to take seriously that which goes bump in the night. But his wife, Jane, is prone to visions, like the one she had last summer about William's uncle Horace lying dead on the floor-a dream that came just hours before they got the...

Discovering a murdered body in her family's summer home in Maine, Carol Spencer becomes the main suspect in the crime and begins to fear for her life as her servants disappear, the telephones have been removed, and nighttime rapidly descends.