Mary Roberts Rinehart (1876-1958) was the most beloved and best-selling mystery writer in America in the first half of the twentieth century. Born in Pittsburgh to the owner of a sewing machine factory, she wrote fiction in her spare time until a stock market crash sent her and her husband into debt, forcing her to lean on her writing to pay the bills. Her first two novels, The Circular Staircase (1908) and The Man in Lower Ten (1909), established her as a bright young talent, and it wasn't long before she was a regular on bestseller lists.Among her dozens of novels were The Amazing Adventures of Letitia Carberry (1911) and The Bat (1932), which was among the inspirations for Bob Kane's Batman. Today, Rinehart is often called an American Agatha Christie, even though she was much more popular than Christie during her heyday. Carolyn Hart is a Mystery Writers of America Grand Master and the author of sixty novels, including twenty-seven titles in the Death on Demand series, which follows a bookseller-turned-sleuth in a South Carolina mystery bookstore. Her work has received numerous accolades, including Agatha, Anthony, and McCavity Awards.
[Rinehart's] literary distinction lies in the combination of love, humor and murder that she wove into her tales. . . . She helped the mystery story grow up. -- The New York Times Fans of Agatha Christie will be pleased with this welcome reissue. -- Booklist