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Mary Roberts Rinehart


USA flag (1876 - 1958)

Mary Roberts Rinehart was an American novelist and playwright best known for her mystery stories.

Rinehart's work is very different from the cliches of Rinehart criticism. It has a lot in common with hard-boiled school, in both style and subject. It also is part of the American school of "scientific" detection. In fact, all three groups, scientific, hard-boiled, and Rinehart show common features. They form an American school that mixes adventure and detection. There is an attempt at realism in the depiction of modern life, with many different classes, corruption high and low, and a great diversity of characters. Her most memorable tales combined murder, love, ingenuity, and humor in a style that was distinctly her own.

While her general novels were her best-selling books, she was most highly regarded by critics for her carefully plotted murder mysteries. It was one of her books that produced the phrase, "The butler did it," and in her prime, she was more famous than her chief rival, England's Agatha Christie.

Her autobiography, My Story, appeared in 1931 and was revised in 1948. At Rinehart's death her books had sold more than 10 million copies.
 

Genres: Mystery
 
Series
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Hilda Adams
   1. Miss Pinkerton (1932)
     aka The Double Alibi
   2. Haunted Lady (1942)
   3. Episode of the Wandering Knife (1950)
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Novels
   The Man in Lower Ten (1906)
   The Circular Staircase (1908)
   When a Man Marries (1910)
   The Window at the White Cat (1910)
   The Cave on Thundercloud (1912)
   Mind Over Motor (1912)
   Where There's a Will (1912)
   The Case of Jennie Brice (1913)
   The After House (1914)
   K (1915)
   The Amazing Interlude (1918)
   Dangerous Days (1919)
   Salvage (1919)
   A Poor Wise Man (1920)
   The Truce of God (1920)
   The Breaking Point (1922)
   The Red Lamp (1925)
     aka The Mystery Lamp
   Two Flights Up (1928)
   This Strange Adventure (1929)
   The Door (1930)
   The Album (1933)
   The State Vs Elinor Norton (1933)
   The Doctor (1936)
   The Wall (1938)
   The Great Mistake (1940)
   The Yellow Room (1945)
   The Confession (1946)
   Sight Unseen (1946)
   The Swimming Pool (1952)
   The Wandering Knife (1952)
   The Frightened Wife (1953)
   The Street of Seven Stars (1966)
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Collections
   Love Stories (1919)
   Affinities (1920)
   Temperamental People (1924)
   Nomad's Land (1926)
   The Romantics (1929)
   Mary Roberts Rinehart's Crime Book (1933)
   Married People (1937)
   Alibi for Isabel (1944)
   The Confession / Sight Unseen (1959)
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Novellas and Short Stories
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Plays show
 
Non fiction show
 
Omnibus editions show
 


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