Mary Roberts Rinehart Popular Books
Mary Roberts Rinehart Biography & Facts
Mary Roberts Rinehart (August 12, 1876 – September 22, 1958) was an American writer, often called the American Agatha Christie. Rinehart published her first mystery novel The Circular Staircase in 1908, which introduced the "had I but known" narrative style. Rinehart is also considered the source of "the butler did it" plot device in her novel The Door (1930), although the exact phrase does not appear in her work. She also worked to tell the stories and experiences of front line soldiers during World War I, one of the first women to travel to the Belgian front lines. Biography Rinehart was born Mary Ella Roberts in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, now a part of Pittsburgh. A sister, Olive Louise, four years Mary's junior, would later gain recognition as an author of children's books and as a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist. Her father was a frustrated inventor, and throughout her childhood, the family often had financial problems. Her father committed suicide when Mary was 19 years old. Tending to be left-handed at a time when that was considered disadvantageous, she was trained to use her right hand instead. She attended public schools and graduated at age 16, then enrolled at the Pittsburgh Training School for Nurses at Pittsburgh Homeopathic Hospital, where she graduated in 1896. She described the experience as "all the tragedy of the world under one roof." After graduation, she married Stanley Marshall Rinehart (1867–1932), a physician she had met there. They had three sons: Stanley Jr., Alan, and Frederick. During the stock market crash of 1903, the couple lost their savings, spurring Rinehart's efforts at writing as a way to earn income. She was 27 that year, and produced 45 short stories. In 1907, she wrote The Circular Staircase, the novel that propelled her to national fame. According to her obituary in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in 1958, the book sold 1.25 million copies. Her regular contributions to The Saturday Evening Post were immensely popular and helped the magazine mold American middle-class taste and manners. In 1911, after the publication of five successful books and two plays, the Rineharts moved to the Pittsburgh suburb of Glen Osborne, where they purchased a large home at the corner of Orchard and Linden Streets called "Cassella." Before they could move into the house, however, Mrs. Rinehart had to have it completely rebuilt because it had fallen into disrepair. "The venture was mine, and I had put every dollar I possessed into the purchase. All week long I wrote wildly to meet the payroll and contractor costs,” she wrote in her autobiography. In 1925, the Rineharts sold the house to the Marks family; the house was demolished in 1969. Today, a Mary Roberts Rinehart Nature Park sits in the borough of Glen Osborne at 1414 Beaver Street, Sewickley, Pennsylvania.Rinehart's commercial success sometimes conflicted with her expected domestic roles of wife and mother, yet she often pursued adventure, including a job as a war correspondent for The Saturday Evening Post at the Belgian front during World War I. During her time in Belgium, she interviewed Albert I of Belgium, Winston Churchill and Mary of Teck, writing of the latter "This afternoon I am to be presented to the queen of England. I am to curtsey and to say 'Your majesty,' the first time!" Rinehart was working in Europe in 1918 to report on developments to the War Department and was in Paris when the armistice was signed.In 1922, the family moved to Washington, DC, when Dr. Rinehart was appointed to a post in the Veterans Administration. She was a member of the Literary Society of Washington from 1932 to 1936. Her husband died in 1932, but she continued to live in Washington until 1935, when she moved to New York City. There she helped her sons found the publishing house Farrar & Rinehart, serving as its director. She also maintained a vacation home in Bar Harbor, Maine. In 1947, a Filipino chef who had worked for her for 25 years fired a gun at her and then attempted to slash her with knives until other servants rescued her. The chef committed suicide in his cell the next day.Rinehart suffered from breast cancer, which led to a radical mastectomy. She eventually went public with her story, at a time when such matters were not openly discussed. The interview "I Had Cancer" was published in a 1947 issue of the Ladies' Home Journal; in it, Rinehart encouraged women to have breast examinations. Rinehart received a Mystery Writers of America special award a year after she published her last novel, and an honorary doctorate in literature from George Washington University.On November 9, 1956, Rinehart appeared on the interview program Person to Person. She died at age 82 at her apartment at 630 Park Avenue in New York City. Writing Rinehart wrote hundreds of short stories, poems, travelogues and articles. Many of her short stories, books, and plays were adapted for movies, such as Bab: A Sub-Deb (1917), The Bat (1926), The Bat Whispers (1930), Miss Pinkerton (1932), and The Bat (1959 remake). The novel The Circular Staircase was first adapted to the screen as a silent film in 1915, and later as an episode in the TV show Climax! in 1956. In 1933 RCA Victor released The Bat as one of the early talking book recordings. She co-wrote the 1920 play The Bat which was later adapted into the 1930 film The Bat Whispers. The latter influenced Bob Kane in the creation of Batman's iconography. Carole Lombard and Gary Cooper starred in I Take This Woman (1931), an early sound film based on Rinehart's novel Lost Ecstasy (1927). While many of her books were best sellers, critics were most appreciative of her murder mysteries. Rinehart, in The Circular Staircase (1908), is credited with inventing the "Had-I-but-Known" school of mystery writing. The Had-I-But-Known mystery novel is one where the principal character (frequently female) does things in connection with a crime that have the effect of prolonging the action of the novel. In The Circular Staircase "a middle-aged spinster is persuaded by her niece and nephew to rent a country house for the summer. The gentle, peace-loving trio is plunged into a series of crimes solved with the help of the aunt."Ogden Nash parodied the school in his poem Don't Guess Let Me Tell You: "Sometimes the Had I But Known then what I know now I could have saved at least three lives by revealing to the Inspector the conversation I heard through that fortuitous hole in the floor." The phrase "The butler did it" came from Rinehart's novel The Door, in which the butler actually did murder someone, although that exact phrase does not appear in the work. Tim Kelly adapted Rinehart's play into a musical, The Butler Did It, Singing. This play includes five lead female roles and five lead male roles. She followed her initial success with The Man in Lower Ten, another novel that continued to reinforce her fame. After these two, Rinehart published about a book a year. She also wrot.... Discover the Mary Roberts Rinehart popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Mary Roberts Rinehart books.
Best Seller Mary Roberts Rinehart Books of 2024
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Area of Suspicion
John D. MacDonaldFour years ago Gevan Dean found his fiancée Niki Webb in his brother Ken's arms and fled his hometown for a peaceful life in the Florida sun. But now Ken is dead murdered by a thi...
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Barrier Island
John D. MacDonaldTucker Loomis is a hard and dangerous man with a ruthlessness all West Bay fears and respects, and an improbable amount of money. Wade Rowley is a common man who aspires to honour ...
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Death Trap
John D. MacDonaldIn life, Jane Ann never had much use for a halo, but in her violent death she finally earned one. When they found a suspect, everyone relaxed except Hugh MacReedy.Maybe he should h...
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A Flash of Green
John D. MacDonaldJames Wing was only trying to help his friend's widow. At least that's what he told himself after he warned Kat Hubble that the beautiful bay that she and her neighbours had strugg...
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One More Sunday
John D. MacDonaldWelcome to the Eternal Church of the Believer, where devout workers operate stateoftheart computer equipment to process the thousands of dollars that pour in daily and where hundre...
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The Collected Works of Mary Roberts Rinehart
Mary Roberts RinehartThis carefully crafted ebook: "The Collected Works of Mary Roberts Rinehart" is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents. Miss Cornelia V...
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Cancel All Our Vows
John D. MacDonaldFletcher Wyant and his wife Jane had been married for fifteen years. They had built the perfect marriage two wonderful kids, a warm beautiful home, and their own private neverendi...
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The Only Girl in the Game
John D. MacDonaldHer employers are the high priests of Las Vegas and she is their handmaiden. Her job is to lead the lambs to the sacrifice, to keep them happy at the tables, where her partners sla...
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The Deceivers
John D. MacDonaldHer name was Cindy, and she was his neighbour's wife the woman next door in the kind of suburbia that didn't make headlines. These were real people, nice people like Cindy and Car...
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Contrary Pleasure
John D. MacDonaldFor years the Delevan family image reflected only the best of everything wealth, position, influence, and the kind of expensive good looks that take generations to cultivate. No o...
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Murder for the Bride
John D. MacDonaldDillon Bryant, a successful engineer, is off on assignment after finishing his honeymoon. But news from home comes that his new bride, Laura, a beautiful woman whom he had met only...
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The Beach Girls
John D. MacDonaldLeo Rice seems like a nice enough guy, but why does he have to choose their beach? He could head ten miles up the Florida strip and everyone could just live happily ever after no ...
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28 Books by Mary Roberts Rinehart
Mary Roberts RinehartThis file includes the full text of 28 novels by Mary Roberts Rinehart: The Man in Lower Ten, The Circular Staircase, When A Man Marries, The Window at the White Cat, Where There's...
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Deadly Welcome
John D. MacDonaldAlex Doyle is a tough man on a tough assignment in Ramona Beach, Florida the kind of place that doesn't trust strangers and is policed by a sheriff who echoes the locals' sentimen...
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The Mary Roberts Rinehart Collection
Mary Roberts RinehartSharp Ink presents to you this unique and meticulously edited Rinehart collection: Miss Cornelia Van Gorder Series: The Circular Staircase The Bat Tish Carberry Series: The Amazing...
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The Good Old Stuff
John D. MacDonaldFrom the author of the worldfamous Travis McGee thrillers, thirteen of John D. MacDonald's earliest and best crime and mystery stories brought together in one volume.Written at the...
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The Greatest Works of Mary Roberts Rinehart
Mary Roberts RinehartThis unique Rinehart collection has been meticulously edited and and formatted to the highest digital standards. Miss Cornelia Van Gorder Series: The Circular Staircase The Bat T...
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You Live Once
John D. MacDonaldClint Sewell knew there wasn't a wife within fifty miles who didn't have reason to murder Mary Olan because there wasn't a husband around who didn't think the grass was greener in...
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Slam the Big Door
John D. MacDonaldWhen Mike Rodenska, a former journalist and recent widower, visits his old friend Troy Jamison in Florida, he's shocked at what he finds. For despite the parties, the shapely women...
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The Essential Works of Mary Roberts Rinehart
Mary Roberts RinehartThe essential works of acclaimed mystery writer Mary Roberts Rinehart with an active table of contents.Works include:'Isn't That Just Like a Man!'AffinitiesThe After HouseThe Amazi...
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Seven
John D. MacDonaldA choice collection of seven short stories by one of America's foremost storytellers and the author of the bestselling Travis McGee series.Featuring 'Dear Old Friend', 'The Annex',...
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The Greatest Works of Mary Roberts Rinehart
Mary Roberts RinehartThis unique Rinehart collection has been meticulously edited and and formatted to the highest digital standards. Miss Cornelia Van Gorder Series: The Circular Staircase The Bat T...
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A Man of Affairs
John D. MacDonaldSam Glidden owed all his success to the opportunities he'd received from Thomas McGann, president of the Harrison Corporation. But now McGann was dead, and Mike Dean, a wildly flam...
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The Brass Cupcake
John D. MacDonaldIn Flower City, a sleepy resort town on Florida's Gulf Coast, wealthy Elizabeth Stegman is murdered in a jewel heist gone bad her missing jewels insured for £750,000.It falls to h...
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Please Write for Details
John D. MacDonaldAmerican bachelor Miles Drummond, living in Cuernavaca, Mexico, and running out of money, halfheartedly places an ad in a few US newspapers announcing a summer art workshop. Much t...
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A Bullet for Cinderella
John D. MacDonaldHer veneer was big city ... But one look and you knew that Toni Raselle's instincts were straight out of the river shack she came from. I watched her as she toyed with the man, lau...
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Hurricane
John D. MacDonaldA hurricane of terrifying intensity is looming over Florida. Along a state highway, a handful of foolhardy souls trying to outrun the storm are forced to seek shelter in an abandon...
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Soft Touch
John D. MacDonaldJerry Jamison wants out: out of a sloppy marriage, a dull job and the empty suburban rat race. Once Jerry had a beautiful bride and a good salary at her old man's successful busine...
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Cry Hard, Cry Fast
John D. MacDonaldA gunman on the run, a seventeenyearold girl on a family vacation, a jaded working girl, a guiltstricken widower, an abandoned mistress. All heading fast down a route to sudden dea...
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The End of the Night
John D. MacDonaldThree men and a beautiful girl on a crosscountry terror spree a coast to coast rampage of stealing, kidnapping, rape and killing.Who were they? Where did they come from? Why did t...
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The Greatest Murder Mysteries of Mary Roberts Rinehart - 25 Titles in One Edition
Mary Roberts RinehartMusaicum Books presents to you a carefully created collection of Mary Roberts Rinehart's thriller novels and crime stories. This ebook has been designed and formatted to the hi...
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The Crossroads
John D. MacDonaldMore than half a century ago, Papa Drovek opened his small grocery store at the junction of two country roads. As he bought more and more land, the roads became highways, and now t...
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A Key to the Suite
John D. MacDonaldCorporate hatchetman Hubbard is on his way to an industry convention to carry out a termination a fancy way of saying he's about to toss a man and his family out in the street. Bu...
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One Monday We Killed Them All
John D. MacDonaldStep by step, Dwight McAran built a wall of vicious hate around himself. It was easy. He was a man who could slap one woman to death because she loved him, and hum a love song to a...
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Border Town Girl
John D. MacDonaldContains the two novellas Border Town Girl and Linda. Border Town GirlOnce, Lane Sanson had been a Somebody war correspondent and a bestselling author. Now he was a ...
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Works of Mary Roberts Rinehart
Mary Roberts RinehartThis collection was designed for optimal navigation on iPad and other electronic devices. It is indexed alphabetically, making it easier to access individual books. This collection...
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Mary Roberts Rinehart - The Man In Lower Ten
Mary Roberts Rinehart & Philip DossickThe first detective novel ever to appear on national bestseller lists, The Man In Lower Ten is still a delightful read decades after its publication written by Mary Roberts Rineh...
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On the Run
John D. MacDonaldSid Shanley couldn't stay in one place very long. He had to keep on the run, changing towns, changing jobs, changing women. He worked out the perfect setup no attachments, no trai...
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April Evil
John D. MacDonaldThe stage was set. Harry Mullin had hit town first. But he had just made the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list, and he was a little nervous about being seen. With him at the rented house ...
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No Deadly Drug
John D. MacDonaldIndicted by the state of New Jersey for the murder of retired Colonel William Farber. Dr Carl Coppolino had been having an affair with Farber's wife, Marjorie.Did he kill Marjorie'...
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More Good Old Stuff
John D. MacDonaldOffering indisputable evidence of the early talent that was to lead him to the top of the bestseller lists everywhere, these fourteen tales of crime and corruption, of sleuthing an...
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The Neon Jungle
John D. MacDonaldThe Varaki family run the local grocery store, but tragedy hits the family hard. The sudden death of the matriarch of the clan is followed by the favourite son's death in Korea. Th...
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The Greatest Murder Mysteries of Mary Roberts Rinehart - 25 Titles in One Edition
Mary Roberts Rineharteartnow presents to you a carefully created collection of Mary Roberts Rinehart's thriller novels and crime stories. This ebook has been designed and formatted to the highest d...