The Hidden Assassins

by: Robert Wilson

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Mary Roberts Rinehart

Mary Roberts Rinehart (some spell it Rhinehart) was as famous as Agatha Christie in her day. Not only did her work give us the phrase 'The butler did it' but her more than fifty books changed the mystery novel genre forever. Mary Roberts Rinehart has also written hundreds of short stories, poems, travelogues and special articles - plus eight plays. Ms. Rinehart has the distinction of having three of her plays on Broadway simultaneously.

No longer with us, Mary Roberts Rinehart was born in Pittsburgh on August 12, 1876, to Thomas B. and Cornelia Roberts in a small house on Arch Street later renamed North Side. Pittsburgh was then called The City of Allegheny. She actually began her writing career in high school, receiving the fantastic sum of one dollar each for three short stories published in the local newspaper. She didn't go back to that auspicious beginning, however, until she was twenty-seven.

Ms. Rinehart's carefully plotted mysteries formed the basis for our modern writers, though she wrote other novels as well. Her first book was 'The Circular Staircase' published in 1908. It's still read and enjoyed after all these years!

Born left handed when that attribute was considered unladylike and undesirable, she eventually learned to write with her right hand, always using a pen and never the typewriter. Her earliest memories include being rowed past second story windows of Pittsburgh office buildings during the Johnstown flood.

Ms. Rinehart's books are now primarily in paperback, but are well worth the read. Mary Roberts Rinehart died on September 22, 1958, in New York City, where she had been living for some time. She was eighty-two.

Murder Mystery Reviews

Books by this author we have reviewed:

The Haunted Lady

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