The Circular Staircase

by Mary Roberts Rinehart

Overview

A middle-aged spinster rents a country house for the summer and soon finds herself plunged into a nasty scenario of bank defaults, stolen securities and murder. An entertaining blend of intrigue, villainy and heart-pounding suspense for crime fiction buffs and lovers of great mystery classics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781609778941
Publisher:	Start Classics
Publication date:	04/25/2014
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	198
File size:	442 KB

About the Author

American author Mary Roberts Rinehart, also known as the American Agatha Christie, was born on August 12, 1876, and died on September 22, 1958. The Circular Staircase, Rinehart's debut mystery novel, introduced the "had I but known" narrative approach. Although the exact phrase does not occur in Rinehart's book The Door (1930), she is regarded as the creator of the "the butler did it" story device. As one of the first women to visit the front lines in Belgium during World War I, she also worked to share the tales and experiences of these troops. Mary Ella Roberts, who is now known as Rinehart, was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania's Allegheny City. Olive Louise, Mary's sister who is four years Mary's junior, went on to become well-known as a children's book author and nationally syndicated newspaper columnist. Her father was a frustrated inventor, and the family experienced frequent monetary issues throughout her youth. Mary was just 19 years old when her father committed suicide. She was trained to use her right hand because she was left-handed at a time when that was improper. Her autobiography, titled My Story, was first published in 1931 and then rewritten in 1948.

Editorial Reviews

It was with [The Circular Staircase] that Mary Roberts Rinehart really found her voice: the indefinable, unmistakable, individual cadence that can be copied but never quite satisfactorily matched.”

from her book Had She But Known Charlotte MacLeod

My dear Mrs. Rinehart, I have read The Circular Staircase not only with pleasure, but with thrills and shivers.”

Hewitt Howland