Sight Unseen - Mary Roberts Rinehart

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Résumé :
Mary Roberts Rinehart (August 12, 1876 - September 22, 1958) was an American writer, often called the American Agatha Christie, although her first mystery novel was published 14 years before Christie's first novel in 1920. Rinehart is considered the source of the phrase The butler did it from her novel The Door (1930), although the novel does not use the exact phrase. Rinehart is also considered to have invented the Had-I-But-Known school of mystery writing, with the publication of The Circular Staircase (1908). (wikipedia.org) Mary Roberts graduated from the Pittsburgh Training School for Nurses in 1896. That same year she married physician Stanley M. Rinehart. She and her husband started a family, and she took up writing in 1903 as a result of difficulties created by financial losses. Her first story appeared in Munsey's Magazine in 1903. The Circular Staircase (1908), her first book and first mystery, was an immediate success, and the following year The Man in Lower Ten, which had been serialized earlier, reinforced her popular success. Thereafter she wrote steadily, averaging about a book a year. A long series of comic tales about the redoubtable Tish (Letitia Carberry) appeared as serials in the Saturday Evening Post over a number of years and as a series of novels beginning with The Amazing Adventures of Letitia Carberry (1911). Rinehart served as a war correspondent during World War I and later described her experiences in several books, notably Kings, Queens and Pawns (1915). She produced as well a number of romances and nine plays. Most of the plays were written in collaboration with Avery Hopwood; her greatest successes were Seven Days, produced in New York in 1909, and The Bat, derived from The Circular Staircase and produced in 1920. She remained best known, however, as a writer of mysteries, and the growing popularity of that genre after World War II led to frequent republication of her works. Her most memorable tales combined murder, love, ingenuity, and humour in a style that was distinctly her own. 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. (britannica.com)

Biographie:
Mary Roberts Rinehart (1876-1958) was one of America's most successful and influential mystery writers-often called the American Agatha Christie for her role in shaping the modern detective novel. A pioneering voice of the early twentieth century, Rinehart blended classic whodunit structure, psychological tension, and domestic suspense long before the genre had a name, earning her a devoted readership and a lasting place in literary history.A former nurse and journalist, Rinehart brought a keen eye for detail to her fiction. She understood how ordinary settings-mansions, seaside cottages, quiet small towns-could hide extraordinary secrets, and she used that tension to explore the private fears and hidden motives beneath the surface of everyday life. Her mysteries frequently feature strong female narrators, family secrets, and crimes rooted in emotional complexity rather than sensational shock, qualities that helped redefine what mystery fiction could achieve.The Door, published in 1930, stands among her most famous works and contains one of the era's most startling plot revelations. The novel highlights Rinehart's gift for combining traditional puzzle mechanics with a new kind of suspense anchored in psychology and character. In doing so, she helped lay the groundwork for the genre now known as domestic suspense-a legacy visible in the work of later writers from Patricia Highsmith to Ruth Rendell and modern bestsellers today.Celebrated in her lifetime and rediscovered by new generations of readers, Mary Roberts Rinehart remains essential reading in the Golden Age of Mystery, a writer whose innovation, atmosphere, and narrative daring continue to shape the genre nearly a century later....

Sommaire:
Mary Roberts Rinehart was an American writer born on August 12, 1876, in Allegheny, Pennsylvania. Often referred to as the American Agatha Christie, she is best known for her contributions to the mystery genre. Rinehart's first mystery novel, The Circular Staircase, published in 1908, introduced the had I but known narrative style, which became a hallmark of suspense writing. Over the course of her career, she became a prolific author, publishing a variety of works, including novels, plays, and short stories, many of which were centered around mystery and intrigue. Rinehart's works were widely popular during her lifetime, and she was a significant figure in the early development of the modern mystery novel. She married Dr. Stanley Rinehart in 1896, and the couple had four children: Stanley Jr., Alan, Frederick, and Elizabeth. Rinehart received numerous accolades for her work, including a Special Edgars Award for her contributions to the genre. She passed away on September 22, 1958, in New York City at the age of 82, leaving behind a lasting legacy in the world of mystery writing....