A rare, lost to time story from the #1 New York Times-bestselling mystery author-and "the American Agatha Christie"-returns to print. Watson's Magazine originally published Mary Roberts Rinehart's The Doctor's Story as a serial in 1906. It was the early days of her long career as a prolific and popular mystery writer with numerous novels, plays, and short stories to her credit. But The Doctor's Story was never reprinted after its initial publication, not even in any of her short fiction collections. Now, mystery readers and scholars can read Rinehart's seminal tale, written the same year Watson's serialized The Man in the Lower Ten, which she later developed into a bestselling novel three years later. Set in the mountains of rural Maine, a surgeon named Carter finds himself far from civilization at St. John's estate, Laurelcrest, an imposing mansion of turrets, nestled against a forest. Within its walls is a dimly-lit maze of rooms and hallways presenting a haunting atmosphere where one could glimpse something spectral in the concealing shadows. Featuring a depth of characterization and a multifaceted plotline which the author brought to her best mysteries, The Doctor's Story is a long overdue and welcome release for both Mary Roberts Rinehart and cozy mystery fans. This edition includes a special introduction from Rinehart's grandson, Rick Rinehart.
Autorentext
Mary Roberts Rinehart (1876-1958) was one of the United States's most popular early mystery authors. Born in Pittsburgh to a clerk at a sewing machine agency, Rinehart trained as a nurse and married a doctor after her graduation from nursing school. She wrote fiction in her spare time until a stock market crash sent her and her young husband into debt, forcing her to lean on her writing to pay the bills. Her first two novels, The Circular Staircase (1908) and The Man in Lower Ten (1909), established her as a bright young talent, and it wasn't long before she was one of the nation's most popular mystery novelists.
Among her dozens of novels are The Amazing Adventures of Letitia Carberry (1911), which began a six-book series, and The Bat (originally published in 1920 as a play), which was among the inspirations for Bob Kane's Batman. Credited with inventing the phrase "The butler did it," Rinehart is often called an American Agatha Christie, even though she began writing much earlier than Christie, and was much more popular during her heyday.