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1Circular Staircase

By Mary Roberts Rinehart

Mary Roberts Rinehart (1876-1958) was a prolific American writer of popular mysteries. <i>The Circular Staircase</i> was originally published in 1908 and includes all the elements of the classic whodunit – mysterious events, ghostly apparitions, things that go bump in the night and murder. (Summary by J. M. Smallheer)

2Case of Jennie Brice

By Mary Roberts Rinehart

The flood brings in not only the muddy waters but a series of suspicious clues that convinced Mrs. Pitman, a boarding house keeper, that a murder has been committed at her boarding house. Jennifer Ladley aka Jennie Brice is missing and with the help of Mr. Holcombe, a quirky gentleman with a passion for mysteries, they embark on a quest for the truth behind the disappearance of Jennie Brice. (summary by Wina Hathaway)

3Bat

By Stephen Vincent Benét, Avery Hopwood and Mary Roberts Rinehart

The novelization of the play of the same name that had an initial run of 867 shows on Broadway and has been performed all over the world and been made into three movies over a span from 1926 to 1959. An intricate mystery, with a wide cast of characters. (Summary by Alan Winterrowd)

4Confession

By Mary Roberts Rinehart

Mary Roberts Rinehart is claimed to have invented the "Had I but known" mystery genre. When Agnes Blakiston rented the old parsonage at Miss Emily's request she soon came to regret it. Was the house haunted? Did Miss Emily have a secret so terrible she would rather die than reveal it? To find the answers you will need to listen. (Summary by Annise)

Published in 1914, this novel tells the story of Harmony Wells, an innocent and beautiful American in Austria to study violin. Harmony has talent and she dreams of a career in music. After her friends run out of money and return to the States, Harmony stays on in hopes of earning enough money to continue her lessons. Along the way, she meets Peter Byrne, an American doctor in Vienna following his dream to study surgery. Peter is already watching over an orphan boy in a local hospital and now he takes it upon himself to protect young Harmony from the unsavory side of life in the big city. With life pressing in, Peter and Harmony each must decide how much to sacrifice for the sake of their dreams - and for each other. (Summary by MaryAnn)

Someone had to take the bank notes to Pittsburgh and take a statement from John Gilmore confirming that they were indeed forged. It was McKnight's turn to go, but he was bagging off because he wanted to spend the weekend visiting Alison West in Richmond. And so his law partner, Lawrence Blakeley, is left with no choice but to make the trip himself. All goes well at first, but on the train home, Blakeley wakes to find that the notes, along with his clothes, are missing from his sleeping berth. It was an eventful night. In addition to the theft, there's been a murder in the berth across, and when the weapon is found under Blakeley's pillow, he becomes one of the prime suspects. (Summary by MaryAnn)

When a clumsy, well-meaning lawyer gets involved with a pair of delightful old maids and a beautiful girl, he must acquire some of the skills of his friends the detective and the newspaperman to solve the puzzle of The White Cat. That’s the name of a back-street political club serving beers, political favors and, occasionally, murder. (Introduction by Robert Keiper)

8Amazing Interlude

By Mary Roberts Rinehart

It is the early days of The Great War. As the curtain rises, Sara Lee is sitting by the fire in her aunt and uncle’s home, knitting a baby afghan. Her beau’s name is Harvey. He has his eye on a little house that is just perfect for two and he will soon propose to Sara Lee. But in this play, the mise en scène is about to change. A fairyland transformation will take place and Sara Lee will step into a new and different story, where she is the princess in a forest of adventure. There is a prince, too, whose name is Henri. He is as strange as the forest itself. And then just as suddenly, the scene changes back and Sara Lee is once again sitting alone by the fire, knitting socks for the soldiers this time, and with a memory and a new stirring in her heart. This is the story of Sara Lee’s amazing interlude. (Summary by MaryAnn)

9Breaking Point

By Mary Roberts Rinehart

Mary Roberts Rinehart -- "America's Agatha Christie," as she used to be called -- set this story in a New York suburban town, shortly after the end of the first world war. Dick Livingstone is a young, successful doctor, who in the course of events becomes engaged to Elizabeth Wheeler. But there is a mystery about his past, and he thinks himself honor-bound to unravel it before giving himself to her in marriage. In particular, a shock of undetermined origin has wiped out his memory prior to roughly the last decade. Rinehart, who presumably had been reading, or reading about, the then popular Sigmund Freud, plays on what today is called "repressed memory," as she takes Dick into his past, and into the dangers that, unknown to him, lurk there. Is she correct about the behavior of memory? Who knows? After all, this is not a clinical treatise, but a work of fiction, one of the thrillers that made her such a popular writer of the earlier twentieth century.(Introduction by Nicholas Clifford)

This is about a three-hundred mile trip across the Rocky Mountains on horseback with Howard Eaton. It is about fishing, and cool nights around a camp-fire, and long days on the trail. It is about a party of all sorts, from everywhere, of men and women, old and young, experienced folk and novices, who had yielded to a desire to belong to the sportsmen of the road. And it is by way of being advice also. Your true convert must always preach. (Introduction by Mary Roberts Rinehart quoted from the text.)

11Dangerous Days

By Mary Roberts Rinehart

Dangerous Days opens in a still neutral America, though within a year the country will have joined the European alliance against the Central Powers in the first world war. Clayton Spencer, a successful industrialist and owner of a munitions plant, finds himself facing several problems: not only anarchism and German sabotage, but also the prospect of a deteriorating marriage, and of a son who all too often shares his mother's frivolous and essentially self-concerned point of view. How far will America's entry into the war change such views? What will it mean for Spencer, for his family, and for his business? (Summary by Nicholas Clifford)

12Through Glacier Park; Seeing America First With Howard Eaton (version 2)

By Mary Roberts Rinehart

This is the first of two travelogues published by Mary Roberts Rinehart (1876-1958). Both deal with Glacier National Park. (The other is entitled Tenting To-night, which also deals with the Cascade Mountains.). Rinehart wrote hundreds of short stories, poems, travelogues and articles, though she is most famous for her mystery stories. The region that became Glacier National Park was first inhabited by Native Americans and upon the arrival of European explorers, was dominated by the Blackfeet in the east and the Flathead in the western regions. Summary by wikipedia and david wales.

13Tenting To-Night; A Chronicle Of Sport And Adventure In Glacier Park And The Cascade Mountains

By Mary Roberts Rinehart

This is the second of two travelogues published by Mary Roberts Rinehart (1876-1958). Both deal with Glacier National Park, and this book also deals with the Cascade Mountains (The other is entitled Through Glacier Park). Rinehart wrote hundreds of short stories, poems, travelogues and articles, though she is most famous for her mystery stories. The region that became Glacier National Park was first inhabited by Native Americans and upon the arrival of European explorers, was dominated by the Blackfeet in the east and the Flathead in the western regions. - Summary by wikipedia and david wales

14Oh, Well, You Know How Women Are and Isn't That Just Like a Man!

By Irvin S. Cobb and Mary Roberts Rinehart

This warm, affectionate duet of essays by two of the early twentieth century's most popular writers is a bit dated but still entertaining. Summary by David Wales

15More Tish

By Mary Roberts Rinehart

Mary Roberts Rinehart wrote 6 books about the elderly Letitia (Tish) Carberry and the escapades she gets her elderly lady cronies into. The series led to a 1942 movie with Marjorie Main. This particular book, the third in the series, was written after Mary's stint as a war correspondent in Belgium during the first World War. Summary by ToddHW.</p> <b>More Tish stories</b><br> <a href="https://librivox.org/amazing-adventures-letitia-carberry-by-mary-roberts-rinehart/">The Amazing Adventures of Letitia Carbery</a><br> <a href="https://librivox.org/tish-by-mary-roberts-rinehart/">Tish: The Chronicle of Her Escapades and Excursions</a><br<

16Tish: The Chronicle of Her Escapades and Excursions

By Mary Roberts Rinehart

The story of three "middle aged ladies". Follow along as they have all sorts of adventures. - Summary by Sandra <br><br /> <b>More Tish stories</b><br> <a href="https://librivox.org/amazing-adventures-letitia-carberry-by-mary-roberts-rinehart/">The Amazing Adventures of Letitia Carbery</a><br> <a href="https://librivox.org/more-tish-by-mary-roberts-rinehart/">More Tish</a> <br /><br />Proof-listeners: IdaLee & Maria Kasper

17When a Man Marries

By Mary Roberts Rinehart

A divorced playboy hosts a dinner party complete with a stand in wife to placate his aunt who financially supports him. When his chef is hospitalized with smallpox symptoms, the fun begins. Throw in an ex-wife, a mystery, and a little romance and you have a comedy of side splitting proportions. - Summary by Sharon Kilmer

18Kings, Queens and Pawns: An American Woman at the Front

By Mary Roberts Rinehart

A personal account of the American author's visit to Europe in January 1915 while a war correspondent in Belgium for The Saturday Evening Post. She writes: "War is not two great armies meeting in a clash and frenzy of battle. It is much more than that. War is a boy carried on a stretcher, looking up at God's blue sky with bewildered eyes that are soon to close; war is a woman carrying a child that has been wounded by a shell; war is spirited horses tied in burning buildings and waiting for death; war is the flower of a race, torn, battered, hungry, bleeding, up to its knees in icy water; war is an old woman burning a candle before the Mater Dolorosa for the son she has given. For King and Country!" (Summary by MaryAnn and M.R.R.)

Letitia, Aggie and Lizzie are at it again, solving mysteries, getting into scrapes. Is there no end to the antics of these three spinster ladies? A murder at a hospital, reuniting lovers, a mangy dog or does it have fleas? The hilarious and often perilous adventures of Letitia Carberry. - Summary by Sandra<br> <b>More stories at LibriVox </b><br> <a href="https://librivox.org/tish-by-mary-roberts-rinehart/">Tish: The Chronicle of Her Escapades and Excursions</a> <br> <a href="https://librivox.org/more-tish-by-mary-roberts-rinehart/">More Tish</a>

20Cave On Thunder Cloud

By Mary Roberts Rinehart

Tish Carberry reluctantly takes her two best friends, Aggie and Lizzie, on a camping trip into the hills of their Midwestern American town, only to fall in with outlaws on the lam from a train robbery! Comic adventure ensues. - Summary by Matt Pierard

21K.

By Mary Roberts Rinehart

"K" is the initial of the mysterious lodger without a first name who rents a room from Sidney to escape his past. Sidney herself refuses the proposals of Joe in order to become a nurse and do useful work in the outside world. She is determined to work hard and not spend any time at all with the handsome young surgeon who runs the ward. She has no time in her life for romance, or for exploring the mystery of K's background. Or does she? (Summary by Beth Thomas)

22Poor Wise Man

By Mary Roberts Rinehart

Mary Roberts Rinehart offers a superb blend of romance and suspense amidst political tensions in this story set in early 20th Century America. The characters are compelling and representative of the various socioeconomic classes. The reader follows the complicated relationship of Lily Cardew (just returned from working with the Red Cross during the war) who finds herself unable to go back to the empty social life of the rich and William Wallace Cameron, an honest, fearless and patriotic pharmacy clerk during the turbulent times of an industrial town. - Summary by Celine Major

23Bat (Version 2 Dramatic Reading)

By Stephen Vincent Benét, Avery Hopwood and Mary Roberts Rinehart

A Mysterious killer—Man? Beast? Or devil?—spreading terror throughout a nation, flouting law and lawless alike … Curious GOINGS-ON in a house rented immediately upon the death of its owner … A WARNING to leave the house, underlined with threats of death … A SHADOW bearing one gleaming eye [ … ] Wouldn’t You Like to Know – What happens when the indomitable Miss Van Gorder refuses to be frightened from the house of murder? What nerve-shaking word is spelled out by the Ouija board? [ … ] Who is the stranger who arrives half dead? Who is the Bat?” ~ from the ad in the book. Originally published in 1926, Rinehart's entertaining mystery offers suspense and humor, and you will see evidence of that era's Asian xenophobia and Prohibition in the United States. (Summary by Lynette Caulkins)<br><br><b>Cast List</b><br><br>Narrator: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/13661">Lynette Caulkins</a> <br>Police Chief: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/13833">JT</a> <br>Millionaire: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/13852">Kelly Taylor</a> <br>Young Detective: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/13889">Johan Supertramp</a> <br>Underworld Voice: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/11790">TJ Burns</a> <br>City News Editor: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/6687">Kirk202</a> <br>News Editor Colleague: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/5796">Linette</a> <br>Detective Anderson: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/13706">Scott Caulkins</a> <br>Cornelia Van Gorder: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/11528">Ciufi Galeazzi</a> <br>Doctor Wells: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/9642">Chris Pyle</a> <br>Sally Ogden: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/10614">Leanne Yau</a> <br>Lizzie Allen: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/13807">Jennifer Pratt</a> <br>Dale Ogden: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/13781">Shelly</a> <br>Billy: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/6754">Todd</a> <br>Brooks: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/13780">Estelle</a> <br>Richard Fleming: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/12975">EJ Wiley</a> <br>Reginald Beresford: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/13830">Adam Bielka</a> <br>Unknown: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/3582">Tommy Hersant</a><br>

William A. Porter, professor of English, inherits a large seaside house from his Uncle Horace. He is not fully satisfied with the explanation of his uncle's death. He moves to the lodge for the following summer with his wife and niece, and rents out the main house. Mysterious and sinister things begin to happen at night in the neighborhood. Local superstitions center around a red lamp in the house which some believe exerts a baleful influence. The professor must try to find out what is going on without himself becoming the center of suspicion. (Summary by Zach Hoyt)

25Where There's a Will

By Mary Roberts Rinehart

Minnie Waters has been running the Hope Spring health resort for many years with her father, Doctor Waters, when he suddenly passes away. The ownership of Hope Springs hangs in the balance when the will states the Doctor’s good-for-nothing grandson will inherit the resort but unfortunately, he is nowhere to be found. Minnie must try to save the spa with the help of family, friends, and actors while adhering to the strict demands of the will. While this book is not a typical Mary Roberts Rinehart mystery story, it is full of comedy, shenanigans, intrigue, and deception that is sure to keep readers entertained and wondering what will happen next! - Summary by Jenn Broda

26Sight Unseen

By Mary Roberts Rinehart

A medium is brought to a neighborhood social club gathering as the evening's entertainment and describes someone who had been shot, and some of the surrounding circumstances. Later in the evening two of the attendees are called away to a nearby house where there has been a violent death which oddly mirrors what the medium described. They and later the Club as a whole decide to try to find out what really happened. This novella is both a mystery and a social comedy, like many of Mary Roberts Rinehart’s writings. (Summary by Zach Hoyt)

27After House

By Mary Roberts Rinehart

Ralph Leslie, a brand-new MD, realizes that a life of adventure holds more appeal than hospital rounds and daily clinics. Is it good luck, bad luck, or just fate that lands him as deck steward on the schooner Ella? Because once in open water, the booze flows too freely, old animosities resurface, and new ones form. And then someone starts behaving badly, so badly, in fact, that people are turning up dead. It becomes Leslie’s job to get the Ella, its crew and passengers, and the evidence back to port before the murderer strikes again. (Summary by Tom Penn)

28Love Stories

By Mary Roberts Rinehart

Ailing and Impatient Patients, Nurturing Nurses, and familial bond. A collection of Love affairs, young and old, deftly told by "America's foremost woman author" (New York Sew) that revolve around themes of romance and personal growth, with an emphasis on the complexities of love and human connections. 'Twenty Two' 'Jane' 'In the Pavilion' 'God's Fool' 'The Miracle' 'Are We Downhearted? No!' 'The Game' (Summary by Book Cover, Edmund Bloxam and Jessie Percival)