The Man in Lower Ten
The Man in Lower Ten
By: Mary Roberts Rinehart
Considered the most important early American woman mystery writer, Rinehart is credited with perfecting the “had I but known” story line. This is her first published novel, a classic story involving a murdered man found in lower berth number ten of a Pullman sleeping car, a berth that the hero of this story was supposed to have occupied. Was the murdered man the intended victim or the narrator? And who among the three entirely different suspects was guilty of the crime?
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Mary Roberts Rinehart
Mary Roberts Rinehart, often called the American Agatha Christie, is considered one of the founding masters of the modern mystery story for using narrative point of view as a key element of how the mystery is perceived by the reader and eventually solved. She is credited with creating the phrase, “the butler did it” in her novel, The Door.
