The Man in Lower Ten

The Man in Lower Ten Mary Roberts Rinehart - A case of mistaken identity ignites this clever mystery from America's queen of crime

A happy bachelor in Washington, DC, Lawrence "Lollie" Blakeley is just the right age to dance with the grown-up little sisters of the girls he used to know. He is without sentiment-so he claims-but is ruled and frequently routed by his elderly housekeeper. All he really wants is to relax with a round of golf and a trip out on the yacht.

But when his law partner asks him to deliver important legal documents to a client in Pittsburgh, Lollie finds his cheerful life tremendously disturbed. In the course of one overnight trip, he ends up in the wrong berth, falls in love, and is accused of murder.

The Man in Lower Ten was the first detective novel to appear on national bestseller lists and is just as deliciously thrilling today as when it was published more than a century ago.

Auteur
Mary Roberts Rinehart was a prolific author often called the American Agatha Christie. She is considered the source of the phrase "The butler did it", although she did not actually use the phrase herself, and also considered to have invented the "Had-I-But-Known" school of mystery writing.

Rinehart wrote hundreds of short stories, poems, travelogues and special articles. Many of her books and plays were adapted for movies, such as The Bat (1926), The Bat Whispers (1930), and The Bat (1959). While many of her books were best-sellers, critics were most appreciative of her murder mysteries.