Mary Roberts Rinehart

Mary Roberts Rinehart is an American mystery and thriller author popularly known as the source of ‘The butler did it’ phrase. She has written numerous short stories, articles, and poems, and most of her books have been adapted into movies, for instance, The Bat novel. Some of her books have been best sellers and received critics that praised her murder mystery stories.

The best place to start is the Miss Cornelia Van Gorder series, the earliest of Mary Roberts Rinehart's multi-book series: it opens with The Circular Staircase (1908) and runs to 3 books across 1908–1926, ending with The Bat (1926). Mary Roberts Rinehart's other series stand alone, so they can be read in any order.

Mary Roberts Rinehart has 69 books catalogued in this guide, published between 1908 and 2014. 14 of them belong to 3 named series — the largest being the Tish series with 6 books — and 55 are standalone titles, collections or anthologies.

Read each series in publication order — the numbered entries in each series follow the year each book first appeared. Mary Roberts Rinehart's series do not depend on one another, so they can be started in any order; by start date they are Miss Cornelia Van Gorder (1908–1926, 3 books), Tish (1911–2013, 6 books) and Hilda Adams (1914–1950, 5 books).

This guide splits Mary Roberts Rinehart's 69 books into 3 named series and 55 titles that stand alone or appear only in collections: Tish (6 books, 1911–2013); Hilda Adams (5 books, 1914–1950); Miss Cornelia Van Gorder (3 books, 1908–1926).