Mary Roberts Rinehart

Mary Roberts Rinehart (1876 to 1958) was an American writer, often called the American Agatha Christie. Born Mary Ella Roberts in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, she trained as a nurse and began writing after her family lost its savings in 1903. Her first mystery novel, The Circular Staircase (1908), introduced the had-I-but-known narrative style and sold widely, and her regular contributions to The Saturday Evening Post helped shape American middle class taste. She is also considered the earliest known source of the phrase the butler did it, from her novel The Door (1930), and she was one of the first women to report from the Belgian front during the First World War.