Hailed as “The USA’s Agatha Christie,” Mignon G. Eberhart was one of the world’s most highly-paid female writers.
Born in Nebraska in 1899, the leading lady of US mystery novelists penned 59 gripping crime books during a career that began when she was a bored librarian in the 1920s and concluded when she was entering her 90th year.
Along the way she was garlanded with awards and critical praise. The following list of 9 Mignon G. Eberhart books provides a great introduction to the work of one of America’s pioneering women crime writers.
While the Patient Slept
Eberhart’s second novel (published in 1930) scooped the $5000 Scotland Yard Prize, confirming her as a force to be reckoned with on the mystery writing scene.
Like her first mystery (The Patient in Room 18), it features brave and resourceful Nurse Sarah Keate and her boyfriend, policeman Lance O’Leary. In this case, the red-haired Keate finds herself sent to tend to a mysterious old man in a gloomy mansion filled with weird servants and malevolent pets.
The sleuthing nurse would feature in seven mysteries in all, the only recurring character in Eberhart’s novels.
The House on the Roof
Another Eberhart mystery that shows her matchless ability to introduce lifelike characters and realistic police procedures into a creepily Gothic setting.
In this tale from 1935, the murder of an opera singer in a house located on the roof of a high-tone Chicago apartment building sees fellow tenant, Deborah Cavert battling to prove she is innocent of the crime.
The macabre, claustrophobic world of the apartment block is beautifully rendered, calling to mind Only Murders in the Building—if remade by Alfred Hitchcock.
Danger in the Dark
Star-crossed lovers Dennis and Daphne agree to meet out in an old springhouse on the eve of her wedding to another man. Unfortunately for them when they arrive at the agreed rendezvous they find her husband-to-be is already there.
Even more unfortunately, he’s been murdered. An attempt to dress the slaying up as a robbery gone wrong is badly bungled and, as the police close in, Dennis and Daphne struggle to unmask the real killer and avoid setting up house together on Death Row.
The Hangman's Whip
Eberhart is a master of scene setting and drawing the optimum tension from her cast of characters. She shows her skills to good effect in this 1940 novel.
Interlocking love triangles, a wealthy old lady who suspects someone is poisoning her with arsenic, a mysterious visitor, and a spurned wife found hanging from the rafters are key elements in a page-turning mystery that is as finely knitted as one of heroine Search Abbott’s cashmere sweaters.
With This Ring
There’s a nice whiff of both Daphne Du Maurier and James Lee Burke in this 1941 psychological crime mystery that sees penniless Sophronia hastily marry the wealthy Eric Chatonier.
Whisked away to live in his mansion in the Louisiana bayou close to New Orleans she gets a hostile welcome from his relatives who regard her as a grubby fortune hunter.
Soon afterwards one of her main accusers, a local judge, is found slain and the new bride finds herself in a situation that’s as murky as the local swamps.
Five Passengers From Lisbon
A classic “closed community” murder mystery set in the year following the end of World War Two. A group of passengers are fleeing war-ravaged Europe for South America aboard a Portuguese ocean liner.
All of them are seeking a new life and a chance to put the past behind them, but one of them is a murderer who will do anything to hide a dark secret.
When the Portuguese ship sinks, the passengers are picked up by a Red Cross vessel and the quest for the killer begins.
Hunt with the Hounds
Eberhart takes readers to the fox-hunting country of Virginia in this typically polished 1950 tale of love and murder. Passions run deep amongst the wealthy riding set of Bedford.
Jed Bailey is accused of killing his wife, Ernestine. When Bailey is acquitted, the local police turn their attention to the woman who provided his alibi, Sue Poore.
The confused relationship between the pair (Were they lovers, friends, or simply acquaintances?), lies at the heart of a satisfyingly complex mystery.
Postmark Murder
The discovery of Jonny, a young Polish girl in a Viennese orphanage upsets the plans of those who are due to inherit chunks of the immense estate of Chicago business titan, Conrad Stanley.
When Jonny travels to the US to claim her inheritance she is taken in by Stanley’s ward, Laura, who soon finds herself defending the child against a murderous plot and herself against the suspicions of the police.
A masterpiece of Eberhart’s unique style of cozy Gothic.
The Cases of Susan Dare
Eberhart was arguably the first mystery novelist to figure out that a person who invents murder plots might also be well suited to solving real ones.
To that end, she created her alter-ego, glamorous lady crime writer cum sleuth, Susan Dare.
Pre-dating Murder She Wrote by close to half a century, the Dare mysteries see the pretty, petite, and fearless writer and her sidekick, ace crime reporter Jim Byrne (will they end up together?
Well, that would be telling) solving a handful of convoluted crimes in a style that’s as witty, sharp, and fun as the title character. The only bad thing about the Susan Dare stories is that there aren’t more of them.
