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Learn moreA killer has an axe to grind in this classic whodunit from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Circular Staircase and mystery-writing pioneer.
Crescent Place was once a peaceful country green surrounded by five tasteful suburban houses and populated by polite, responsible citizens. But as the city enveloped it, the residents built a gate to keep the world out. With each passing year, the subdivision grew stranger and stranger—until it began to look like a time capsule of the 1890s. In these houses are a husband and wife who fight constantly, and another couple who hasn't spoken to each other in two decades. There is a widow in permanent mourning and a daughter whom the newspapers call psychotic. And there is a bedridden old woman who is about to be killed with an axe.
When her murder shatters the quiet of the little enclave, the tabloids delight in trumpeting the neighborhood's peculiarities. But as the search for the killer intensifies, the area's strangest secrets have yet to be revealed.
In her prime, American novelist and playwright Mary Roberts Rinehart was more famous than Agatha Christie. Originator of the phrase "The butler did it," she is best known for her mystery stories-including The Circular Staircase, The Man in Lower Ten, and Tish-which combine murder, love, ingenuity, and humor in a style that is uniquely her own. Several of her suspense novels were turned into Broadway successes, including The Bat (which was derived from The Circular Staircase). Mary Roberts was born in Allegheny Pittsburgh in 1876. In 1896 Mary graduated from the Pittsburgh Training School for Nurses, married physician Stanley Rinehart, and started a family. Financial losses drove Mary to take up a writing career in 1903. Childhood memories such as the nearby state penitentiary, the one-armed policeman, and a mute neighbor inspired her novels. Five years later, her first novel, The Circular Staircase, became an instant success. In addition to her novels, the public grew to know Mary through the magazine serials and essays that she wrote for the Saturday Evening Post. During World War I, Mary served as a war correspondent and was one of the few that were allowed to report directly from the trenches. At the time of her death in 1958, her books had sold more than 10 million copies.