The After House

"The After House" by Mary Roberts Rinehart is a mystery novel penned in the early 20th century. The story revolves around the character Leslie, who finds himself on a yacht named Ella shortly after recovering from a serious illness. As the narrative unfolds, readers are drawn into a web of suspense surrounding the ship and its crew, highlighting both personal ambitions and darker human emotions, culminating in a series of tragic events. At the start of the novel, Leslie introduces himself as a newly graduated medical student who, after enduring a bout of typhoid fever, is drawn to the adventurous life at sea. With a background as a deck-steward and an ambition for adventure, he is introduced to the Ella, a transformed coasting-vessel now serving as a yacht. His time on board showcases not only his interactions with the crew, including the enigmatic Miss Lee, but also hints at a brewing conflict that suggests an ominous undercurrent aboard the ship. As tensions rise, occurrences hinting at mystery and danger begin to emerge, setting the stage for a suspenseful voyage that promises intrigue and peril in equal measure. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Mary Roberts Rinehart was an American writer, often called the American Agatha Christie. Rinehart published her first mystery novel The Circular Staircase in 1908, which introduced the "had I but known" narrative style. Rinehart is also considered the earliest known source of the phrase "the butler did it", in her novel The Door (1930), although the exact phrase does not appear in her work and the plot device had been used prior to that time. She also worked to tell the stories and experiences of front line soldiers during World War I, one of the first women to travel to the Belgian front lines.