The Man in Lower Ten

"The Man in Lower Ten" by Mary Roberts Rinehart is a detective novel written during the early 20th century. The story revolves around Lawrence Blakeley, an attorney who becomes embroiled in a complex murder mystery on a Pullman car traveling between Washington and Pittsburgh. As Blakeley navigates through a series of strange occurrences, a significant crime intersects with personal drama and suspense, steering his life in unexpected directions. The opening of the novel introduces Lawrence Blakeley, who is preparing for a trip to Pittsburgh while recounting a disquieting past incident involving "the man in lower ten" that has left him weary of circumstantial evidence. Blakeley’s travels commence with his friend McKnight handing him a bag of forged notes for safekeeping, all the while expressing a sense of foreboding about his journey. As he boards the train, he finds himself in a markedly uncomfortable situation with an occupying drunk in his berth, leading to further complications when he wakes up to discover a murder in lower ten. Through a blend of mystery and developing relationships—including a potential romantic interest—the opening sets the stage for Blakeley's tumultuous and unpredictable adventure ahead. (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.