Had She But Known
by Charlotte MacLeod
Open Road Integrated Media

Biographies & Memoirs , Mystery & Thrillers

Pub Date 06 Dec 2016


I am reviewing a copy of Had She But Known Through Open Road Integrated Media and Netgalley:


Before Agatha Christie was America’s Mistress of Mystery.


Since her death in 1958, master storyteller. Mary Roberts Rineheart has often been compared to Agatha Christie. Although Rineheart was once a household name, today many have forgotten her. Mary amRoberts Rhineheart was the first one to tell readers “The butler did it.”

Mary Roberts Rhineheart was writing for publication long before Agatha Christie’s work ever saw the light of day. Rineheart also worked as a war correspondent as well as worked as a nurse and write a novel called The Bat which inspired Bob Kane’s creation of Batman.


Mary Roberts was born in Allegheny City Pittsburgh before it became part of Pittsburgh where she was raised by a close knit Presbyterian family. Mary Roberts was a girl of her time, dutiful, God fearing and loyal but she also had a rebellious spirit that would eventually lead her into a career as a renowned Mystery author.


I give Had She But Known five out of five stars!

My initial interest in this book is that I have read many of Mary Roberts Rineharts book, and I live near many of the setting of her life. I had no idea of all that this woman accomplished and wrote books. Her early life is fairly typical for a Pittsburgh family, but Mary keeps overcoming all the obstacles in her way. He goes to nursing school, marries and doctor and has 3 sons, facing down financial struggles and ill health along the way. And there's more, much more, but I just say WOW to all that this woman accomplished.
A very interesting and compelling read for a woman who deserves recognition as both a writer and inspirational figure.

I have read a lot of mysteries by Mary Roberts Rinehart and I have read a lot of mysteries by Charlotte MacLeod. Therefore, this book seemed like a logical choice. MacLeod writes in a chatty, easy to read style. Her fondness for MRR and for her books comes through clearly. I read this quickly and was thoroughly engaged throughout. MRR was a fascinating woman. I obviously knew she was a writer but I didn't know as much about the rest of her life. She was a mother, a wife, a nurse, a wartime correspondent, a columnist, a playwright, the list just goes on and on. She was a bestselling author and in many ways, a woman ahead of her time. She was opinionated and independent and I think she would have been a lot of fun to know.

I enjoyed this biography and think even someone who has never read MRR's books would enjoy it as well. The section on her time as a war correspondent was particularly fascinating. She wrote a book about that time that I will have to see if I can find.

Charlotte Macleod, writer of cosy mysteries, introduces us to one of the greats of the romantic suspense mystery, Mary Roberts Rinehart in Had She but Known. Ms. Rinehart stands with Agatha Christie as a blockbuster writer whose novels continue to be reissued to new generations of readers. However, she has not been much written about as an author or for her very interesting life. As a nurse and wife of a successful doctor she also reviewed hospital facilities on the battlefield in the First World War. She wrote successful plays and had a social life in Washington. I could not put this biography down,