In these three novels of romantic suspense, the Edgar Award winner proves once again that she “can weave an almost flawless mystery” (The New Yorker).
In a prolific career that spanned seven decades, Mignon G. Eberhart made a name for herself as “America’s Agatha Christie.” Praised by fellow writers ranging from Gertrude Stein, who called her “one of the best mystifiers in America,” to Mary Higgins Clark, who hailed her as “one of America’s favorite writers,” Eberhart penned classic mystery novels of romantic suspense, usually with female leads and often set in exotic locales. The three novels collected here—written in 1949, 1955, and 1964—offer further evidence that “Eberhart’s name on mysteries is like sterling on silver” (Miami News).
House of Storm: On a Caribbean island in the path of a hurricane, Nonie is torn between the older man she’s engaged to and the man she’s truly in love with—a suspected murderer.
“Mounting tension . . . one of [Eberhart’s] most successful glamour romances yet.” —The New York Times
Postmark Murder: Following the death of a wealthy Chicago businessman, his ward Laura March must protect her fellow heir—an orphaned girl from Poland—and clear herself of a murder after a mysterious stranger is stabbed.
“A nice example of [Eberhart’s] powers . . . Intelligently complicated.” —The New Yorker
Call After Midnight: A late-night phone call from Jenny Vleedam’s ex-husband revealing that his girlfriend has been shot places the divorcée in danger.
“Eberhart tells one of her better mystery-romances in Call After Midnight.” —The New York Times
Mignon G. Eberhart (1899-1996) wrote dozens of mystery novels over a nearly six decade-long career. Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, she began writing in high school, trading English essays to her fellow students in exchange for math homework. She attended Nebraska Wesleyan University, and in the 1920s began writing fiction in her spare time, publishing her first novel, The Patient in Room 18, in 1929. With the follow-up, While The Patient Slept (1931), she won a $5,000 Scotland Yard Prize, and by the end of the 1930’s was one of the most popular female mystery writers on the planet.
Before Agatha Christie ever published a Miss Marple novel, Eberhart was writing romantic crime fiction with female leads. Eight of her books, including While the Patient Slept and Hasty Wedding (1938) were adapted as films. Made a Mystery Writers of America grandmaster in 1971, Eberhart continued publishing roughly a book a year until the 1980s. Her final novel Three Days for Emeralds, was published in 1988.