The Bat - Hardcover

Rinehart, Mary Roberts

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1421820617 ISBN 13: 9781421820613

Publisher: 1st World Library - Literary Society, 2006

Synopsis

You've got to get him, boys - get him or bust! said a tired police chief, pounding a heavy fist on a table. The detectives he bellowed the words at looked at the floor. They had done their best and failed. Failure meant "resignation" for the police chief, return to the hated work of pounding the pavements for them - they knew it, and, knowing it, could summon no gesture of bravado to answer their chief's. Gunmen, thugs, hi-jackers, loft-robbers, murderers, they could get them all in time - but they could not get the man he wanted. "Get him - to hell with expense - I'll give you carte blanche - but get him!" said a haggard millionaire in the sedate inner offices of the best private detective firm in the country. The man on the other side of the desk, man hunter extraordinary, old servant of Government and State, sleuthhound without a peer, threw up his hands in a gesture of odd hopelessness. "It isn't the money, Mr. De Courcy - I'd give every cent I've made to get the man you want - but I can't promise you results - for the first time in my life." The conversation was ended.

About this title

About the Author:

Often referred to as the American Agatha Christie, Mary Roberts Rinehart was an American journalist and writer who is best known for the murder mystery The Circular Staircase considered to have started the Had-I-but-known school of mystery writing and the popular Tish mystery series. A prolific writer, Rinehart was originally educated as a nurse, but turned to writing as a source of income after the 1903 stock market crash. Although primarily a fiction writer, Rinehart served as the Saturday Evening Post s correspondent for from the Belgian front during the First World War, and later published a series of travelogues and an autobiography. Roberts died in New York City in 1958.

From Publishers Weekly:

Rinehart's 1920 mystery features a remote country house filled with suspects, a forbidden romance, a cache of hidden money and a mysterious killer known only as The Bat. But sadly, this novel does not adapt well to audio. Long, descriptive passages and repetitive conversations (particularly between wealthy spinster Cornelia Van Gorder, who insists there's no danger, and nervous maid Lizzie, who insists there is) can be skimmed over by the reading eye, but on audio they seem interminable, draining all suspense. Frasier is a competent but unremarkable narrator. She differentiates between male and female characters, but does not create distinctive voices. Her Irish accent for Lizzie is passable; her Japanese accent for butler Billy is laughable. This tale would probably work better as a radio play or audio theater, with a troupe of actors playing the parts. In that medium, a shrilling phone or a sudden scream would indeed startle the listener, and spooky music would create a more suspenseful atmosphere.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: 1st World Library - Literary Society
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1421820617
• ISBN 13: 9781421820613
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 264
• Editor: 1stworld Library