"The Man in Lower 10" by Mary Roberts Rinehart

Lawrence Blakely is a young attorney in Washington, D.C., partners with his best friend from school and college and fellow lawyer. He is taking the train from Washington to Pittsburg, to bring the evidence for a forged documents case to a courtroom. The documents will convict the accused. 

As is the custom in the early 1900s, he reserves a space in the Pullman sleeper car, numbered Lower 10. But returning from a few drinks in the saloon car, Blakeley discovers someone else asleep in his assigned bed. The conductor switches the sleeping arrangements, and all appears well.

 

Except the man in the Lower 10 bunk is found dead, stabbed to death. Blakely’s own clothes and suitcase, with the all-important fraud documents, are missing, and he’s left with someone else’s clothes. Just as his fellow travelers begin to accuse him of murder, there’s a wreck – another train has plowed into them. Blakely – now with a broken arm from the crash – is eventually awakened by a beautiful fellow traveler, and the two make their way from the train as their car is engulfed in flames. 

 

But there is still a murder victim, missing documents, and the mystery of what happened to Blakely’s clothes.

 

The Man in Lower 10 was one of the first mysteries published by American writer Mary Roberts Rinehart. It inaugurated a string of popular mystery stories that continued well into the 1930s. As in many of her stories, Rinehart combined mystery and romance in The Man in Lower 10, to the point where the novel is almost more romance than mystery. And Rinehart nicely complicates the romance, with having both law partners in love with the same woman. 

 

Rinehart (1876-1958) was a prolific writer of plays, mysteries, short story collections, non-fiction, and essays. A stock market crash in 1903 forced her to find income, and she began to write short stories. In 1907, her novel The Circular Staircase made her famous across the United States. The Bat first appeared as a play in 1920 and published as a novel in 1926. Several movie versions were filmed, included the 1959 movie starring Vincent Price and Agnes Morehead.

 

Related:

 

The Case of Jennie Brice by Mary Roberts Rinehart.

“The Case of Jennie Brice” by Mary Roberts Rinehart

My introduction to the mysteries of Mary Roberts Rinehart was via television. In the early to mid-1960s, one of the local television stations had a program of showing mystery and horror movies on Saturday night. One such show featured the 1959 movie “The Bat,” starring Agnes Moorehead and Vincent Price. 

Rinehart (1876-1958) was a prolific writer of plays, mysteries, short story collections, non-fiction, and essays. A stock market crash in 1903 forced her to find income, and she began to write short stories. In 1907, her novel The Circular Staircase made her famous across the United States. The Batfirst appeared as a play in 1920 and published as a novel in 1926. 

Born in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania (not part of Pittsburgh), Rinehart published The Case of Jennie Brice in 1913, which uses Allegheny City and Pittsburgh as its setting. Specifically, it is a flood (inspired by the actual river flooding of the area in 1907) that inspires the story. Reprinted many times over the years, the novel has now been republished by Midwest Classics Press. 

In the story, Mrs. Pitman operates a boardinghouse in Allegheny City, I a relatively poor, run-down area prone to river flooding. Her boarders include a couple, the Ladleys. Mr. Ladley is unemployed; Mrs. Ladley is an actress with the stage name of Jennie Brice. During the 1907 flood, Miss Brice disappears, and Mrs. Pitman is convinced her husband has killed her.

Mary Roberts Rinehart

Much of the story focuses on the investigation and eventual murder trial, and how significant details only gradually come to light. But the story is also about Mrs. Pitman herself, and how she had eloped years before, been disowned by her sister, and how she quietly follows (and helps) a niece.

The Case of Jennie Brice is very much a period mystery novel, but it has an urgency about it that makes it seem farm more contemporary. It’s an enjoyable story, providing a window on Pittsburgh (and its rivers) in the first decade of the 20^thcentury.

Top photograph: Downtown Pittsburgh during the Flood of 1907, via the Heniz History Center.