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Start giftingThe Bat
This audiobook uses AI narration.
We’re taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.
Learn moreAn older woman of the elite class has lots of money and abundant courage and determination. Miss Cornelia Van Gorder wants some adventure in her life, so she rents a large mansion to see what she can stir up. She moves in with her niece and an unpredictable Irish maid and is confronted by an embezzlement problem at the owner’s bank. But that’s just the beginning of troubles, because a murderous masked criminal known as the Bat is using the mansion as a hideout.
All this becomes more than a mere summer vacation for Miss Cornelia during a stormy night when she more or less stumbles across a corpse, an apparent victim of the deadly Bat. In addition, her niece’s boyfriend is considered a suspect in the bank embezzlement case.
This literary combination of events had actually begun as a play that evolved into novel form conceived by noted author Mary Roberts Rinehart. Her credentials for conceiving such a mystery with murderous mayhem resulted in her often being called “America’s Agatha Christie.”
Let’s listen now to a story that contains some comedy in addition to its dire circumstances.
Mary Roberts Rinehart (1876–1958), born in Pittsburgh, was a novelist and playwright best known for her mystery stories, which combined humor with ingenuity. The success of her novels The Circular Staircase and The Man in Lower Ten established her reputation as an important American mystery writer; at one time she was the highest paid writer in America. In addition to mysteries, she wrote comic tales, plays, romances, and travel books, some of which reflected her experiences as a correspondent during World War I. One critic called her autobiography, My Story, her finest book.
John Rayburn is a veteran of over sixty years in broadcasting. He served as a news/sports anchor and show host, and his TV newscast achieved the largest share of audience figures of any major-market TV newscast in the nation. John is a member of the Broadcast Pioneers Hall of Fame. He is well suited to bring fascinating stories to life concerning the people, places, and things that combine to present lively observations of our day-to-day lives.
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