Publisher, Tantor Media (July 2002)

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Miss Cornelia Van Gorder has left her New York City home for a vacation in an isolated country mansion with her beautiful young niece, neurotic maid, pompous butler and a mysterious but genteel young man, only to find herself the victim of an elusive master criminal, The Bat.

The spirited and headstrong spinster is not easily fazed until one stormy night when she stumbles on a corpse. She musters all her nerves to play the vicious killer's deadly game and confront The Bat once and for all. The Bat, which draws from The Circular Staircase but adds some new plot complexities, namely the villainous Bat, shows Rinehart at the height of her career and is considered her greatest work.

About the Author: In her prime, American novelist and playwright Mary Robert Rinehart was more famous than Agatha Christie. Author of the phrase "The butler did it," she was best known for her mystery stories including The Circular Staircase, The Man of Lower Ten and the Tish stories, which combined murder, love, ingenuity and humor in a style that was uniquely her own. Several of her suspense novels were turned into Broadway successes, including The Bat (which was derived from The Circular Staircase).

Mary Roberts was born in Allegheny Pittsburgh in 1876 to a financially insecure family. Her father was an idealistic, impractical inventor who never made it. Mary found her creative respite in writing.

In 1896 Mary graduated from the Pittsburgh Training for Nurses and married Stanley Rinehart, a physician and started a family. Financial losses drove Mary to take up a writing career in 1903. Childhood memories such as the nearby state penitentiary, the one-armed policeman and a mute neighbor inspired her novels. Five years later, her first novel, The Circular Staircase, was an instant success.

The public also grew to know Mary through her magazine serials and essays that she wrote for the Saturday Evening Post. During World War I Mary served as a war correspondent and was one of the few that were allowed to report directly from the trenches. At the time of her death in 1958, her books had sold more than 10 million copies.

About the Performer: In addition to audiobook narration, Shelly Frasier has appeared in many independent film and theater projects in Arizona and southern California, and has developed character voices for animation projects and voiceover work for commercials. She trained at The Groundlings Improv School in Hollywood and South Coast Repertory's Professional Conservatory in Costa Mesa, California. She has performed at theaters throughout North Hollywood and Orange County. Recent performances include Blue Window, The Battle of Bull Run Always Makes Me Cry, The Haunting of Hill House, and a British farcical version of A Christmas Carol. She resides in Hollywood.