The Man in Lower Ten

Attorney Lawrence Blakeley must take bank notes from Washington, DC to Pittsburgh and take a statement from an official that they are forged. After theft and murder, Blakeley becomes a suspect when a weapon is found under his pillow.

Mary Roberts Rinehart (1876-1958), born in Allegheny City, Allegheny, was a graduate of Allegheny High School. She was a celebrated and prolific writer of more than 50 murder mysteries, 8 plays, and hundreds of stories and poems. While a nurse in Pittsburgh, she married Dr. Stanley Rinehart, but she started writing in 1903 to earn money after her husband's stock market loss. Her early success led her to purchase a mansion in Sewickley. Rinehart's stage play The Bat (1920) was adapted into film and inspired comic-book writer Bob Crane with his 1939 superhero Batman published by DC Comics. With her sons, Rinehart founded the New York publishing house of Rinehart & Company and served as its director. Rinehart died in New York City; she is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.