MIGNON G. EBERHART and a crazy woman

Another vintage paperback from the cabin. This one was published in 1966. I never saved any of these to read, just for the covers. Since I don't believe there's a market for these old books, I'll probably eventually tear the covers off and throw the remains away to be recycled. But before doing that....

There's no information given about the illustrator. I really don't know what it has to do with the storyline since I haven't read the book. Of course I'm thinking of the Hitchcock thriller The Birds. Was this book in some way inspired by that film?

So who was Mignon G. Eberhart? Turns out she was rather famous and prolific.

First off the woman has been dead since 1996, but she has a Facebook page. It doesn't look like her books are being published anymore so if you choose to read something by her you'll have to look through used stacks. This book goes for 1 cent up to 20 cents on Amazon. Okay, there is one seller claiming to have a "brand new and has never been opened" copy and they're charging $58.28. So looking at my copy I'm guessing mine is in the 20 cent range. Looks good, probably only read by one person, some scuffing.

Personally I've never heard of this writer, but then she writes in a genre, romance mystery, I gave up on back in high school. I used to love reading Mary Stewart books and some Phyllis Whitney. Now I run the other direction preferring Sue Grafton or the good old hardboiled stories of Chandler and Cain.

Mignon Good Eberhart (July 6, 1899, Lincoln, Nebraska - October 8, 1996, Greenwich, Connecticut) was an American author of mystery novels. She had one of the longest careers among major American mystery writers.

Mignonette Good was born July 6, 1899, in Lincoln, Nebraska. As a teenager, Good often wrote short stories and novels to occupy herself. From 1917 to 1920 she attended Nebraska Wesleyan University but did not complete the coursework for a degree. In 1923 she married Allan Eberhart, and began writing short stories to combat boredom. Within several years she had begun writing novels, and in 1929 she published her first novel, The Patient in Room 18. Her third novel, The Mystery of Hunting's End received the $5000 Scotland Yard Prize in 1931. Four years later her alma-mater presented her with an honorary doctorate degree.

By the end of the 1930s, Eberhart had become the leading female crime novelist in the United States and was one of the highest paid female crime novelists in the world, next to Agatha Christie. Known as "America's Agatha Christie," she wrote a total of 59 novels, the last published in 1988, shortly before her 89th birthday. Eight of her novels were adapted as movies, beginning in 1935 with While the Patient Slept. The last adaptation, based on the book Hasty Wedding, was the movie Three's a Crowd released in 1945.

The normally prolific Eberhart delivered fewer books in the 1940s, possibly due to upheaval in her personal life. After twenty years of marriage, Eberhart divorced her husband and remarried in 1946 to John Hazen Perry. Within two years she had divorced her second husband and remarried Allan Eberhart.

Eberhart was one of the founders of the modern romantic suspense novel. In an unusual twist for the time, her mysteries featured female heroines. The year after her first novel was published, Agatha Christie followed her lead and introduced another female detective, Jane Marple.

Her works often featured female heroines, and tended to include exotic locations, wealthy characters, and suspense and romance. Her characterization is good, and her characters always have "genuine and believable motives for everything they do." Her "writing is spare but almost lyrical."

In 1971 she was awarded the Mystery Writers of America's Grand Master Award. Eberhart also served as president of the Mystery Writers of America. In 1994 she received the Agatha Award: Malice Domestic Award for Lifetime Achievement.

In 2007, a posthumous collection of her short stories, Dead Yesterday and Other Stories, was edited by Rick Cypert and Kirby McCauley, and published by Crippen & Landru. (SOURCE: Wikipedia)

The following is from the site girl-detective.net and pretty much convinced me that Eberhart books are probably not for me.

You have to be in the right mood to read Eberhart. Though plucky and well-bred, her heroines are some of the silliest in the mystery genre. The anonymous phone call bidding her hightail it down to the boathouse where murder has struck once before? She always answers on the first ring. Strange sounds in the attic of a house where murder walks the shadowy corridors? Sure, she's got five minutes to--er--kill; she'll just powder her nose and be right up. The smoking gun or bloody knife beside the still warm body? Never does the Eberhart heroine fail to pick it up and press her dainty little fingerprints all over it. Forget about the HIBK (Had I But Known) school, these chicks are at the top of the Why The Hell Would She class. They never have a decent alibi and they always have motive galore. (SOURCE: Girl Detective)

To see more about Mignon G. Eberhart:

Mignoneberhart.com where you'll also find a photo of the author

Mystery Net.com

Mockingbird Creighton where you can also read a "selection" from one of her books.

gadetection

The net has allowed me to add a little biographical information to this piece of ephemera that's been on a shelf for years. Never a priority item, but now not just a cover image. Hopefully, I've accomplished what I intend this blog to be for, which is to expose myself to something new by looking at something old.