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A pioneer of the detective/mystery genre who began writing locked-room mystery novels a decade before Agatha Christie, Carolyn Wells was a turn-of-the-twentieth century celebrity who counted Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas Edison, and Mark Twain among her many famous friends and fans. Guest Rebecca Rego Barry, whose new book is The Vanishing of Carolyn Wells: Investigations Into a Forgotten Mystery Author, joins us to discuss Wells and her 1936 detective novel, Murder in the Bookshop. 

Discussed in this episode:

Arthur Conan Doyle

Anna Katharine Green

The Vanishing of Carolyn Wells: Investigations into a Forgotten Mystery Author by Rebecca Rego Barry

Agatha Christie

Fine Books and Collections magazine

Rare Books Uncovered: True Stories of Fantastic Finds in Unlikely Places by Rebecca Rego Barry

From Page to Place: American Literary Tourism and the Afterlives of American Authors

Lost Ladies of Lit Episode No. 114 On Elsie Robinson

Walden by Henry David Thoreau

Murder in the Bookshop by Carolyn Wells

Vicky Van by Carolyn Wells

The “Patty” books by Carolyn Wells

CrimeReads.com

Murder of the Unknown Woman

Lost Ladies of Lit Episode No. 112 on Rona Jaffe’s The Best of Everything

Main Street by Sinclair Lewis

Ptomaine Street by Caroline Wells

Lost Ladies of Lit Patreon page

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