The Meredith Mystery

A blind surgeon turns detective in The Meredith Mystery (1923) by Natalie Sumner Lincoln (1881-1935), the Washington journalist whose 1910s and 1920s whodunits were set among the capital’s political society. Published by D. Appleton and Company, the novel opens at Ten Acres, a colonial-era mansion within sight of Washington Cathedral, where Anne Meredith’s wealthy uncle has ordered her to marry Dr. David Curtis, a blind physician she barely knows, or lose her inheritance. When the old man is found murdered, the police fix on Anne, and Curtis, unwilling to accept the circumstantial case against the woman he has come to love, begins his own investigation. The book is a fair sample of the American mystery just before the golden-age puzzle took hold. Free PDF download available on BDeBooks.