Mignon G. Eberhart

Mignon Good Eberhart (July 6, 1899 – October 8, 1996) was an American author of mystery novels. She had one of the longest careers (from the 1920s to the 1980s) among major American mystery writers.

Early life Eberhart was born Mignonette Good As a teenager, Good often wrote short stories and novels to occupy herself. In 1923, she married Alanson Clyde Eberhart, and began writing short stories to combat boredom. Within several years, she had begun writing novels. She also collaborated with Robert Wallsten to adapt her novel Fair Warning into the play, Eight O'Clock Tuesday, which played first at the Cleveland Playhouse in Ohio in 1939–40, and then on Broadway in 1941, starring Celeste Holm.

Sarah Keate, though popular as the protagonist of Eberhart's first five novels, proved to be the author's only series sleuth, making only a couple of appearances after the early 1930s. Instead, Eberhart wrote mostly "standalone" mysteries, something fairly unusual for a crime writer with such a large output.

Eberhart was one of the more prolific of the practitioners of the classic romantic suspense novel that had begun with some of the earliest work of Anna Katharine Green and was brought to its height by Mary Roberts Rinehart in the early 20th century.

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.

Cover of the pulp magazine Mystery (January 1934) This issue featured the story "Murder on the Wall" by Mignon G. Eberhart. [Public domain].

Style and reception Eberhart's works often featured female protagonists, and tended to include exotic locations, wealthy characters, and suspense and romance.

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.

Personal life The normally prolific Eberhart wrote relatively few books in the 1940s, possibly due to upheaval in her personal life. After 20 years of marriage, she divorced Alanson Eberhart, and in 1946 married John Hazen Perry. But within two years, she had divorced Perry and remarried Eberhart. The Eberharts remained married until his death in 1974.

Eberhart died Greenwich, Connecticut in 1996. She is buried in Long Island National Cemetery, a Veterans Administration burial site, beside husband Alanson, who had served as a Navy lieutenant commander in World War II.

Novels Sarah Keate series The Patient in Room 18 (1929) filmed in 1938 While the Patient Slept (1930) filmed in 1935 The Mystery of Hunting's End (1930) filmed in 1938 From This Dark Stairway (1931) filmed in 1938 Murder by an Aristocrat (1932) aka Murder of My Patient filmed in 1936 Wolf in Man's Clothing (1942) Man Missing (1954)

Standalone novels The White Cockatoo (1933) filmed in 1935 The Dark Garden (1933) aka Death in the Fog The House on the Roof (1935) Fair Warning (1936) Danger in the Dark (1937) aka Hand in Glove The Pattern (1937) The Glass Slipper (1938) Hasty Wedding (1938) The Chiffon Scarf (1939) Brief Return (1939) The Hangman's Whip (1940) Speak No Evil (1941) With This Ring (1941) Fourth Mystery Book (1942) The Man Next Door (1943) Unidentified Woman (1943) Escape the Night (1944) Wings of Fear (1945) Five Passengers from Lisbon (1946) The White Dress (1946) Another Woman's House (1947) House of Storm (1949) Hunt With the Hounds (1950) Never Look Back (1951) Dead Men's Plans (1952) The Unknown Quantity (1953) Postmark Murder (1955) Another Man's Murder (1957) Melora (1959) aka The Promise of Murder (1961, 1966) Jury of One (1960) The Cup, the Blade or the Gun (1961) aka The Crime at Honotassa Enemy in the House (1962) Run Scared (1963) Call After Midnight (1964) R.S.V.P. Murder (1965) Witness at Large (1966) Woman on the Roof (1967) Message from Hong Kong (1969) El Rancho Rio (1970) Two Little Rich Girls (1971) Murder in Waiting (1973) Danger Money (1974) Nine O'Clock Tide (1975) Family Fortune (1976) Bayou Road (1979) Casa Madrone (1980) Family Affair (1981) Next of Kin (1982) The Patient in Cabin C (1983) Alpine Condo Crossfire (1984) A Fighting Chance (1986) Three Days for Emeralds (1988)

Short stories The Cases of Susan Dare (anthology, 1934) Deadly is the Diamond (anthology, 1958) Dead Yesterday and Other Stories (anthology, 2007)

Film adaptations