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The Circular Staircase

"The Circular Staircase" by Mary Roberts Rinehart is a mystery novel published in 1908. When Rachel Innes rents a country house for the summer with her niece and nephew, she encounters mysterious intruders, unexplained noises, and a murder at the bottom of the titular staircase. As bodies accumulate and secrets multiply, Rachel must untangle a web of hidden identities, missing money, and family betrayals. This pioneering work established the "had I but known" mystery formula and became Rinehart's first bestseller.

Level C1 pagesEnglish

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Categories: American Literature Novels

Readers: Adults Teens

Suggested age: 13+ (AI estimate)

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Reading guidance

Level C1

Language difficulty is an AI estimate based on sampled text.

Reader and content guidance is an AI estimate based on the title, author, source summary, contents and selected excerpts. Unseen portions have not been assessed.

Recommended age: 13+ (AI estimate)
Independent enjoyment requires maturity for a shooting, inquest, faked death, bank looting and blackmail, though violence is not graphic; younger readers may follow the story with adult support. Based on named-book metadata and selected excerpts; unseen text was not assessed. This is guidance, not an official age rating; individual reading ability varies.

Source: Project Gutenberg · Public domain in the USA.

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