Although she is best remembered as a mystery writer, her works also
included romances, comic stories, plays, editorials and feature
articles.
Her stories usually involve hapless heroines put into terrifying situations. An example of a typical starting line to one of her books ("The Circular Staircase", published 1908) is: "This is the story of how a middle-aged spinster lost her mind".
Father: Thomas Beveridge Roberts; Mother: Cornelia Gilleland.
Owned a 'cottage' (really a mansion) on Eden Street in Bar Harbor, Maine. The house, known as Fairview, was one of many buildings destroyed in Bar Harbor's Great Fire of 1947.