R.S.V.P. Murder

by Mignon G. Eberhart

An unsolved murder... Five blackmail letters, any one of which might have revealed the guilty party...The frantic search for the diary of a flamboyant criminal lawyer, now dead... A New York blizzard which parayzes transportation and communication... These are the elements which make up one of the most complex and fascinating of Mignon G. Eberhart's many murder mysteries.

Genres: Mystery

357 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1965

About the author

Mignon Good (1899-1996) was born in Lincoln, Nebraska. She studied at Nebraska Wesleyan University from 1917 to 1920. In 1923 she married Alanson C. Eberhart, a civil engineer. After working as a freelance journalist, she decided to become a full-time writer. In 1929 her first crime novel was published featuring 'Sarah Keate', a nurse and 'Lance O'Leary', a police detective. This couple appeared in another four novels. In the Forties, she and her husband divorced. She married John Hazen Perry in 1946 but two years later she divorced him and remarried her first husband. Over the next forty years she wrote a novel nearly every year. In 1971 she won the Grand Master award from the Mystery Writers of America. She also wrote many short stories featuring banker/amateur sleuth James Wickwire (who could be considered a precursor to Emma Lathen's John Putnam Thatcher) and mystery writer/amateur sleuth Susan Dare.

Reviews

[Ralph · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second most dangerous secret is the one you don't know you know. The most dangerous secret is the one someone thinks you know, but don't...especially when that someone is a murderer. In R.S.V.P Murder, Mignon Eberhart deals with both kinds of secrets, and quite adroitly. When Fran Hillard's high-living father dies while they are in Europe, she discovers that in addition to a penurious estate the shady criminal attorney has left her nothing but trouble. Knowing he was about to die, he sent out five letters, thinly disguised attempts at blackmail, hinting at secrets held in his diary; all the recipients of those letters believe Fran knows those secrets, has the diary, and is complicit with her father, despite all her protestations. Eberhart writes this book with a first-person POV; while other writers often use such a POV gratuitously, and often to ill effect, it is integral to this story, as they reader must know the truths held by Fran, even though the other characters cannot. The author is an old hand at creating sympathetic characters caught in dangerous situations, but managed to portray her female protagonists in a way that does not very much jar the sensibilities of modern readers, rare among authoresses of her time and one of the reasons why all Eberhart's books still read very well after more than half a century.

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes referred to as America's Agatha Christie Mignon G Eberhart wrote this great mystery in 1965. Great plot and characters. Had me fooled

[Dogsandbooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good. Period piece with great atmosphere of aristocratic late 50s NYC. Twisty story although guessable ending ( I think my incorrect guess is a better ending). Definitely want to read more by this author. DPL book.

[Regine]

Well-crafted romantic suspense.

[Jack Heath]

Synopsis: Fran's father, a lawyer, has just died; he was blackmailing somebody and some think she is part of the story.

[Calum Reed · Rating 1 out of 5]

D: Has an interesting concept, but it's dreadfully written in the first-person and the protagonist is so utterly feeble that I grew tired of it very quickly. Underwhelming ending.