An elite, rich, and spunky older lady rents a country house for the summer along with her skittish Irish maid and her niece. Some servants sort of come with the property but most soon abandon their new matron due to happenings within this large mansion. A converging plot concerns the homeowner (a banker) who has recently died and whose bank has just coincidentally failed -- the suspicion falls upon a youthful bank clerk who is the heart-throb of the old lady's niece. The central plot revolves around a mysterious and effective murder/burglar dubbed by the frustrated police as The Bat and who has been operating in the vicinity of this country home. The subsequent happenings in the house are almost slapstick in nature, in the old lady's efforts in solving the mystery of both the infamous Bat's activities and the bank embezzlement.

Mary Roberts Rinehart was a prolific author often called the American Agatha Christie.
The Bat is considered a classic example of comedy-mystery. Many of its elements are now clichés such as a haunted house.
Originally The Bat was a highly successful 1920 play, later adapted to films and then this novel. Although the novel adaptation was credited to Rinehart and playwright Hopwood, it was actually ghostwritten by Stephen Vincent Benét.

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• Mystery, Thriller & SuspenseMysteryHistorical
• Mystery, Thriller & SuspenseCrime Fiction

• Publication Date: April 14, 2023
• Text-to-Speech: Disabled
• Lending: Disabled
• Print Length: 244 Pages
• File Size: 18 KB