The Truce of God

By Mary Roberts Rinehart

According to Wikipedia: "Mary Roberts Rinehart (August 12, 1876-September 22, 1958) was a prolific author often called the American Agatha Christie.[1] She is considered the source of the phrase "The butler did it", although she did not actually use the phrase herself, and also considered to have invented the "Had-I-But-Known" school of mystery writing.... Rinehart wrote hundreds of short stories, poems, travelogues and special articles. Many of her books and plays, such as The Bat (1920) were adapted for movies, such as The Bat (1926), The Bat Whispers (1930), and The Bat (1959). While many of her books were best-sellers, critics were most appreciative of her murder mysteries. Rinehart, in The Circular Staircase (1908), is credited with inventing the "Had-I-But-Known" school of mystery writing. The Circular Staircase is a novel in which "a middle-aged spinster is persuaded by her niece and nephew to rent a country house for the summer. The house they choose belonged to a bank defaulter who had hidden stolen securities in the walls. The gentle, peace-loving trio is plunged into a series of crimes solved with the help of the aunt. This novel is credited with being the first in the "Had-I-But-Known" school."[3] The Had-I-But-Known mystery novel is one where the principal character (frequently female) does less than sensible things in connection with a crime which have the effect of prolonging the action of the novel. Ogden Nash parodied the school in his poem Don't Guess Let Me Tell You: "Sometimes the Had I But Known then what I know now I could have saved at least three lives by revealing to the Inspector the conversation I heard through that fortuitous hole in the floor." The phrase "The butler did it", which has become a cliché, came from Rinehart's novel The Door, in which the butler actually did do it, although that exact phrase does not actually appear in the work."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Seltzer Books
• Release date: Mar 1, 2018
• ISBN: 9781455332236

Mary Roberts Rinehart

Often referred to as the American Agatha Christie, Mary Roberts Rinehart was an American journalist and writer who is best known for the murder mystery The Circular Staircase—considered to have started the “Had-I-but-known” school of mystery writing—and the popular Tish mystery series. A prolific writer, Rinehart was originally educated as a nurse, but turned to writing as a source of income after the 1903 stock market crash. Although primarily a fiction writer, Rinehart served as the Saturday Evening Post’s correspondent for from the Belgian front during the First World War, and later published a series of travelogues and an autobiography. Roberts died in New York City in 1958.

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THE TRUCE OF GOD BY MARY ROBERT RINEHART

Published by Seltzer Books

established in 1974 as B&R Samizdat Express, now offering over 14,000  books

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Books by Mary Roberts Rinehart available from Seltzer Books:

Mysteries:

The Man in Lower Ten (1906)

The Circular Staircase (1908)

When A Man Marries (1910)

The Window at the White Cat (1910)

Where There's a Will (1912)

The Case of Jennie Brice (1913)

Street of Seven Stars (1914)

The After House (1914)

Locked Doors (1914)

K (1915)

Long Live the King! (1917)

The Amazing Interlude (1918)

Dangerous Days (1919)

Love Stories (1919)

Truce of God (1920)

Affinities and Other Stories (1920)

A Poor Wise Man (1920)

The Bat, with Avery Hopwood (1920)

The Confession (1921)

Sight Unseen (1921)

The Breaking Point (1922)

Non-Fiction:

Kings, Queens and Pawns: an American Woman at the Front (1915)

Through Glacier Park (1915)

Tenting To-Night : a chronicle of sport and adventure in Glacier park and the Cascade mountains (1918)

Isn't That Just Like a Man! (1920)

Young-Adult Novels:

Bab, a Sub-Deb (1916)

Tish (1916)

More Tish (1921)

Decorations by Harold Sichel

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 New York, George H. Doran Company, 1920

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CHAPTER 1

Now the day of the birth of our Lord dawned that year grey and dreary, and a Saturday. But, despite the weather, in the town at the foot of the hill there was rejoicing, as befitted so great a festival. The day before a fat steer had been driven to the public square and there dressed and trussed for the roasting. The light of morning falling on his carcass revealed around it great heaps of fruits and vegetables. For the year had been prosperous.

But the young overlord sulked in his castle at the cliff top, and bit his nails. From Thursday evening of each week to the morning of Monday, Mother Church had decreed peace, a Truce of God. Three full days out of each week his men-at-arms polished their weapons and grew fat. Three full days out of each week his grudge against his cousin, Philip of the Black Beard, must feed on itself.

His dark mood irritated the Bishop of Tours, who had come to speak of certain scandalous things which had come to his ears. Charles heard him through.

She took refuge with him, he said violently, when the Bishop had finished.