author
Marion Harvey
A hard-to-pin-down mystery writer of the 1920s, this author blended legal know-how with a taste for locked-room puzzles and crime fiction. The books have an energetic, old-school suspense that still feels inviting today.
1 Audiobook
The Mystery of the Hidden Room
by Marion Harvey
About the author
Marion Harvey was an early 20th-century mystery novelist whose work includes The Mystery of the Hidden Room, The Vengeance of the Ivory Skull, The House of Seclusion, and The Arden Mystery. Available catalog and reference pages consistently place this writing career in the 1920s and 1930s, when Harvey published detective fiction and at least one stage thriller.
Some modern book-reference pages describe Harvey as a Brazilian-born American lawyer who practiced in Ohio before moving to Los Angeles, but biographical details are sparse and not easy to verify in depth. What does come through clearly is a strong feel for crime plotting: secretive houses, dangerous clues, and high-stakes investigations shape the books that survive in library and reprint catalogs.
Because the historical record appears thin, Harvey remains a somewhat elusive figure today. That air of mystery suits the work itself, which is exactly why readers of vintage detective fiction still find these novels appealing.