Mary E. Hanshew

Mary E. Hanshew is remembered mainly through the popular fiction she wrote with her husband, Thomas W. Hanshew. Project Gutenberg and other catalog records credit her on a number of detective novels, including The Riddle of the Frozen Flame, The Riddle of the Mysterious Light, The Riddle of the Purple Emperor, and The Riddle of the Spinning Wheel.

She is especially associated with the Hamilton Cleek stories, fast-moving mysteries featuring a master detective and a strong taste for theatrical twists. Thomas W. Hanshew's Wikipedia entry notes that some of his novels were co-authored with his wife, and modern editions and library listings continue to preserve Mary E. Hanshew's name alongside his.

Some biographical details about her are uncertain in modern reference sources. The SFE Encyclopedia of Science Fiction notes confusion over her identity and suggests that later family members may also have been involved in work published under the Hanshew name, so the safest picture is of a writer closely tied to a successful collaborative mystery-writing partnership rather than a fully documented solo public figure.