The Man in Lower Ten (1909) by Mary Roberts Rinehart follows Lawrence Blakely, a young Pittsburgh attorney, who travels by train to Washington, D.C., carrying crucial legal papers. After retiring to lower berth ten, he wakes to find his documents stolen—and a dead body in the opposite berth, which soon mysteriously vanishes. Blakely becomes the prime suspect and, aided by Alison McBride, a beautiful woman traveling under a false identity, struggles to clear his name. Filled with mistaken identities, disguises, suspense, and unexpected romance, the novel is regarded as one of the earliest detective classics written by an American woman.
