The spinster detective Rinehart creates in The Circular Staircase is clearly a forerunner of one of her most popular characters, the heroine of the longlived "Tish" series. Miss Letitia Carberry first appeared in a short story written in 1910 and then in more short stories and a series of books: The Amazing Adventures of Letitia Carberry (1911); Tish (1916); More Tish (1921); Tish Plays the Game (1926); The Book of Tish (1931); Tish Marches On (1937); and The Best of Tish (1955). The Saturday Evening Post printed every new "Tish" story for over thirty years. While exceptionally popular, these stories usually have very little to do with the solution of a mystery. Their interest lies in the comic character of Tish, a spinster of indeterminate age who travels about the United States and Europe, encountering any number of off-beat and sometimes improbable situations which her own blend of morality and silliness always sees her...