Like a few others here I was drawn to this book by the title, I misunderstood the topic of the book and thought it would be more of a mystery. Instead the author presents us with a deep exploration of the life and works of author Carolyn Wells and a discussion about why she's not more well known despite being so accomplished. It's clear the author cares a lot about Carolyn Wells and her works and about making sure she isn't forgotten, however, for someone with no prior interest in Carolyn this book was quite uninteresting. I admit that was partly my own fault for requesting the title without fully reading the blurb, but once I realised my mistake I hoped it might at least be engaging enough to have me wanting to learn more about Carolyn. Unfortunately it wasn't and I stopped reading about halfway through. I think the author has written a clear and comprehensive account of Carolyn's life and works and anyone interested in the topic will find value in this book. Sadly it just wasn't for me.

The author of this book clearly is obsessed with Carolyn Wells. She feels compelled to bring attention to Ms. Wells, due to the fact that her legacy of having written multitudes of books in various genres, creating puzzles and crosswords and devoting her life to her creativity, has all but vanished in the history of women writers.

If you are as interested in Carolyn Wells, then you will love this book. I loved the title of the book and therefore was curious about this author, even though I had only heard her name in a vague way, and had never read a single word of hers. However, I found this book a real struggle to get through. It contained pages and pages of detailed lists of everything she had ever written, tried to get published, attempted to collect, sell and on and on. I muddled through these details, hoping for some treasured passages that would interest me. I happen to love mysteries and am a writer myself, but found this book very dull and boring.

There were some interesting parts about 3/4 of the way through, at least I thought so as I receive these sections, but I have entirely forgotten what they contained.

Thank you NetGalley.

As another reviewer mentioned, I completely misread the blurb on this book. As a result I was a bit confused by the book when I started reading it. So I'm afraid that I literally skim read most of it but on a positive note it was on a subject which itself was quite interesting. It appeared a bit academic with many footnotes. The author seems to know her subject and she writes well. I can't critically comment on the book but for anyone interested in the life and works of Carolyn Wells I imagine this to be highly enjoyable. Thanks to the publisher's and Netgalley for an ARC of The Vanishing of Carolyn Wells

A look at the life & prodigious literary output of Carolyn Wells (1862–1942). Born in Rahway, New Jersey, Wells wrote across a wide variety of genres including children's books, what would now be considered Young Adult books, & even murder mysteries. She was well known in literary circles, wrote lots of stories, poetry, & limericks for literary magazines & even had some short stories adapted for silent film. So how come so few people have heard of her today?

I am one of those who had never heard of Carolyn Wells before, so this lovely biography & discussion of her work was really interesting for the most part. I thought that the author writes well & obviously has a great interest in the subject, & the reader gets to see how they piece together the small clues from here, there, & everywhere to put together Carolyn's story. There were a few places where I speed-read my way through the lists of dates when the works were written but mostly it was an engaging read. In fact it inspired me to buy an ebook bundle of 17 of her mystery stories. 3.5 stars (rounded up)

My thanks to NetGalley & publisher, Post Hill Press, for the opportunity to read an ARC.

Okay, I am the worst at reading book blurbs and often go in blind--so this one's on me. I was expecting this to be a thriller/mystery, but it is a biography of author Carolyn Wells. Although this is not a book I would typically read, it was obviously very well researched, extremely through and beautifully written.

This book made me buy a collection of the works of Carolyn Well as I was fascinated by this story and was curious to read what this author wrote.
It's an intriguing story and can be read as a novel, a sort of whodunnit in the literary world.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

The Vanishing of Carolyn Wells by Rebecca Rego Barry is a vibrant, thoroughly-researched and beguiling look at the life of fabulous American author, Carolyn Wells. Though Wells wrote copious poems, stories for children and young adults and plays, she is best known for her locked-room mysteries, some of which were published before Agatha Christie and Anna Katherine Green arrived on the scene. As a rabid fan of all three ladies, I was happy to learn more about industrious Wells and her fascinating history, the one I knew the least about. This is the first biography written about her. My home library includes a few of her mysteries, happy to say.

Born in 1862, Wells was a literary genius, reading by the age of three and writing a handmade keepsake booklet at six. Intelligent and witty, she was brilliant at parodies and nonsensical wordplays and had many works published in magazines. She wrote 80+ mysteries and had films adapted. She rubbed shoulders with famous people and belonged to writing associations. Yet she is far less known than others. This book explores why.

What a joy to learn more about this clever writer and woman who was justifiably proud of her own rare book collection. Barry had the privilege of getting to know Wells' great niece and piecing together pieces of the puzzle. I appreciate the photographs and list of books Wells wrote included in this book. But most of all, this book appealed to my heart as I've often wondered about her story which turns out to be even more enticing than I had expected!

My sincere thank you to Post Hill Press and NetGalley for providing me with a digital copy of this engrossing book.

By far, the best parts of this book are the entertaining snippets of verse by Carolyn Wells. The worst parts are the snarky little footnotes. I wanted to learn about Carolyn Wells and the books she wrote at the turn of the century, not the author's Covid vaccine or her personal book collection. The focus seems mostly on Rebecca Rego Barry's journey to research Carolyn Wells.

The Vanishing of Carolyn Wells
by Rebecca Rego Barry
Pub Date 13 Feb 2024
Post Hill Press
Biographies & Memoirs| Nonfiction \(Adult\)


Netgalley and Post Hills Press sent me a copy of The Vanishing of Carolyn Wells to review:


The Vanishing of Carolyn Wells is the first biography of one of the "lost ladies" of detective fiction. She wrote more than 80 mysteries and hundreds of other things.


Carolyn Wells (1862-1942) wrote country house and locked-room mysteries for a decade before Agatha Christie. In the 1920s, when she was churning out three or more books annually, she was dubbed “about the biggest thing in mystery novels in the US.”During the 1920s, she was dubbed "about the biggest thing in mystery novels in the country."



In addition to that, Wells wrote a bunch of children's books and young adult novels, a bunch of great anthologies, and countless stories, prose, and poetry for magazines like Thrilling Detective, Life, The Saturday Evening Post, Harper's, and The New Yorker, among others. Over 180 books were written by Wells. There were some that got adapted into silent films and some that became bestsellers. Despite that, she's all but forgotten a century later. Why? How?



This investigation takes us on a journey to Rahway, New Jersey, where Wells was born and is buried; to New York City’s Upper West Side, where she spent her final twenty-five years; to the Library of Congress, where Carolyn’s world-class collection of rare books now resides; and to many other public and private collections where exciting discoveries unfolded.This investigation takes us on a journey to Rahway, New Jersey, where Wells was born and buried; to New York City's Upper West Side, where she spent her final twenty-five years; to the Library of Congress, where Carolyn's world-class collection of rare books now resides; and to many other public and private collections where amazing discoveries unfolded.



In part biography, part sleuthing narrative, The Vanishing of Carolyn Wells tells the story of a brilliant writer who was one of her generation's funniest and most talented women.


I give The Vanishing of Carolyn Wells five out of five stars!

The book should be required reading for everyone in school! Carolyn Wells is a 'forgotten' American writer who was a lauded peer to folks like Mark Twain, and Andrew Carnegie, but fell into obscurity following her death in 1942. Author Rebecca Barry beautifully writes about the amazing life of Carolyn Wells and her efforts to find information about .Wells. Barry provides terrific detail about Carolyn Wells but also maps out her research and inquires. The book is ideal for anyone who is interested in American writers and women's role in American history. Wells wrote poetry, mysteries, children's books, and articles for both academic and lurid magazines like True Detective Magazine. She was one of the first to write a biblio-mystery (mystery story that involves the world of books) with publication of 'Murder in the Bookshop'. However, like most women, her impact and history have been ignored. Kudos for Rebecca Barry - her research and writing are outstanding!

I had never heard of Carolyn Wells before so I was excited to read about her. It really brought Carolyn to life and made me wonder why she’s not talked about. Rebecca Rego Barry does a great job in writing this and leaving me wanting more books like this.

Although I was very interested in the subject matter, I didn’t care for the style of writing and the way the subject matter seemed to jump around. Maybe part of this was how it was formatted on my kindle but I had to stop reading.

Thank you to Post Hill Press and NetGalley for a digital ARC of this title in exchange for my honest review. I thought this looked like a good book on a subject I hadn't yet heard of. The author goes into detail about the life of Carolyn Wells. The author did a thorough job of researching the works of Ms. Wells.
It's sad that so many authors have been forgotten, especially since their words give us all a glimpse into the past. I was pleased to read this title that brings her back to life. I enjoyed this book.

This book is at the same time a biography and the story of the author's search for information about Wells. In the hands of a better writer, this could make for compelling reading, in this case, it's mostly frustrating I'd love to be learning more about the prolific but largely forgotten writer, but I'm not enamored of Barry's constant digressions about her search for information, the holes in what we know, and her complaints about marginalized people and genres.

Award winning author Rebecca Rego Barry details the steps she takes through her investigation into researching mystery writer/poet Carolyn Wells's life (1862 to 1942), particularly the magazines and publishing houses that published Wells's works. This is not a critic of Wells's works or a catalog of the writer's books and poems. Instead, Barry describes the individuals she interviewed, emailed, and met with to learn about Wells's family tree, the people and experiences that Wells encountered, and the material which the writer had published.

Barry's book is beneficial to those researchers who are looking for suggestions to go about conducting their own investigation into individuals that have slipped through the public's collective memory. Barry pulls Wells out of the memory hole where so many writers have fallen into, and have subsequently been forgotten. She ignites the reader's interest in finding Carolyn Wells's works, and checking out libraries and literary outlets that may have writings by Wells. Is Wells one of those exciting writers who needs to be exhumed? Barry invites the reader to find out.

To be very honest, I didn't do a good job reading the description of this book. As a mystery lover, I thought I was getting a mystery novel. NOPE. This is instead more of a manuscript; a biography; an undertaking to remember and remind history of an important female writer.

At first, I wasn't sure if I would be able to finish this book. It was very technical and centered around the literary Victorian and Modern periods (1890-1940)-- on subjects and time periods I know very little about. However, the author pulled me in quickly. How did Carolyn Wells vanish from history after such a monumental impact on the literary world?

A little over half way into the book, I knew I would finish it. I started feeling very attached to Carolyn. She worked really hard, say IDC to what was expected of women writers, and did it all on her own. She faced criticism stoically. She was a visionary, but more than that, she was a cultural icon.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. I feel compelled to pursue some antique bookstores on Carolyn's behalf, and who knows what I might find <3