Summary
Summary of The Thirteenth Chair
The Thirteenth Chair at a glance
Summary: 8 min to read
- Reading time
- About 1 h 50 min1 h 25 min fast, 2 h 10 min slow
- Length
- 25,800 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1917by Bayard Veiller
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
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Key ideas
Key idea 1
A celebration becomes a murder puzzle
Billy Crosby has just become engaged to Helen O'Neill, his mother's secretary, but Edward Wales refuses to congratulate them. Instead, he has brought a medium, Madame Rosalie la Grange, to discover who stabbed his friend Spencer Lee. A family celebration becomes the setting for an investigation.
Thirteen people gather in a dark circle, with the doors locked and Rosalie tied to her chair. Then a scream turns the search for one killer into a puzzle about a second victim.
Key idea 2
A friend interrupts the happiness
Helen worries that marrying Billy means stepping above her place as his mother's secretary.
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Key idea 3
Rosalie earns trust by exposing tricks
Rosalie meets the guests' suspicion with an unexpected demonstration.
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Key idea 4
The circle seems to exclude murder
Wales wants the séance to identify Spencer Lee's killer.
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Key idea 5
Donohue exposes the hidden plan
Inspector Donohue treats the room as a trap containing a guilty person.
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Key idea 6
Rosalie asks for time to act
The search finds no knife, although the weapon appears to remain inside the room.
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Key idea 7
Belief matters even without ghosts
Rosalie stands between practiced deception and sincere uncertainty.
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Key idea 8
Loyalty can look like guilt
Rosalie gave up her daughter so Helen could become a lady.
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Key idea 9
The clues remain in plain view
The mystery gathers its force from a small set of vivid clues: thirteen chairs in a circle, a voice in the darkness, fingerprints on a teacup, and a mother fighting for her daughter.
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Who it’s for
You will love this play if you enjoy locked room puzzles, quick dialogue, clever detectives, and guests who each have something to hide. It suits anyone curious about séances and how a good mystery is built.
What this book is
What if a séance made to catch a killer ended with a second victim? That is the situation in The Thirteenth Chair, a three act mystery play by Bayard Veiller, set in one evening in one room of a rich family's New York house.
Billy Crosby has just become engaged to Helen O'Neill, his mother's secretary. Only the family friend Edward Wales refuses to congratulate them. He has brought a French medium, Madame Rosalie la Grange, to learn who stabbed his best friend, Spencer Lee. Thirteen people sit in a dark circle. The doors are locked and the medium is tied to her chair. Then comes a scream. You get a puzzle with every piece on view.
In this summary
- 1A celebration becomes a murder puzzleFree
- 2A friend interrupts the happiness
- 3Rosalie earns trust by exposing tricks
- 4The circle seems to exclude murder
- 5Donohue exposes the hidden plan
- 6Rosalie asks for time to act
- 7Belief matters even without ghosts
- 8Loyalty can look like guilt
- 9The clues remain in plain view
A happy engagement and a friend's warning
The play opens with a kiss. Billy Crosby and Helen O'Neill stand in the Italian Room of his parents' New York home, newly engaged and very much in love. Billy's mother, Alicia Crosby, walks in and teases them. She and her husband Roscoe have watched the romance all evening.
Only Helen is uneasy. She works as Mrs. Crosby's private secretary, and she fears she is marrying above her place. Mrs. Crosby waves this away. She was once a schoolteacher who married a clerk, and money has never been the point. Helen also hides a secret worry about her mother, whom she fears the Crosbys will find common.
Then Edward Wales walks in, a close friend of Roscoe for many years. He hears the news and goes silent. He will not congratulate the couple. He says he has good reasons, that he cannot explain until tomorrow, and that twenty four hours may spare everyone a great deal of unhappiness. Billy is furious and Helen is hurt.
The opening makes you care about a warm family, and it plants a question the play will not forget. Why would a loyal friend spoil a happy night?
A good mystery starts with a small unanswered question at a happy table.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
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Check yourself
Why does Wales bring Rosalie to the gathering?
Right. “He wants to learn who stabbed Spencer Lee in the back some weeks earlier.”Not quite. “He wants to learn who stabbed Spencer Lee in the back some weeks earlier.”
What does Donohue reveal about the séance?
Right. “Wales had worked with Donohue, and Rosalie had agreed to help stage the séance.”Not quite. “Wales had worked with Donohue, and Rosalie had agreed to help stage the séance.”
Why does Helen refuse to explain her visit to Lee's rooms?
Right. “She will not say why she visited a stranger's rooms, because she made a promise.”Not quite. “She will not say why she visited a stranger's rooms, because she made a promise.”
Go deeper: the whole of The Thirteenth Chair
About 1 h 50 min to read.Start freePaperback, hardcover and large print, printed for you at cost, are on their way.Email me when it is printed
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 25,800 words
- Reading timeAbout 1 h 50 min
Questions about The Thirteenth Chair
What is The Thirteenth Chair about?
It is a mystery play in three acts. At a New York dinner party, a medium holds a séance to find the killer of a man named Spencer Lee, and a guest is stabbed in the dark.
Who is Madame la Grange in The Thirteenth Chair?
Madame Rosalie la Grange is a French accented medium. She tells the guests that most of her work is trickery but that she has felt a real power at times, and her spirit guide is Laughing Eyes.
Why is it called The Thirteenth Chair?
The séance circle has thirteen chairs, and one guest warns Edward Wales that the thirteenth seat is unlucky. The number gives the play its title and a mood of foreboding.
Is The Thirteenth Chair based on a true story?
No, it is a work of fiction by the American playwright Bayard Veiller, written for the stage in the early twentieth century. It draws on the spiritualist fashion of its day.
Is The Thirteenth Chair easy to read?
Yes, in the sense that it is a play, so the story moves through quick dialogue. Short scenes, one room, and clear stage directions make the clues easy to follow.
Cite this edition
Veiller, Bayard. The Thirteenth Chair. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-thirteenth-chair.
Veiller, B. (2026). The thirteenth chair. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-thirteenth-chair (Original work published 1917)
Veiller, Bayard. The Thirteenth Chair. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-thirteenth-chair.
@book{veiller2026thirteenth,
author = {Veiller, Bayard},
title = {The Thirteenth Chair},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-thirteenth-chair},
note = {First published 1917}
}
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