Frances Noyes Hart

Frances Noyes Hart (1890–1943) was an American writer of mystery novels, short stories, and plays. Born in New York City, she studied at Barnard College and later worked as a journalist. Her most celebrated work, The Bellamy Trial (1929), is a pioneering courtroom drama that unfolds entirely through witness testimony and legal argument, influencing later writers such as Erle Stanley Gardner. The novel was adapted into a successful stage play and a 1929 film. Hart also wrote other mysteries, including The Crooked Lane (1934) and Hide in the Dark (1936), and contributed short stories to magazines like The Saturday Evening Post. Though her output was modest, her innovative narrative structure in The Bellamy Trial secured her a lasting place in the history of American detective fiction.