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Customer Reviews (5)

funny funny funny
Ok, Bab is a very lovable 17-year-oldwho can't seem to stay away from troubles and who just can't spell!!!!The story is hilarious and the characters are wonderful.You just can't beat Mary Rinehart.I love all her stories and this one is fit for both adults and teens.However, I think the misspelling is overdone a bit. This is a 17-year-old, not a 12-year-old!!Come on.Some of the words even an 8 year old would get them right!!

One more facet of Mary Roberts Rinehart's creativity
Since buying my Kindle 2, I have read many books I might never have read. Many years ago, I had discovered this author, but couldn't find very many books written by her, and had, more or less, forgotten her.

My husband is also an avid reader, so I limit my Kindle reading to books he is not likely to want to read, as I cannot think of giving up my Kindle long enough for him to read our favorite authors, whose books we most often buy from Amazon.

I loved this book! Reading about Bab reminds me of the "sub-deb" years of my own life, with the intense passing fancies, emotional roller-coasters, longings for true romance, moonlight and roses, and feelings of being totally misunderstood...particularly by my family. Bab, however, is somewhat more daring than I ever was...creating for herself the hilarious situations she finds herself in.

I, too, recommend this book for moms of teenage girls. We need to re-visit those years our daughters are now living, so that we don't just look at them from older, eyes and give them more reason to feel isolated and alone. Remembering might also save us some heartache and worry as we recall our own passage through those tempestuous years, and hope that they shall emerge from them intact and wiser.

Just fun
Ms. Rinehart seems to find a different line to follow with every book she writes. I was not expecting Bab to be what it is at all. First of all, it was the first Rinehart book I had ever read and I was beginning to think my Kindle was having a bad day or Ms. Rinehart was incapable of spelling anything. In actuality, I would say she is a very talented speller, besides being a very talented writer. Anyone who could mis-spell that many words and still be understood is a genius! Bab is a fun book to read. This young lady cannot seem to stay out of trouble no matter how much she tries. There is a mild mystery to her madness, but don't expect murder and mayhem.

Bab A Sub Deb is Great!
This is one of the funniest books I have ever read.It reads just like a teenager writing it which is a credit to the author, M Reinhart.

The scrapes and adventures Bab gets herself into and the long suffering she puts up with are too funny (because of course the rest of the world just doesn't understand the woes of being a sub-deb). Bab is only a sub- deb as in the 1920's, young women were debutants and had their coming out parties at age 18. Poor Bab is only 16 and desperately wants to be older..remember when we all felt that way?

Read it for yourself and if you have an adolescent daughter, pass it on!

Truly Hilarious
Bab is a melodramtic young lady with a habit of getting herself into hilarious scrapes as she attempt to deal with the indignity of not being allowed to be a debutante (deb) like her (slightly!) older sister.

This is one of the funniest books I have ever read.I still laugh out loud over Bab's sincere "lothing" of her enemies and her attempts to do good deed by helping others with their "speling."
... Read more

Product Description
Mary Roberts Rinehart's first two novels "The Circular Staircase" and "The Man in Lower Ten" inaugurate The Essential Rinehart Collection, a new book series destined to entertain readers for many years.

"The Circular Staircase" tells the story of how Miss Cornelia Van Gorder lost her mind, deserted her domestic gods in the city, took a furnished house for the summer out of town, and found herself involved in one of those mysterious crimes that keep newspapers and detectives happy and prosperous. "The Man in Lower Ten" is a legal thriller featuring a detective who builds up a network of clues that absolutely incriminate three entirely different people, only one of whom can be guilty.

These novels, which combine mystery and adventure, demonstrate Rinehart's tremendously vivid powers as a storyteller.Well-written and fast-paced, these mysteries will leave you eager to read the other volumes in this series. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Two classics from the American queen of the mystery genre.
For decades Mary Roberts Rinehart was the queen of mystery thrillers -- the American Agatha Christie. These are the first two mystery novels she wrote and they are genuine classics. Although The Man in Lower Ten was written first, The Circular Staircase was Rinehart's first published novel (The Man in Lower Ten was published second and The Swimming Pool was her last mystery novel). Rinehart's special gift was in the evocation of an unremitting atmosphere of unease and potential danger and it is under such an atmosphere of apprehension that she spun her classic stories. The Man in Lower Ten -- in which a man is murdered in his berth in a railroad Pullman car -- was so scary and so popular that for some time after its publication travellers refused to sleep in any Pullman berth numbered lower 10. Unfortunately, for many years the classic mystery novels of Mary Roberts Rinehart were dismissed by many as old fashioned. This may apply to superficial details -- such as gas lighting and railroad Pullman cars -- but it definitely is not true of the novels themselves which are timeless in their ability to hold the reader in a grip of mystery and suspense. The Circular Staircase is one of the finest mystery novels ever written and The Man in Lower Ten is fitting companion in this first book of the new Essential Rinehart Collection. If you love good mystery/suspense novels please do yourself a favor and get to know the classics by this master of the genre. ... Read more

Product Description
In one 608-page volume are four complete works of spine-tingling villainy, odious murder and sophisticated detection from America's first woman of mystery. Mystery aficionados will bask in brilliant twists and work alongside genteel detectives in The Circular Staircase, The Man in Lower Ten, The Window at the White Cat, and The Buckled Bag. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

"The Wall" That Made Me Read
Some say that Mary Roberts Rinehart is the American Agatha Christie.If I were an avid reader, I might concur, but alas, I am not even close to an avid reader of mystery or any other category of book. HOWEVER, this woman wrote a mystery that drew me in like a vacuum and then kept me interested enough until I had read the entire work. "The Wall" is the work of which I speak. When it was first in my hands, I was a young lad in my teens. I aged, gathered wisdom until they gave me a title, saw the world, worked, partied, married, had sons who then made sons, and then I rested. Through all of that, I made sure to accomplish something that I have bragged about many times. I never read a book, completely. Even when it was required that I do so, I made sure to stop short of reading book totally by stopping at the next to the last page, the next to the last paragraph, or at times skip and entire chapter if I thought it might be fluff and add nothing to the experience.In order to sustain my wretched reading reputation, I did not read the last page of "The Wall". It was simply the conclusion statement by the story's narrator in the form of opinion about events that lead to the mystery's demise.
I still can say that any book ever in my hands has never been read, stem to stern, word after word. "The Wall" by Marry Roberts Rinehart is the on and only book that holds the title of being the one volume that just about made a fool of me. Now, give all of this serious consideration when you think about this author and the one story of hersthat has a great secret power. Oh and by the way, I married a librarian but if you think that has made a reader of me, think again.NOT!

If anything, read these for the joy of Rinehart storytelling
I had never heard of Mary Roberts Rinehart until I picked up her novel Miss Pinkerton just by chance one day.This novel is not in this book, but it features one of her characters Nurse Hilda Adams who is a nurse hired by the police to observe people in houses under where there are mysterious occurences, and who is in the last book of this volume (The Buckled Bag- which is Hilda's first case).Miss Pinkerton is the nickname given to her by the Inspector Patton who is her sort of "boss" who assigns cases to her. I was surpised to find a delightful novel with interesting, witty, humorous dialogue, suspenseful and exciting moments, lovable characters, and good old-fashioned romance.So after that I looked for all the Rinehart novels I could find.I've read The Circular Staircase, The Man in Lower Ten, and four Miss Pinkerton cases, and I've loved them all.She does a pretty good job of confusing you and making you wonder who the murderer is or what's going on and the storytelling itself is super!Most of her stories are written in first person and the narrators are usually funny, witty, and sarcastic which makes reading Rinehart's books so fun.I recommend these novels to anyone who is a simple mystery lover who likes stuff like that.I admit that the solving of the mystery is not as twisted and shocking as an Agatha Christie revalation, but the way the story is told makes up for the lack of intrigue and twists that are expected in some mystery novels. So read these novels!One other point - some people say that Rinhart is considered a gothic mystery horror writer, whatever that means, but don't let that fool you.They're not like that at all.Yeah, there's murder and all that in most of her stories, and strange things that go on, and suspense, but I wouldn't say her novels are scary thrilling horror novels.Her novels were written in the early 1900s so they're not all bloody and gory like novels today.They've got dignity and proper stuff in them, so if you like books like that, you'll like these.No need for me to tell you what the mysteries are about since there are plenty of other reviews that explain that if you look around amazon.Basically all you need to know is that here characters and settings are usually about the rich or middle class in the United States in the early 1900s. I guess you could put in the same class as the type of story Agatha Christie would write.It's just the way the story is told that is not even comparable.But like I said if you're a simple mystery lover like me, you'll like them!So go for it! ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

A comedy of errors
I enjoyed this book and I'm coming to enjoy Mary Rinehart's style of writing. It's a shame she's been sort of forgotten nowadays when she was a best selling author way back at the beginning of the 20th century.

The story is a comedy of errors among the privileged class. Society gal Kit McNair tries to do her friend Jim a favor by posing as his wife so his aunt (who holds the purse strings) won't know he's divorced. A small dinner party at Jim's house quickly falls apart when the servants run for the hills after the butler is initially diagnosed with smallpox and the entire house is quarantined. Things are made even more difficult when Jim's actual ex-wife invades the scene and is forced to be cooped up with the now helpless group. (The men don't even know how to shave themselves!)

As they attempt to survive the week, and each other, to see if anyone will come down with the disease, there's a minor mystery of some missing jewelry. But we're not here for that, we're in it for the romance. For Jim, who's still in love with his ex, is trying to woo her back, making it look like he's cheating on Kit when he's really not since they're not married. Meanwhile, Kit is developing a soft spot for Tom, one of the other guests, but he thinks she's married to Jim and Tom is livid at Jim's blatant infidelity.

Add to the melee demanding Aunt Selina, who doesn't like Kit but expects her to fight for her man (which really _isn't_ her man), a group with cabin fever determined to break OUT of the house, a swarm of reporters and cops determined to keep them IN the house, and the struggle to figure out how to make an omelette and you have a pretty funny book with loveable characters and a quick pace. ... Read more

Product Description
For years, the five families on exclusive Crescent Place lived in peaceful seclusion. But that changed when old Mrs. Lancaster was found brutally murdered with an ax. Suddenly, motives and suspects are developing at a rapid pace, and when the killer strikes again--and again--Louisa Hall knows it's up to her to discover the clues that will develop a picture of murder. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

The best mystery I have ever read!
I have read The Album at least six times and it still gives me goosebumps.This book was Rinehart at her best.If you want a good read and a good scare, this is the book for you but don;t read it alone at night.Trust me.

The ultimate mystery!
I have read The Album at least six times and it never ceases to scare the daylights out of me.It is by far the best mystery I have ever read.Mrs. Reinhart was the master of the "if only I had known" school of writing.If you haven't read this book, you should hunt until you find it.You won't be sorry.

Classic stuff from a great mystery writer
I've read all of Mary Roberts Rinehart's mysteries I could get my hands on (many are out of print).She's a good cross between the golden age mystery writers who could write, (Josephine Tey, Ngaio Marsh) and those who couldplot, (Agatha Christie, John Dickson Carr).Of the Rineharts I could find,The Album is my favorite.The setting is upper crusty, the delicatemanners of the characters blow up fairly regularly, the murder ispreposterously bloody and the romance that blooms in the middle of it allis so sweet you can almost smell the lavender rising from the page.It's aset piece from another age, which is the whole point, I guess.People haveservants!People have so much money that nobody works!The chauffeurlives over the garage and wears green livery!We should all live likethat, but the narrator gives it to you matter-of-factly, only going intothe vapors over the murder mystery, which is a good one.If you read toescape, go here.

Suspense and intrigue, with a glimpse into a bygone era
Mary Roberts Rinehart remains the reigning queen and creator of the "had-I-but-known" school of mystery."The Album" is typical of her writing and a well-plotted story.Told by a narrator,Louisa Hall, she recounts the drama as it unfolded for her.Rineheartgives almost all the clues needed to solve the mystery, but there is alwaysone fact kept from Louisa, and therefore from the reader."TheAlbum" is classic Rinehart, with a detailed plot and fully-developedcharacters.The heroine is a young, unmarried woman who, naturally,develops a strong love interest.She lives in an era of innocence and isactively involved in solving a mysterious string of murders in her wealthyneighborhood, while trying to ensure her own safety.Particularly ofinterest are the vivid descriptions of life among the affluent in a by-goneera. As a good, solid read and a record of times past, this mystery willsatisfy. ... Read more

Product Description
When Herbert Wynne is found dead, with a bullet in the forehead, the obvious explanation is murder. But how could it be when the only possible suspect is Herbert's frail Aunt Juliet? Posing as Juliet's private duty nurse, the Homicide Bureau's Hilda Adams develops grave suspicions. Why is the maid terrified of every dark corner? And if a mad killer is on the loose, who will be targeted as the next victim? Reissue. . ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Miss Pinkerton
Solid Mystery from Marey Roberts Rinehart. Miss Pinkerton is a nurse who is called in to look after old Mrs Mitchell after her desolute nephew commits suicide. Or is it suicide? The Inspector has his doubts, that's why he has called in Miss Pinkerton- to be his eyes and ears on the inside of the Mitchell mansion.
Miss Pinkerton is an interesting literary creation . She is the 'tip of the spear' as it were of the investigation. She is more than just the sidekick narrator to stand between the reader and the detective. She provides input of her own and solves the crime together with Inspector Patton- but she is also the heroine in potential danger, while the police are offstage.
A very enjoyable story from one of the earliest female mystery writers ... Read more

Product Description
Dazzling and devious Juliette was anything but popular with the upper class set she'd married in to. Her husband, Arthur, bought her off with a ruinously expensive divorce. But a few years later, Juliette turned up again--and days later she was dead. Almost everyone in the exclusive town had a motive for wanting Juliette dead. Now, it's up to skeptical Sheriff Russell Shand to pierce the wall of aristocratic silence, and find the ruthless killer. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A terrfic mystery by one of the greatest mystery writers.
For decades Mary Roberts Rinehart was the queen of mystery thrillers -- the American Agatha Christie. The Circular Staircase was her first published novel and The Swimming Pool was her last, and all of her mystery novels between these two -- including The Wall -- were outstanding. Rinehart's special gift was in the evocation of an underlying and unremitting atmosphere of unease, suspence, and potential danger and it is under such an atmosphere of apprehension that she spins her stories. For some time it has been fashionable to dismiss the novels of Mary Roberts Rinehart as old fashioned. This may apply to superficial details of her early novels -- such as gas light instead of electricity -- but it definitely is not true of the novels themselves which are timeless in their ability to hold the reader in a grip of mystery and suspense. The Wall is an excellent mystery novel. Like all of Rinehart's mysteries it is full of suspense and danger. As in any good mystery, clues are sprinkled throughout -- but they are never obvious -- and the ending is both logical and surprising. If you like mysteries, but haven't yet read any by this master of the genre, this is a good one to start with. If you read it, you'll probably get more of Rinehart's outstanding mystery novels. ... Read more

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This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

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Just as Lois Maynard is about to sell the family's summer home, her domineering and troubled older sister, Judith, returns and a mysterious murder disrupts the household. Reprint. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Life & death after the Crash
The Maynard family lost their fortune in the crash of 1929. Mr. Maynard fairly promptly shot himself. His wife kept up appearances by marrying daughter Judith to a multi-millionaire. When the story opens, the formidable Mrs. Maynard only survives an imposing oil painting.

We find ourselves at The Birches, the old Maynard country house in Westchester, still grand but thoroughly dilapidated. Twenty-eight-year-old Lois is living there with her older brother Phil. He's an underachieving lawyer; she's writing crime fiction and just getting by.

The oldest sister Ann is living in genteel poverty with a husband and children. Judith, the rich, famous, fast-living beauty of the family, is about to get a divorce.

Spoiled first by her mother, then by her husband, Judith is not a family favorite. When she decides to stay at The Birches, that's it for peace and quiet. She moves into the best room, and has her windows nailed shut and new bolts put on her door. She acts like a person in terror of her life.

Not long after, the dead body of a woman who looks rather like Judith is found floating in the pool.

This is only the beginning of a plot rich in murder, blackmail, concussions, gunshot wounds and a great variety of deceptions and misapprehensions. Lois does some amateur detecting that only succeeds in making her look suspicious. On the plus side, she gets romantically involved with the manly Irish policeman who finally solves the case.

Other interesting characters include a hen who's also in love with the policeman - and a teenage nephew who's thrilled to be in the thick of a murder case and won't go home.

This really is a fun read, with a nice vintage aura.

Mystery and romance without graphic sex and violence
Murder prys open family secrets as 30-something siblings
mix loyalty and frustration in the early 1950's. Add a
war-wounded policeman on the trail of his old boss's killer
and you have satisfying story I have read three times since
I was a teen (I am 65).

Wonderful Mystery
In this book a young woman named Lois Maynard lives with her brother and two maids in a once lovely summer home. She then helps her beautiful sister, Judith Maynard who is very depressed and locks herself in her room all the time. Judith divorced her husband and moved in with Lois and her brother. Lois meets a man named Terrence O'Brien and soon after they meet he buys Lois's cottage that is for sale near her home. After his arrival though, a woman is killed and found in Lois's swimming pool. As Judith got weak from lack of food an intruder comes to the summer home and causes mayhem. Lois and Terrence fall in love and work on figuring out the mystery themselves. It takes them courage, determanation, wits, and a couple of bullets to figure it out.
My favorite character is Lois Maynard because she seems, in the book, human. I also love the character because of her admiration for everyone. The author does a great job at explaining her thoughts and feelings, which makes you grow to love the characters.

Murder Mystery

the swimming pool
this book has been one of my all time favorites.it is an excellent story and mystery.i recommend this book; you will really enjoy it ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Terrific mystery from a master of the genre.
For decades Mary Roberts Rinehart was the queen of mystery thrillers -- the American Agatha Christie. Rinehart's special gift was in the evocation of an overlying and unremitting atmosphere of unease and potential danger and it is under such an atmosphere of apprehension that she spins her stories. The Window at the White Cat was the first Rinehart mystery I read (The Circular Staircase was her first published novel) and I liked it so much that I began to read virtually all of her mystery novels -- many of them more than once. The White Cat in the title is the name of a seedy political hangout in which a killing occurs and the story is a mixture of political shenanigans, romance -- and, above all -- mystery and suspense. The Window at the White Cat is a terrific mystery novel and a very good introduction to the mystery novels of a master of the genre. ... Read more

Product Description
Patricia Abbott's desperate need for a job brings her to the Wainwright mansion, where she soon discovers that she is no match for Tony Wainwright's magnetism or for his wife's hatred. Reprint." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Romance and Mystery
Mary Robert Rinehart's The Great Mistake is a good commbination of mystery and romance. Her books are fairly humerous and I recomend them.The Great Mistake is not one of my favorites (I perfer Rinehart's The CircularStaircase) but still a good book worth taking a look at. One of the thingsI like about Rinehart is her 1st person narrative style.I like to see thestory through a character's eyes. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Slick plotting, charming characters
I was surprised to find not one but three stories in this book - all of them quite good.

THE EPISODE OF THE WANDERING KNIFE squeezes multiple murders into a novella. My favorite character is Mother (Mrs. Shepard), a rich, brightly hennaed matron who wears low cut gowns at her parties and a chin strap at night. When her daughter-in-law is murdered, Mother hides the murder weapon (her son's hunting knife). Judy, her sensible daughter, sees the folly of this - but is no match for Mother.

As the title suggests, the knife gets hidden and stolen and re-hidden repeatedly. A mysterious young man named Tony seems to be investigating the crimes along with the cops. His romance with Judy is refreshingly unsentimental.

THE MAN WHO HID HIS BREAKFAST is another delight. This short story features loveable Inspector Brent, who's about to retire. His last case (the strangling of a wealthy society woman) will mean he either leaves in a blaze of glory - or with a reduced pension. With his sore feet, unshaven jaw and sweaty collar, Brent gets more and more rumpled as he pursues the killer.

THE SECRET is a Miss Pinkerton novella, featuring Rinehart's tough nurse-detective who's known for getting to the heart of domestic crimes. In this case she must try to figure out why a very normal, sweet young woman keeps trying to kill her mother.

The earliest copyright in this book is 1943, and the stories have an interesting wartime atmosphere. Rich and respectable people, for example, suffer from the shortage of gardeners and butlers! And the handsome young men are always going off to fight. Even Miss Pinkerton tries to enlist.

Rinehart is a vintage crime writer of the first order. I thoroughly enjoyed these stories.

MRR does it again!!!
I am a real Mary Roberts Rinehart fan.I'm 54 years old and when I was a kid -- around 10 or 11 -- I first discovered her.I've always enjoyed a good mystery and likeable characters and this author has never disappointed me.Ironically, MRR's mysteries (all of them) are almost historical in concept.Back before the depression, there were people who actually lived like this.Reading one of these stories is like reading a little bit of history.In this particular book there is a widowed mother (wealthy), a daughter, a brother, a daughter/sister-in-law, various servants and side characters.The book is told from the point of view of the daughter and starts off with a big party thrown by the mother for her society friends (including the mayor).The daughter-in-law is found murdered after the party and the husband/brother is immediately suspected.The mother finds the murder weapon, hides it, and gives it to the daughter who really believes her brother innocent and wants to protect him.The story is engaging, entertaining.I's been a while since I read this and for a minute I couldn't remember who-dunnit!!Not that it matters, because with MRR it's not (in my opinion) who was it who committed the crime, but the journey involved in getting there.And periodically I'll go back and re-read these books just for the fun of reliving them all over again. ... Read more

Product Description
This unique omnibus includes The Bat--probably Rinehart's most famous work--a classic tale of people trapped in an isolated country house while a storm rages and a serial killer is on the loose, The Haunted Lady, one of a series featuring Nurse Pinkerton, and The Yellow Room, a puzzler about murder and family secrets in a small town. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A Mystery worth reading!
I had never heard of Mary Roberts Rinehart until just recently.I was in the library looking for a good mystery to read and just happened to pick this one up.I'm so glad I did.I am very picky about what I read and this was just a good old fashioned mystery book.I don't care for books withgore, foul language and overt sex.Her stories had none of these.Just lots of twist, turns, murder, and plenty of mystery.(Normal and paranormal) There are not so many characters that you get lost or confused. Being that they were written in the early 1900's they describe a different type of people who lived a different type of life than the ones we do now. The stories in this book are a great escape and a throw back to a more gentle, respectful and slower time. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Vintage wartime mystery
It`s the middle of World War II. The setting is the Spencer family`s sumptuous summer house in Maine. Young Carol Spencer has gone ahead of her family to open it up for the season, with a cook and two maids. But nobody meets them at the station. When they finally get to the house, the housekeeper is missing, nothing is ready, and the phones have been pulled out.

On top of all this discomfiture, one of the maids finds a body in the linen closet!

Two parallel searches for the murderer are soon underway. Floyd, the self-important village chief of police, would enjoy pinning the crime on a member of the wealthy Spencer family. But Jerry Dane, recovering from a war wound in the neighborhood, intends to look deeper. Dane is a mystery man - handsome but unsociable, watched over by a another wounded soldier.

Dane is delighted to have a puzzle to unravel while he convalesces. But matters get complicated when he begins to fall in love with Carol Spencer.

The convoluted plot is a feast of cover-ups, accidents and misdirected suspicions. Just about everyone seems to carry a gun, and the guns go off rather easily. Everyone smokes incessantly, too. The rapid-fire dialog has flashes of humor.

I enjoyed the portrayal of upper-class civilian life during wartime: rich people suffering from the lack of servants, no porters at the train stations, grave shortages of gasoline and gardeners, complaints about rationing and thin cream.

Mary Roberts Rinehart has been called the American Agatha Christie. I find her less polished than Christie, and her characters more on the surface. But there's a dashing American quality to her writing that has its own unique appeal. The Yellow Room makes me want to read more of Rinehart. I'd definitely recommend it.

The greatest mystery book of all time!
That's what Agatha Christie had Hercule Poirot to state in one of her own great cozy murders, "The Clocks," (1963). I agree with Agatha, (and with Hercule).

Mary Roberts Rinehart was known for her complex plots and surprise endings ("Had I but known!") and this one is no exception. I also especially enjoy her mysteries because she almost always shifts the focus of the plot on to some edifice, usually a semi-spooky summer home, as the scene of her various cozy murders.

In this case, a young woman is murdered and found, partially burned, in the summer home of an aristocratic lady, (the latter being yet another chief feature of Rinehart's stories). At first, the prime suspect appears to be evident but as the story evolves, the reader sees that there are others who might want this mysterious lady out of the way.

Mary Roberts Rinehart lived from August 12, 1876 to September 22, 1958. She wrote "The Circular Staircase" in 1907, a spectacular mystery which launched her to national fame. That work sold over a million copies and is still a good seller today. "The Red Lamp" (1925) is another of her more compelling mysteries.

"The Yellow Room" was written in 1945 which conveniently allowed Rinehart to produce the most sympathetic of all prime suspects: a military flyer. This is one whodunnit which pretty much stumps even the most ardent of mystery readers in their efforts to anticipate the ending. It's my favorite of all time.

Highly recommended.

Old-fashioned Mystery and Romance
Mary Roberts Rinehart wrote some terrific mysteries dating back to the early 1900's. The Yellow Room, originally published in 1945, is one of her best. It is old-fashioned in a good way. This is a classic and very entertaining example of the mystery genre. There is a pretty young girl, a murder, suspects and intrigue involving the young woman's family and, of course, a dashing war hero in love with the heroine and only too willing to use every means at his disposal to get her out of the jam and solve the mystery. Rinehart creates a fun and exciting atmosphere for mystery lovers to enjoy, as well as a pretty good brain teaser.

Young Carol Spencer is a likable heroine trying to recover from the loss of her fiance in the South Pacific. She longs to keep busy and wants to make herself useful in the war effort. She has been forced to care for her mother, however, as her selfish sister Elinor is too busy in her society functions to help. When Carol leaves New York for Maine to open up their home there, she discovers many unsettling mysteries.

Lucy, the maid, is mising, and it is discovered that she is in the hospital with an injured leg. Someone chased her in the night and she fell down the stairs. Someone has been staying in the yellow room, even though no one was living in the Spencer's Maine home. Worse, there is a very dead young woman in the closet. When it is discovered that she came there asking for Carol, she becomes a suspect in the eyes of the local police.

Dane is the war hero staying next door while he recovers from a leg injury before going back to his men. His past is a bit of a mystery also, and his meddling in the case is unappreciated by the local police. Carol doesn't know who to trust, and when her brother, a war hero as well, arrives, the mystery becomes murkier.

Her snotty sister's car was seen the night of the murder, even though she was supposedly in New York. Was Carol's brother involved somehow? Who has been stealing her mother's fine china from the house? What was the dead girl's relationship to her brother and sister? Dane uses every man and instinct at his disposal to root out the killer and get to the bottom of things. Shots in the night and the mysterious actions of someone unknown, yet moving easily among her Maine neighbors, spell danger for Carol.

The mystery is old-fashioned and so is the romance. Dane loves Carol before there is even a kiss. He puts himself in harm's way even though his future is uncertain, not wanting to put Carol through a long wait, and perhaps break her heart once again. This is very much a mystery where you can sense WWII and the changes it made in young men. The mores of a bygone era are in the forefront in this enjoyable and atmospheric mystery from one of the greats in the genre. For those who enjoy their mysteries in this vein, The Yellow Room is a lot of fun.

nice read
I really enjoyed The Yellow Room.It was a bit slow at the beginning, but it is well worth the time.It is interesting to see another perspective on the second world war, since most of the books I have read have been by British authors.I will definitely read more of Mary Roberts Rinehart.

Old Fashion Murder Mystery
This is a great old fashion murder mystery, which is my favorite type.It was quick and enjoyable, I look forward to reading more by this author. ... Read more

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The book has no illustrations or index. Purchasers are entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subjects: Fiction / Classics; Fiction / Literary; Fiction / Mystery ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Five Stars for The Street of Seven Stars
This is the story of a young, female, musician (probably circa early 1900's) who is living in Europe. It is well written (as usual, for MRR), the plot is interesting, and the characters are engaging.Not a mystery, but one of my favorites.I recommend it! ... Read more