The Doctor

by Mary Roberts Rinehart, Victor Kalin (Illustrator)

Innocence began and ended with Katie Walters. She was a child-woman - young enough to want things her way and old enough to know just how to get them.

Dr. Chris Arden didn't know about Katie when he opened an office at the Walters house. But soon he learned she was to be only one of the many dangers destiny had planned...

Genres: Mystery

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1936

About the author

Mysteries of the well-known American writer Mary Roberts Rinehart include The Circular Staircase (1908) and The Door (1930).

People often called this prolific author the American version of Agatha Christie. She is considered the source of the phrase "The butler did it," though the exact phrase doesn't appear in her works, and she invented the "Had-I-But-Known" school of mystery writing.

Rinehart wrote hundreds of short stories, poems, travelogues, and special articles. Many of her books and plays were adapted for movies, such as The Bat (1926), The Bat Whispers (1930), and The Bat (1959). Critics most appreciated her murder mysteries.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Ro...

Reviews

[Gail · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mary Rinehart is a practitioner of the foreshadowing technique, and it makes her work very dated. The unremitting dreariness of the life of the hapless doctor was probably considered naturalism at the time this book was penned but now you just want to know why someone supposedly so capable let himself get trapped in the life he had.

[Sabina M · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book that'll change your view from a point to another. You'll love and hate the main character all over again. It was nice reading it!

[Melinda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very dreary depressing book.

[Marilyn Saul · Rating 2 out of 5]

Published in 1935, Mary Roberts Rinehart, known for her mysteries, instead offers a glimpse into the lives of the fabulously wealthy, the educated professionals, and the abysmally poor in a city in the eastern U.S. The characters, of which there are three main characters representing the groups noted, were not at all endearing. In essence, they were stereotypical and didn't stray from their author-assigned roles: (1) the daughter of a prominent industrialist who had never rubbed shoulders with those beneath her; (2) the arrogant yet conversely insipid male demanding that the other characters live as he deemed they should because he "knows better", all the while making mental excuses for their not paying attention to his wisdom; and 3) the impoverished young woman who only ever thought of herself and spent her life trying to obtain what the status, wealth, and riches of the industrialist's daughter, no matter who was broken or hurt by her actions.
Now, I understand this is a "period" piece, but my eyes hurt from rolling them every time any of the grown women were addressed as "my dear child".

[Renee]

The rare stinker from Rinehart. Rinehart's writing is of its time and can be slow paced, but this leaned so hard into the worst of what it meant to be a man of the time. Dr. Arden has no personality and is defined by trying to Do the Right Thing. He falls for a rich, young beauty but won't marry her because a man can't live off his wife's money (I doubt she'd have gotten a second look if she was poor and beautiful). He treats the city's poor while resenting his lack of material success. He looks after a widow and her daughter because he promised the dead husband he would but treats them like dirt. Any man with half a brain would have married the rich girl and used her money to build a practice. This guy's so stupid he never notices the widow constantly raids his drug cabinet. The daughter was the only character with even a shot at being a redeemable character (Rinehart was good at women making their way in the world). I made it halfway through the book when a turn happened in the daughter's life that I didn't like. So I took a glance at the last page and realized I would not be able to forgive myself if I wasted hours more on this book if that was how it ended.

[Stephen Fodor · Rating 4 out of 5]

It wasn't so much about Katie Walters, as so much about Chris Arden who is the Doctor, Katie Walters was the antagonist is this novel and she was far from innocent.

[StefanGG9770 · Rating 4 out of 5]

i liked it.It is very good

[Kathy O’Neal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Depressing but beautiful.