The Door

by Mary Roberts Rinehart

There’s been an awful murder at Elizabeth Bell’s otherwise quiet household in this classic mystery from the author of The Yellow Room.

Elizabeth Bell runs a quiet household, with no family and no more than the usual number of servants. She passes her time thinking about crime and working on her biography of a relative. When a young cousin comes to stay, life in the house becomes uncharacteristically lively. First, cousin Judy burns a hole in Miss Bell’s desk. Next, they spy a burglar on the staircase—a shadowy figure who vanishes without a trace. And finally, Sarah, the nurse, takes the dogs for a walk and never returns.

She is found savagely murdered, and she will not be the last to die. At first, Miss Bell stays calm, but when the police determine that the killer was one of her household, she begins to panic. If one of her servants is the killer, what is an old woman to do? 

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Classics, Cozy Mystery, Gothic, Mystery Thriller, Crime

340 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1930

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

[Lesle · Rating 3 out of 5]

What is the ultimate impulse which drives a person to kill? One can understand motives. One can understand violent passion. One can also understand fear, jealousy and revenge. Than we have murders of irregulars, drug addicts, mental deficients that their motives are distoted in their mind. Than there is the well hidden precautions of discoveries that might hide the real and perfect crimes.
This is the case of The Door.

Our List of Exhibits:
Four murders
Seemingly untied and information concealed
The plot was well hidden by false suspicion
A psychological preparation of evidence
A bit of a forger with a lust for money
Quick catlike feet and wickedly cunning

The Findings
In the end, the killer will never kill again.

A whodunit of an upper class home (where weird and frightening things take place) with a large number of servants and the characters involved left me wondering and intrigued by the cicumstances that keep one guessing to who the killer actually was. She has written it quite well to not be fair in the guessing game of this murder mystery.

[Cookie M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mary Roberts Rinehart.

You've heard her name. It conjures up images of your great-grandmother reading by the fire in a big cozy chair, following the clues in her mind, solving the mystery and finding who did what to whom.


She was actually a skilled mystery writer. Great-grandmother loved reading her for a reason.
"The Door" is now the third of her novels I have read, and I had no clue who did it. None. I couldn't even speculate. I had to read until the second to the last sentence to find out.

OMG! And, now, writing this review, I realize I just read the book which introduced a favorite trope to the murder mystery world for the first time ever!

This is a long one, and it drags, but it is worth it, because...

[Bev · Rating 2 out of 5]

First off....this review is chock full of spoilers. I can't really talk about the book the way I want to without spoiling it. So--if you don't want to know the solution, don't read past the synopsis until after you've given Mary Roberts Rinehart's The Door a read of your own.

Synopsis: Elizabeth Bell is an older woman with a houseful of servants and a niece staying with her. When the family nurse, Sarah Gittings, is brutally murdered and hidden down a brick sewer Miss Bell begins to wonder how well she knows the people around her. Because the police inspector makes it clear that it is no homicidal maniac or random burglar who has done this--evidence indicates that Sarah knew and trusted her murderer. And Sarah isn't the last to die. There is a cunning mind behind the deaths who wants nothing to disrupt his complicated plans--and doesn't mind seeing an innocent man sent to the electric chair if necessary.
*************************


Okay, for those of you still with me....This is one of the most disappointing books I've read by Rinehart. It is credited with being the source for the cliche "the butler did it," because--guess what--he did. I knew that was a very good possibility going in which is why I chose to read it (I needed a good butler story for my very own Vintage Mystery Challenge). But that's not what ruined the book for me. At almost 400 pages, it is, I believe, the longest book I've read by Rinehart. She manages to wrack up four murders and three murderous attacks along the way and not dredge up much of my interest on the journey. She takes a very long time to work her way to the solution--which, admittedly, is probably a surprise for anyone who doesn't have an inkling of the butler connection before reading.

My biggest complaint about the book is Miss Elizabeth Bell. She, apparently, is perfectly content to see servants, friends, and strangers all polished off one by one rather than allow the police to have ANY information or clues that she happens to stumble on. What should you do if you find a rug with kerosene on it after the murderer has killed someone and tried to burn up the body? Hide the rug and try to burn it up in the middle of the night. Find out that someone has behaved suspiciously with a glass after another person has died? Well, the last thing you want to do is tell the police--because heaven forbid that we make the widow upset knowing that her husband might have been murdered. Miss Bell is the most obstructive person in a detective novel (for no good reason) ever. She exasperates me. I stopped caring about whether we were going to find out if the butler really did do it and how he accomplished everything long before the mid-way point. Miss Bell keeps saying she doesn't know what came over her when she tries to hide something. I know what came over her--a case of the stupids, that's what came over her.

Miss Bell is also the narrator of the story and she tells it from memory. She spends way too much time foreshadowing events in very odd manner--it's not even quite the "Had I But Known" sort of thing (although there are bursts of that too). It's just annoying. For instance:

It seems strange to be writing all this....the light-hearted experiment to find if a pencil dropped from the third floor made the sound I had heard, and my own feeling that it did not; and the final discovery of the shattered pane in the rear French door of the drawing room, and our failure to see, lying on the step outside, that broken point of a penknife which Inspector Harrison was to find the next morning.

Some of the bits are more pointed and come near to spoiling the mystery for the reader. This is just not Rinehart at her best. The Bat does the older woman in the old house much better. The characterization is better, the dialogue is better and the action is better. I might reread The Bat at some point. I won't be rereading this one. Two stars--and I'm not sure about that.


First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks!

[Ivonne Rovira · Rating 4 out of 5]

A century after Mary Roberts Rinehart first put pen to paper, her novels remain as thrilling as ever. In The Door, set in Upstate New York in 1927, practical spinster Elizabeth Jane Bell sees her household troubled by the death of Sarah Gittings, a woman who had served as nurse to her family for 20 years. Who could have killed the unemotional Sarah? It turns out that it is someone with a very good handle on the household’s layout and routine. Soon Elizabeth’s family are all suspecting one another.

I was lucky enough to listen to The Door on Audible; Liza Ross did a fabulous job as narrator.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

4* The Circular Staircase
4* The Amazing Interlude
4* The Door
TR The Case of Jennie Brice
TR The Breaking Point
TR Through Glacier Park In 1915
TR The Man in Lower Ten (Miss Cornelia Van Gorder, #1)
TR The Bat (Miss Cornelia Van Gorder, #3)
TR When a Man Marries

[Carla Remy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad, good characters, but incredibly long. It was very popular when it came out in 1930.

[Jason Pierce · Rating 3 out of 5]

**Part of my Murder by Death project explained here where I try to determine whether or not a book is fair by giving the reader enough clues to solve the mystery himself before the big reveal. The reason for its inclusion is spelled out under the spoiler tag.**

And I'm super serious. Major spoiler here. I can't discuss this in relation to the Murder by Death project without telling you who the killer is, so don't click on the spoiler if you plan to read it and don't want to know the identity of the culprit.





The murderer in both The Door and Murder by Death is the butler which is why I chose this book for the project. This kind of ruined the book for me, but it allowed me to scrutinize the details of the story more closely to see if the story was fair. (Verdict at the end of this review.)

"The butler did it" is a tired trope which is usually used for comedic effect, hence its inclusion in the movie. Supposedly this book is the first one to use it, and it did so in all seriousness. However, an article written by S. S. Van Dine two years prior to the publication of The Door states that "a servant must not be chosen by the author as the culprit," probably because it had been done before in short stories. Anyway, Rinehart did not heed the dude's advice, and I think it worked out okay, but just okay. The butler's motive was spelled out, but it was kind of hard to believe.

As for the story, I think it was fine. It's a little long for a murder mystery, and the foreshadowing was kind of heavy. Rinehart certainly ain't no Agatha Christie, I don't care what anyone says. (She's been called that.) But, who is? Shit, the woman is tied with William Shakespeare for most book sales in history for fiction (between two and four billion. Yes, billion with a "b.") And considering Billy Shakes has 300 years on her, I'd be inclined to give her the top spot. Regardless, nobody else even comes close. Third place? Barbara Cartland (who?) with 500 million to one billion sales. When I started checking out mysteries a few years ago, I was already familiar with Agatha Christie and some of her characters and more famous novels, but I'd never heard of Mary Roberts Rinehart before I started looking for a "butler did it" book for this project. And comparing this to the two Christie novels I've read, I have to say Christie does it better. And that segues nicely into...

Is this fair?

No, I'm afraid not. Neither of Christie's books are "fair" by my standards either, but I confess a super-educated person could probably figure those out.


I bet these cats could do it.

The rest of us rubes? Nope.

But neither reader nor Jeopardy! champion has a chance with this one, and I was really looking. I couldn't find any clues that pointed to the culprit as I read other than some of his/her mannerisms, but everyone was having tense reactions to the news of the murders, so that wasn't anything unusual. There are a few red herrings, and plenty of indication that the people getting the blame didn't actually do anything, but no real clues as to who actually done it until it gets spelled out at the end. I think you could figure out the culprit in the third to last chapter after the inspector starts his story.

I will point out like I do with all of these Murder by Death reviews that I'm not the best at figuring these things out, so there could be some stuff I missed even though I was trying to pay attention. Read it for yourself and see if you can figure it out. It wasn't a bad book by any stretch, but it wasn't a great one either. I don't think anyone would feel cheated if they read it, unless, of course, he was trying to solve the mystery before the inspector spills the beans. Then they'd feel cheated. Luckily that's not a sticking point for me.

[M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is a testament to one of my favorite authors, Mary Roberts Rinehart, that I enjoyed this book immensely in spite of the fact that the Goodreads profile of this author completely and quite rudely spoils the entire thing...I happened to glance at that page one-third of the way through my reading of this book (thankfully, the kind librarians at Goodreads have since edited the page).

That bit of unpleasantness aside, this book was a great deal of fun. It is the story of an upper-class family whose lives become embroiled in a series of deaths, assaults and secrets that at first seem without rhyme or reason (it is refreshing, albeit a throwback to days gone by, that the family members are boldly unapologetic for being well off). The tale is narrated by Elizabeth Jane Bell, at whose home much of the mystery takes place. Like many of Rinehart's female leads, Elizabeth is respected, observant and decisive...until the last page, but who could blame her for that? That's a tease, of course, but they are abundant in the book, as it is set in the format of Elizabeth recounting events on a date long after they had concluded.

This was one of those books where I had to force myself to place the bookmark between the pages and close the cover for the night. I wanted to know what happened next and glean more clues as to the sinister motivations behind the chaos. It is an easy read, as Rinehart is a master at mental scenery and the mystery itself - just what is going on in this house? - keeps the reader captivated. Rinehart takes the time to flesh out her characters, allowing the reader to become familiar with them and invested in their drama. And in the end, yes, it all makes sense...especially the title.

[Tina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, I didn't see it coming. The killer was not at all who I thought it was. Published in 1930, The Door plods along from one murder to the next right under the narrator Elizabeth Jane Bell's nose. To say more would be to tell you too much about the actual events that leave several injured and four dead.

The author, Mary Roberts Rinehart, has been called the American Agatha Christie of her time. I don't know if I would agree about comparing her to the talented Agatha, but this is my first book by Rinehart. Quite frankly, I'm on the fence about what I really think about The Door. It is entirely too long and, at times, confusing. So, I'm going to give this novel a 3 star rating because I didn't dislike it. I did read it cover to cover and never guessed who the killer was. I'm going to try another one of Ms. Rinehart's novels at a later date.

[Ryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's been a long time since I've read a Mary Roberts Rinehart book, so I felt it was long over due. For the most part, it was simply that I had run out of "new" books at the used bookstore. Every time I went in, I would check for them, but ones I hadn't seen before stopped showing up. When I found The Door, I jumped for joy, went home and put the book away. It then languished on the shelves for almost a year, and while I would think about it, I would get busy with something else. The one time I did pick it up, it wasn't holding my attention so I put it away, and didn't pick it up again until another bazillion months had passed. I picked it up once again, not that long ago, and while it still wasn't holding my attention, I forced myself to persevere and get it done.

I'm really not sure why I didn't get into this one as much as I have most of her other books. The mystery itself was well plotted out, the characters were engaging, and the tension was thick enough that a power saw would have been needed to cut it in half. Elizabeth was a hoot to read, and I loved how involved she got into he whole thing, including the destroying of evidence, so I can't lay the blame at her feet. I'm kind of at a loss to explain why this one didn't do it for me. Maybe the pacing was a little slower than the previous books. Maybe the weighing sense of claustrophobia that I've enjoyed with some of her other works, wasn't as present in this one. Maybe I just didn't like the title and that fact it takes most of the book to understand where it came from. I don't know, I'm kinda of grasping at straws here.

And I don't want to leave you with the feeling I didn't like it, because by the time it was over, I did. It's not my favorite and I probably won't read it again, but it will stick around collecting dust for years to come. Much in the way I feel about Agatha Christie's work, I would still put this one up against most of the cozy, cookie cutter stuff being written today. I just wouldn't put it up against my favorite Rinehart books.

[Monica Blum · Rating 2 out of 5]

Horrible Ending

The plot is good. But the story line is chaotic and the pacing is goes from plodding to breakneck speed back to plodding. But all of that could be forgiven if the "pay off" was worth it. But it is as if the author had no idea how to end it so she suddenly through a "twist" in with no explanation or grounding.

[Kaylee · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really don't like this writing style. At all. It's also all tell and no show.

This was neither here nor there. Could have done without it in my life but it was okay enough. Was able to read it with this style which is a chore for me. Always interested in reading older books. Can't forget to keep that in mind, however.

[Gail · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not one of her best. I never quite understood why the perp did what he did. Modern readers will be offended by her attitudes toward African-Americans and the working class.

[Adele · Rating 1 out of 5]

Way too long. Too many characters. Too many bodies. Over complicated and unbelievable plot. And basically boring. I have read and enjoyed other books by this author, so I won’t give up on her.

[Lillian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just the right amount of tension for me. I didn't want to put it down. Kept me guessing to the end. It is hard to beat Mary Roberts Rinehart's thrillers.

[Peggy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this, it kept my interest and called to me when I wasn’t reading. Lots of secrets. I liked the characters engaged with the relationships between them. I had no clue whatsoever who did it. The solution seemed a little out there but the ride getting to it was enjoyable.

[Whistler's Mom · Rating 4 out of 5]

WHO did it ?!?

Rinehart was a prolific and popular writer from the time that her first mystery appeared in 1906 until her death in the 1950's. She wrote romances and non-fiction also, but is best remembered for her mysteries. She's frequently compared to her contemporary Agatha Christie, but I think it's an unfair comparison. Christie's interest was in her tightly plotted puzzles and her stock characters are seldom interesting in themselves. Rinehart's love was people and her characters are so fascinating that the crime itself is secondary.

This is one of my favorites. The narrator is one of Rinehart's wealthy, elderly spinsters and (like the others) she's conventional but has an unexpectedly adventurous nature. She's also a romantic in a tough-minded way. There are two pretty young women and two romances. When Rinehart started writing, class was a potent factor in American life and young people from wealthy families were expected to marry into similar families. Was this still the case in 1930, when this book appeared? Obviously, Rinehart thought so. Judy's friendship with a handsome young reporter is fiercely opposed by her proud, controlling mother. Mary Martin is lovely and intelligent, but not considered good enough to marry a man from a prominent family.

While ideas about class may have changed, families still operate the same way they always have. A wealthy elderly man in poor health is the center of schemes and plots as those around him angle for a share of his estate. A second wife may resent the child from her husband's first marriage. Half siblings may be close, but they're treated differently. Parents still hope that a son will be a brilliant professional success and that a daughter will make a profitable marriage.

I like the character of Jim Blake, the ageing man-about-town who remains a popular guest although he struggles to keep up appearances on a small income. His sister Katherine Somers is the pampered wife of a wealthy man, but she knows that her safety and her daughter's future are threatened. They're devoted to each other and both are tough, single-minded people who are capable of doing almost anything to protect their family's money and social position. Would they commit murder?

Then there are the servants who are supposed to stay quietly in the background. They're paid to keep the comfortable lives of their employers running smoothly and it's easy to forget that they're humans, too. Nurse Sarah Gittings is a dependable middle-aged woman who serves the extended family as they need her, but her sudden disappearance is the first sign that something is seriously wrong. Joseph Holmes is the quintessential butler - quiet, differential, and efficient. It's a shock to his mistress to realize that she knows so little about the man who has lived in her home for decades.

I think you're either a Rinehart fan or you aren't. Her stories are elaborately told and contain a wealth of detail that I find fascinating. I love the sly humor and the starchy-but-eccentric characters. Her books are novels-with-a-mystery-on-the-side and she was a faithful, talented recorder of life in her era as she experienced it.

This one is of particular interest because it was the origin of a well-known phrase. Apparently, Mrs. Rinehart's readers in 1930 were as surprised to discover the identity of the killer as I was. I feel better.

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

"How little you know about even the people who are closest to you ... This is what ran through Elizabeth Bell's mind on the night of April 18th. Sarah Gittings, the family nurse, had just been brutally murdered. And all thoughts of a homicidal maniac running amuck were banished when the evidence revealed that Sarah had known and trusted her murderer ...

"Poor Sarah. Who would have anything against her? Who indeed. Elizabeth Bell was about to discover that the said and orderly household she had presided over for years in peaceful isolation harbored more than one suspect with a motive. And, unfortunately, more than one victim ..."
~~back cover

I didn't care much for this one. Another mystery with pieces of clues scattered everywhere and pointing to various people. Of course, it all comes out in the end, and the murderer is apprehended and innocent people are restored to a peaceful life. But before the happy ending, confusion and chaos reigned supreme, with only a sliver of clarity being revealed in each chapter. Not my style of thing, at all.

[Brenda · Rating 1 out of 5]

If I hadn't been sick while reading this, I never would have finished it. The plot is preposterous. It has not stood the test of time at all well. It is far too long and drawn out. People do things that make no sense over and over again--and they know they make no sense. There is goofy foreshadowing, and there really aren't all that many suspects. Bad.

[Mkotch · Rating 2 out of 5]

Slightly dated, particularly when it comes to people who are "different." Very convoluted plot that went on a bit too long.

[L. · Rating 3 out of 5]

But what I want to know is do Elizabeth Jane and the detective ever hook up? Don't leave me hanging, Mary! Oh wait, you're dead. Drat.

[Veronica · Rating 5 out of 5]

There's nothing better than a...

Mystery that has you toggling back and forth as to who did it. This is my first Mary Roberts Rinehart and most explicitly not my last.

[Mbuye · Rating 3 out of 5]

“These three murders were cold and audacious. They were committed by a man without fear and without scruple. They were fiendishly clever.” And again, “A dangerous mind, Miss Bell, prepared to go to any length to attain its end. Big men in business often have it, professional gamblers have it; some traders on the Exchange have it. Lombroso says there’s a criminal type. There may be. But there is a criminal mind, and this fellow has it.” So we are told by Inspector Harrison, the investigating officer in ‘The Door’ mystery (1930). Mary Roberts Rinehart, in this gem of a vintage US crime mystery, clings to the British classic crime pattern of a county family in the ‘Big House’, with visitors and a houseful of servants, several murders, and a surfeit of suspects, until the brilliant private detective or as in this case, the assigned police investigator, works out the answers.

The difficulty is that the number of murders, disappearances and seemingly normal death occur in swift progression, before anything about the victims is clearly established. The number of people in the book are almost without number, and somehow connected (relations, servants) so that suspicion settles on each almost before the reader knows who is who or which the stepson and which the bootlegger.
The suspense keeps building. aided to an extent by the continuous use of the past-in-the-future (“We were to come to know of this later,” or “In the light of what happened next, we were to regret this bitterly…” “There is no record of that scene in the District Attorney’s office, but from what we know now, and from what was brought out at the trial,”), it suggests that everybody but the reader already knows whodunit. And why.

Rather too long, and drags a bit in the second part of the novel, but otherwise an engrossing read, as all the Rinehart novels I've been privileged to read.

[Ferne (Enthusiastic Reader) · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading Man in the Lower Ten I researched the life of Mary Roberts Rinehart as I thought I had read some of her novels when I was in high school but couldn't remember any of the titles and wanted to know more about the author. Learning Rinehart was "an American writer, often called the American Agatha Christie, although her first mystery novel was published 14 years before Christie's first novel in 1920" was extraordinary. "Rinehart is also considered to have invented the 'Had-I-But-Known' school of mystery writing, with the publication of The Circular Staircase (1908)" so that had to be my next selection to read by this author. At the same time I learned that "Rinehart is considered the source of the phrase "The butler did it" from her novel The Door (1930), although the novel does not use the exact phrase” but in many ways the information didn’t truly register with me.

I started reading The Door and became quite absorbed in the twists and turns and as I was still trying to “solve” the first murder, it was quickly followed by another, and then another, and well you get the idea. I had many suspicions along the way only to turn to the last page and be totally wrong.

I’m so happy that I rediscovered the mysteries by Mary Roberts Rinehart. I can’t wait to read more of her novels.

[dolly · Rating 4 out of 5]

something interesting i've noticed with both mary roberts rinehart books i've read - the other being The After House - is that the synopsis on the back of both books makes it seem like the book is going to be from the perspective of one character and it is actually from the perspective of another. the back of this book talks about mary martin, as if she is the main character, and she actually plays a very small part in the whole story, which is told by the elderly spinster instead. interesting!

anyways, this was a really fun, suspenseful read. the cover calls it romantic suspense but there is very little romance, if any - a side character gets engaged, that's about it. apparently this author was the creator of the Had-I-But-Known method of mystery storytelling, and it worked really well here. it kept up the suspense and kept me reading. i really couldn't put the book down. i also learned afterwards that this author is credited with creating the "The Butler Did It" trope, which is used in this book (may have originated with this book?) which is so funny because despite the fact that i know of the trope, i did not at ALL suspect the butler. she got me with that one.

definitely a great read, and i'll have to add more mary roberts rinehart books to my tbr in the future.

[katrien Van Lerberghe · Rating 5 out of 5]

I did not see that coming .

This is a very good detective story and a period piece . It makes you think of an Agatha Christy but is not so complicated that you need a paper and pencil to keep all the different times and alibis clear . And I liked the teller better .
I will not spoil it by saying who did it , only that I didn’t see it coming . I also don’t believe it is humanly possible , in real life , that it was who did it , but it is well thought off , with many red herrings , and well written . It is a bit slow in the beginning , but once the first victim is found , you can’t put it down ( well , I could not ) . I found it very typically of the time period , with the chauffeurs to drive the ladies around and the rest of the staff in the big houses . So also the mentality of that time , and the many unwritten rules you have to follow or be ruined socially are shown here beautifully . Also at the end you suddenly understand where a well known phrase comes from … Please enjoy it as I did .

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book took me rather longer to read than it normally might have. Owing to Hurricane Harvey and its aftermath this book was picked up and put down more times than I can remember.
I may have given it more than 3 stars if I could have read it straight through. When I started it was with the thought this was going to be a good old-fashioned (vintage) mystery. A cozy read. But precisely because of the way it was written added to the fact I could not steadily read it through I began to chafe at the constant narrative of what the main character was thinking. Toward the end I found myself thinking: just get on with it! Who did it? I'm tired of your guesses and lists. Because it seemed everyone in the book had a motive or was a red herring.
By the time I turned the last page and read the last sentence which named the killer I was underwhelmed.
But I will definitely look for another of Mary Roberts Rinehart's books. Hoping for a calmer time for a good read.

[Sarahjoy Maddeaux · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was enjoyable enough to read. The pace was interesting, to reflect the curious way events unfolded: at times full of suspense, at times dawdling along. A slight warning that it does start rather slowly, with a lot of description of characters and places that are difficult to remember and therefore don't really serve the purpose of acquainting the reader with the context. And then the ending is *quite* abrupt. It was also interesting how the author dropped foreshadowing remarks in passing. The variety of characters livened the story up - although, reading it over a prolonged period, I lost track of people's names. Most interesting was the glimpse into the life of high society in the early 20th Century - having chauffeurs, and hotel suites, and lawyers and doctors to attend to your every need - and all mostly taken for granted by the narrator. It wasn't amazing, but it was good.

[Robyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Survey reward | Overlong, with an abrupt ending | You really do need to be in the right mood for a Mary Roberts Rinehart mystery. She pioneered the Had I But Known genre, and this is one in which she makes full use of the style. Every few sentences is a fore-reference, if you will, to the eventual significance of whatever she's telling. It does wear on a reader, and I've read most of her books, so I'm fairly well inured to it. In the end, the book is about 150 pages too long, and then suddenly stops. When I say "suddenly", I mean that the murderer is named, and there's only one sentence of eight words remaining in the book. That's...deeply unsatisfying, and so weird when the rest rambles so much with people musing over what's happening and who they should protect and why.

[Rachael · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best mystery I have ever read.
I had decided that Patricia Wentworth was my favorite mystery writer over Agatha Christie, whose books I LOVE.... but then I read this. I only read The Door because I enjoyed The Haunted Lady so much. I thought that was an excellent mystery. Surprisingly so. So I read another by this author, this one. And I can honestly say, it's the best mystery I've ever read. I guessed the killer close to the end, but only because I've watched too many Datelines and this book read like true crime. But if not for that, I wouldn't have guessed. I'm thoroughly impressed by this writing (even though it was first person, something I hate!), and this author. I'm officially a huge fan. I cannot wait to read more!