This is the first book I’ve ever read on my Kindle. Yes I gave in at last and bought one, just because I want to be able to get out of print books and free classics. No I’m not a mean Scot – just canny!

Anyway it is also the first book that I’ve read by Mary Roberts Rinehart and I did enjoy it although it was first published in 1908 so it isn’t my favourite era of vintage crime – that’s the 1930s/40s – but still well worth reading if you like your crime fiction to be a bit of fun too.

Miss Innes is a wealthy woman who became the guardian of her young nephew and niece when their parents died. It’s years later and Gertrude and Halsey have grown up but they still want to spend the holidays with their aunt. They persuade her to rent a large old
house in the country and almost immediately scary things start happening. It’s all bangs and bumps in the night and I suppose it seems a bit cliched but I enjoyed the whole atmosphere of it.

Apparently The Circular Staircase was put on Broadway in 1920 and ran for years but for some reason it was called The Bat.

I downloaded it from girlebooks which is a wonderful site which Peggy at Peggy Ann’s Post told me about. It has loads of free books which I hope to read sometime, by authors like Willa Cather and Elizabeth von Arnim – too many to mention, have a look! I felt like it was Christmas when I saw it so a big thanks to Peggy for pointing me in its direction.