Tag Archives: Mary Roberts Rinehart

Bab: A Sub-Deb by Mary Roberts Rinehart

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I had only read a mystery by Mary Roberts Rinehart and I enjoyed it so when I read in a blog (sadly I can’t remember which blog) about her book called Babs – A Sub Deb and realised it was available on Project Gutenburg I thought I would give it a go. You can download it here.

The book was written in 1916 and is completely different from the book which I had read of hers before- The Circular Staircase, which I enjoyed but Bab: A Sub-Deb is an absolute hoot.

Barbara Archibald is the youngest in her family, there’s all of 20 months between her and her sister who has ‘come out’ and is husband hunting, so lives in a whirl of social engagements. Much to Bab’s disgust she is still treated very much as a little girl, but she runs rings around her family as her parents become more and more alarmed at her crazy exploits, usually involving boys/men.

It’s all very innocent but it doesn’t look good and even she has to admit that she takes things too far. Bab herself writes about her shenanigans and spelling isn’t one of her strong points, which is a bit off putting until you get used to it.

Appropriately for this time of the year the First World War does feature in this book with some of the young men going off to war. I’m a wee bit puzzled though because the book was apparently published in 1916 but the Americans didn’t go to war with the Germans until April 1917. Unless – the war that they were involved in was that 1916 one involving the US and Mexico, which also featured German spies.

I’m even more confused because I read this book back to back with another old one The Head Girl at the Gables by Angela Brazil which coincidentally was first published in 1919 (I had no idea those books were so old) and also features WW1, German spies and even the loss of a leather dispatch case. It’s amazing how often things like that happen when I’m reading.

Anyway, a fun read.

The Great Mistake by Mary Roberts Rinehart

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The Great Mistake

This book was first published in 1940 and Mary Roberts Rinehart was an American author of murder mystery/suspense novels. I really enjoyed it but I think I would have enjoyed it even more if it hadn’t taken me so long to read it. Although it only has 288 pages it must have taken about a week for me to get through it, just because of the time of year I suppose. I don’t read quickly but I do prefer to be able to sit down and read 80 – 100 pages at a time, especially with murder mysteries.

Pat Abbott is a young woman who has landed a good job as a secretary at a large local mansion called the Cloisters. Her employer, Maud Wainwright, is a wealthy widow with one adult son, Tony.

Life hasn’t been a barrel of laughs for Pat as she is left on her own at a young age, with the deaths of both her parents, Maud becomes almost a friend to her, but what had at first seemed to be a wonderful job quickly turned into a worrying and terrifying position.

There’s plenty of murder and mystery in this book and it kept me guessing to the end, I can’t stop myself from thinking ahead but I hate it if I work it all out before I get there.

This is the second book by Rinehart which I’ve read, her books aren’t easy to find in the UK but I did read The Circular Staircase last year, I downloaded it from Project Gutenberg, from here. It did occur to me that in each of her books which I’ve read, part of the storyline was about someone gaining access to a house overnight, by nefarious means, I wonder if that is a feature of a lot of her stories, or just those two.

Quite a few of her books seem to be available free from Manybooks, have a look here, if you’re interested. Sadly they don’t seem to have this one available free. Thanks again to Peggy Ann for being a ‘right daftie’ and sending me a copy of the book!

By coincidence I was browsing in a second-hand bookshop just off the Lothian Road in Edinburgh on Saturday and I had a look to see if they had any by Rinehart, never expecting to find one, but they had a copy of The Circular Staircase. It was wrapped in plastic, which generally means that it’s going to cost a lot and sure enough it had a £10 price sticker on it. Quite a lot of money for a book which has the original price of 50 cents on the front cover! It makes my Kindle seem cheap at the price.

The Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart

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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.