The Man in Lower Ten Mary Roberts Rinehart 9781117609553 Books
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This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. This text refers to the Bibliobazaar edition.
The Man in Lower Ten Mary Roberts Rinehart 9781117609553 Books
I had forgotten how well Mary Roberts Rhinehart puts her mysteries together. The opening page pulls you in and sets the flow. The Era she is writing in is Downton Abbey's time frame of plastic collars and alligator suitcases. The Women are Ladies even if they are scheming and old fashioned words are thrown around like "cur." Still there is a forgotten mystique about the authors who wrote and wove these tales and a charm.This story, set in another Era, also gives a wonderful, social history lesson. I can spend hours just listening to the slang, savoring the descriptions of costume. As I am a train aficionado I also loved the descriptions, both lurid and inconvenient of actual train trips during this murder mystery. There was also a particularly amusing description of a horse and buggy ride. But I will let you discover that for yourself.
When you read this... go into it with the enjoyment of a student in a strange land. Small details and the larger plot are both here and a cast of amusing and somewhat villainous characters. Personally I enjoyed the housekeeper very much as well as several of the side characters. But in the end... the mystery stands on good writing and from her time- frame Rhinehart was one of the best.
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Tags : The Man in Lower Ten [Mary Roberts Rinehart] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. This text refers to the Bibliobazaar edition.,Mary Roberts Rinehart,The Man in Lower Ten,BiblioBazaar,1117609553,HISTORY General,History
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The Man in Lower Ten Mary Roberts Rinehart 9781117609553 Books Reviews
Mary Roberts Rinehart was one of the most popular and prolific American authors of the first half of the 20th Century. She's sometimes called "The American Agatha Christie." I often wonder what she thought about this back-handed compliment, since THE MAN IN LOWER TEN (her first book) preceded Christie's AFFAIR AT STYLES by 14 years. Both were female and prolific and wrote mysteries, but there are few other similarities that I can see.
Whereas Christie followed the time-honored recipe of a professional detective and his sidekick, Rinehart's mysteries are novels with a mystery thrown in. Her characters (IMHO) are more finely drawn and her romances are witty and realistic.
This is one of her books with a narrator and one of only three with a male narrator. I don't think it's as good as THE CIRCULAR STAIRCASE, which appeared two years later and was even more popular, but Rinehart was already a polished writer with the ability to craft an intricate plot. The narrator is a very likable guy - a lawyer with a quiet, self-deprecating wit and a sense of his own limitations. A self-made man with no family, he seems to feel that romance and marriage are beyond his reach and has concentrated on his profession and his polo ponies. His law partner (and best friend) is a breezy man-about-town who's recently fallen in love. Will wedding bells break up a beautiful friendship?
It's dated, in a charming way. It takes us back to a time when "young ladies" lived lives of great luxury, but almost no freedom. When the automobile was a rich man's toy, not a serious form of transportation. And (regrettably) to a time when "colored" characters were inserted into the story for a little comic relief. It's a relatively benign form of racism (no lynchings) but it's offensive to modern sensibilities.
There's no professional detective at all, unless you count the affable, but ineffective Detective Johnson who's put on the trail of our hero after he becomes a suspect in a murder case. There's a wealth of amateur detectives, including the narrator and his partner. But the topper is the wonderful Wilson Budd Hotchkiss, a strange little man who's a civil servant by profession ("a small patch on the seat of government") and a Sherlock Holmes-wanna-be in his spare time. He's a great character and the trip to the deserted house to look for the missing witness is one of the funniest things I've ever read.
I think some of Rinehart's later books are better, but this one is a corker. If you like old mysteries, you shouldn't miss it.
I was puzzled by Gilmore's remark that "Pittsburg without smoke wouldn't be Pittsburg, any more than New York without prohibition would be New York." I know that Pittsburg was a steel mill town, but everything I've read indicates that New York City was the last hold-out when the Prohibition movement reared it's ugly head. And in 1906, the Prohibition Act was far in the future. All I can figure is that many small towns had passed "dry" laws (as we had in the South until recently) and that the inhabitants went to New York City to do their partying, creating an industry of cabarets and night clubs that were as important to the New York City economy as the mills were to Pittsburg. Gilmore was thinking like a businessman. Anything that brings in money can't be bad.
Novels of certain eras really love to have all of their characters impossibly connected, and this is one of them. It's just one unrealistic coincidence after another. For me, a few ridiculous connections in a novel are quaint, this many were annoying. Every character (including minor ones like a maid) have connections to multiple characters.
For instance, the maid mentioned works for one of the suspects but also has an aunt working for the family of our hero's love interest. If that sounds confusing, it's because it is. It's like piecing together an incestuous family tree ("so he is the uncle, but also the brother?"). And why did Rinehart even feel the need to include such minute and silly details?
It isn't just social and familial coincidences, though, the plot is full of them too. The murder is somehow simultaneous with two frauds (one related to the murder and one not), crimes of passion (again one related and one not), a silly musical chairs-type confluence of events, improbable actions by the criminals, AND a literal train wreck. ....SPOILER ALERT..... (((Then the ONLY survivors are ALL the people involved in the crime! Ugh.......))))
I didn't care for the love story, again because of too many silly coincidences, but also because there is a bit of damsel in distress to it, and because I don't really care for the girl. She has information in a murder investigation that could help keep the hero out of jail and hides it because it's a little embarrassing. She seems to fall for every guy (and gets proposed to by ALL men *eyeroll*), and is loved and adored by all, but we are never given any reason for this other than she is pretty.
However, the main character is generally likeable (even though he betrays his best friend), and there are several funny bits and witty dialogue.
Another great mystery by Mary Roberts Rinehart. An attorney takes forged bank notes, from Washington to Pittsburgh, to a client to identify for an upcoming trial. Since the story was written at the beginning of the twentieth century crime detection wasn't what it is today. The notes were stolen during the night, and a man in one of the berths was murdered. Shortly after the murder was discovered the train was involved in a terrible wreck. Lawrence Blakely, the attorney and hero of the story, is the primary suspect. There are a number of possible suspects, and lots of confusing events take place while he and his best friend, aided by an amateur detective, try to recover the evidence and identify the killer.
This is a great mystery with lots of action. It keeps the reader guessing to the end. I highly recommend this book as well as any of her others.
I had forgotten how well Mary Roberts Rhinehart puts her mysteries together. The opening page pulls you in and sets the flow. The Era she is writing in is Downton Abbey's time frame of plastic collars and alligator suitcases. The Women are Ladies even if they are scheming and old fashioned words are thrown around like "cur." Still there is a forgotten mystique about the authors who wrote and wove these tales and a charm.
This story, set in another Era, also gives a wonderful, social history lesson. I can spend hours just listening to the slang, savoring the descriptions of costume. As I am a train aficionado I also loved the descriptions, both lurid and inconvenient of actual train trips during this murder mystery. There was also a particularly amusing description of a horse and buggy ride. But I will let you discover that for yourself.
When you read this... go into it with the enjoyment of a student in a strange land. Small details and the larger plot are both here and a cast of amusing and somewhat villainous characters. Personally I enjoyed the housekeeper very much as well as several of the side characters. But in the end... the mystery stands on good writing and from her time- frame Rhinehart was one of the best.
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