The Yellow Room, originally published in 1945, is one of Mary Roberts Rinehart’s best books, in my opinion. It is an old-fashioned, very entertaining example of the more traditional mystery genre. There is a pretty young girl, a murder, intrigue involving the young woman's family, and, of course, a dashing war hero in love with the heroine, and only too willing to use every means at his disposal to help her. Rinehart creates a fun and exciting atmosphere for mystery lovers to enjoy, as well as a pretty good brain teaser.

Young Carol Spencer is a likable heroine trying to recover from the loss of her fiancee in the South Pacific. She longs to keep busy and wants to make herself useful in the war effort. She has been forced to care for her mother, however, because her selfish sister Elinor is too busy with her society functions to help. When Carol leaves New York and travels to Maine, to open up their home there, she discovers many unsettling mysteries. Lucy, the maid, is missing, and it is soon discovered that she is in the hospital with an injured leg. Someone unknown had chased her in the night until she fell down the stairs. It could be that certain someone who has been hiding in the yellow room, even though no one was living in the Spencer's Maine home. Worse, there is a very dead young woman in the closet. When it is discovered that woman arrived asking about Carol, our heroine becomes a suspect in the eyes of the local police.

Dane is a war veteran whose past is a bit of a mystery. His meddling in the case is unappreciated by the local police. Carol hasn't a clue who to turn to, who to trust. When her brother arrives on the scene, rather than shedding light on the matter, the mystery becomes even murkier. Carol's snotty sister's car was seen the night of the murder, even though she was supposedly in New York. Was Carol's brother involved somehow? Who has been stealing her mother's fine china from the house? What was the dead girl's relationship to her brother and sister?

Dane uses every man and instinct at his disposal to root out the real killer, and get to the bottom of things. Shots in the night and the mysterious actions of someone unknown, yet moving easily among her Maine neighbors, can only spell great danger for Carol.

This mystery is very old-fashioned, and likewise so is the charming romance. The product of a more romantic era, The Yellow Room is very much a mystery where you can sense changes the war brought about in young men. The mores of a bygone era are at the forefront in this enjoyable and atmospheric mystery from one of the greats in the genre. For those who like their mysteries old-fashioned, and a bit on the romantic side, The Yellow Room is a lot of fun. ( )

mysterious deaths at summer home, ex FBI investigates and solves

So many people have told me to read Mary Roberts Rinhart since I'm a Golden Age mystery fan. I just never seemed to get around to it, but I finally took the time. This book was published in 1945. Ms. Rinehart is an American author and she writes about American places. In this case the mystery is set in WWII Maine. So many of the Golden Age moments are in this book. The femme fatale, the hard-nosed blonde, the young ingenue, the dashing officer,the bumbling policeman, and a few old men and women and local characters too. There are lots of red herrings and tons of suspects when a partially burned body of a young female is found in a closed closet in a house in Maine that has been shut up for awhile. I liked the setting and of course the era. It was interesting to see that wartime imposed some hardships and restrictions on people at home just as it did in Europe. The mystery is tricky and a bit convoluted, but I did enjoy the book - so much so that I plan to read Ms. Rinehart's enite backlist in the coming months. I thought I'd plumbed the depths of the Golden Age authors, so it was refreshing to see that there are more still out there. ( )

Carol Spencer is ordered by her autocratic mother to open the family summer home in Maine for a vacation retreat for Carol's brother Greg, a war hero who has been recalled to Washington for a brief leave to receive the Medal of Honour from the President. Carol is certain Greg will prefer their New York apartment or their sister Elinor's place in Newport, but Mrs. Spencer, a peevish, spoiled woman who fakes illness every time she doesn't get her own way, is adamant. Carol arrives in Maine exhausted, with her disapproving cook Maggie and two young women who are to be the household help. Even a family beggared by the Depression and constrained by wartime rationing tries to maintain their standards set in bygone years, hence the servants.

The partially burned body of an unknown young woman is discovered in an upstairs linen closet. A somewhat mysterious man, Jerry Dane, wounded in the war and recovering at a neighbour's vacant house, interests himself in the case, leading Carol to wonder exactly what his profession was prior to the entry of the US into the war.

There is some interesting detail about life at home during wartime: the shortage of men to do any work around the once-grand but now crumbling summer houses, no gas for the cars because of rationing, even the telephones taken out of private houses in case they are needed in some wartime office. I enjoyed these descriptions of life circa 1944 as much as the mystery. Once again, Mary Roberts Rinehart does not disappoint. ( )

Carol Spencer has just arrived at the family’s summer estate with two servants in tow. They are to open the house for the arrival of Carol’s brother Greg, a war hero who is on leave to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor. Of course rationing means that gasoline, sugar, electricity and phones are all in short supply, but their mother insists Greg would want to spend time at the Maine retreat. But before they can unpack they make a gristly discovery – the charred corpse of a young woman is found in the linen closet.

I’d never heard of this author before, but came across this novel and thought I’d give it a try. This really started off with a bang. I was engaged and interested in the murder and found most of the characters intriguing. But about half-way through I began to feel that Rinehart had made this unnecessarily complicated. There are so many suspects, so many secrets, so many crimes committed that it stretches credulity too far. The final explanation is far-fetched and unrealistic. ( )