On a recommendation from a family member, I read the mystery novel The Door by Mary Roberts Rinehart. Many people have forgotten this woman, but in her time, her novels rivaled Christie’s in popularity. At one point, she was called the American Agatha Christie. The Door was published in 1930 and is past its 90th birthday.
I am a fan of the Golden Age of Mystery and have read quite a few of Christie, Carr, and Queen. I have also sampled both Wolfe and Sayers, so I have read more of this particular age than the average reader. Christie makes the impossible seem simple, Carr is a master of macabre and locked rooms, and Queen’s puzzle plots require a notebook to figure out. Where does Rinehart fit into the tapestry of The Golden Age?
The Door is a simple murder mystery. A live-in nurse of Elizabeth Jane Bell’s family is murdered near her house after taking the dogs for a walk. About the same time, an intruder trespasses into the Bell home, and the narrator sees him from the waist down. Who is the murderer? Judith, the lively niece straight out of the 1920s era? James, the family member hiding what he really did the night of the murder? Wallie, a disinherited son after his father married into the Bell family? Or Mary Martins, the mysterious secretary who seems to appear and disappear when tragedy occurs?
Usually, what makes a great mystery is some small element in the crime that stands out. In this case, who would murder Sarah Gittings, the nurse, as she had no influence over the family? She disappeared at first, so what happened between her disappearance and her death? And why was she found with her shoes removed?
The plot continues with more mayhem and twists toward its final conclusion. The novel is a page-turner. As it progresses, more and more detail comes out on the fatal night. The narrator, being the most innocent in the family, opens a figurative closet door to have a cascade of family skeletons land on her.
And what of the titular door? The Door is an interesting title as the door is referenced at the start and near the end. It plays a pivotal, though very small, role in the course of events. I expected much more of it.
The writing is in the style of “If I had only known then what I know now.” This has fallen in popularity in the modern age to the point where it’s rarely used today. That said, it was fun to read such a breezy style of a bygone era. Be aware that Rinehart uses racial terms that today would be excised but were considered normal in her time period.
Overall, The Door is a delightful little mystery. As I read Rinehart’s entry on wikipedia, the claim is that this book isn’t one of her best novels. It doesn’t hold up to a novel by Agatha Christie or John Dickson Carr, but it does provide a solid narrative of a straightforward mystery. If you’re curious to read a period piece, The Door may be just the mystery you’re looking for.