The Door

By Mary Roberts Rinehart

In a quiet old mansion, an aging spinster contemplates questions of murder.

Elizabeth Bell runs a quiet household, with no family and no more than the usual number of servants. She passes her time thinking about crime and working on her biography of a relative. When a young cousin comes to stay, life in the house becomes uncharacteristically lively. First, cousin Judy burns a hole in Miss Bell's desk. Next, they spy a burglar on the staircase -- a shadowy figure who vanishes without a trace. And finally, Sarah, the nurse, takes the dogs for a walk and never returns.

She is found savagely murdered, and she will not be the last to die. At first, Miss Bell stays calm, but when the police determine that the killer was one of her household, she begins to panic. If one of her servants is the killer, what is an old woman to do?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Head of Zeus
• Release date: Jun 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9781784088187

Mary Roberts Rinehart

Often referred to as the American Agatha Christie, Mary Roberts Rinehart was an American journalist and writer who is best known for the murder mystery The Circular Staircase—considered to have started the “Had-I-but-known” school of mystery writing—and the popular Tish mystery series. A prolific writer, Rinehart was originally educated as a nurse, but turned to writing as a source of income after the 1903 stock market crash. Although primarily a fiction writer, Rinehart served as the Saturday Evening Post’s correspondent for from the Belgian front during the First World War, and later published a series of travelogues and an autobiography. Roberts died in New York City in 1958.

Reviews for The Door

[fernemysteryreader · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

After reading Man in the Lower Ten I researched the life of Mary Roberts Rinehart as I thought I had read some of her novels when I was in high school but couldn't remember any of the titles and wanted to know more about the author. Learning Rinehart was "an American writer, often called the American Agatha Christie, although her first mystery novel was published 14 years before Christie's first novel in 1920" was extraordinary. "Rinehart is also considered to have invented the 'Had-I-But-Known' school of mystery writing, with the publication of The Circular Staircase (1908)" so that had to be my next selection to read by this author. At the same time I learned that "Rinehart is considered the source of the phrase "The butler did it" from her novel The Door (1930), although the novel does not use the exact phrase” but in many ways the information didn't truly register with me.

I started reading The Door and became quite absorbed in the twists and turns and as I was still trying to “solve” the first murder, it was quickly followed by another, and then another, and well you get the idea. I had many suspicions along the way only to turn to the last page and be totally wrong.

I'm so happy that I rediscovered the mysteries by Mary Roberts Rinehart. I can't wait to read more of her novels.

[kaulsu · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

SPOILER ALERT: This is the mystery novel that began the genre of "The Butler Did It." Of course, while that is a complete spoiler alert, I must add that the book is skillfully written, and until the end, I kept wondering how the author was going to pull it off.....

[schmerguls · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I was in eighth grade when I read this book and know that I really liked it.

[loomishouse · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A classic of the "had-I-but-known" school of mystery, invented by Rinehart, in which the narrator relates the tale as a reminiscence, commenting throughout on the oversights of the characters. The voice is pure Rinehart -- that wry, breezy, conversational tone of the strong older woman who is shocked but resolute as her world disintegrates around her.This book is also held responsible for a favorite mystery cliché, but you'll have to Google that, lest it spoil someone's reading...

[victorianrose869 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

September 18, 2000The DoorMary Roberts RhinehartSarah Gittings, Elizabeth Bell's family nurse, has just been brutally murdered. But all thoughts of a homicidal maniac running amok are banished when the evidence reveals that Sarah actually knew and trusted her murderer. Now, Elizabeth Bell is about to discover that her staid and orderly household harbors more than one suspect with a motive--and unfortunately, more than one victim.Though I occasionally need a break from MRR, there are times when I’m so addicted to her excellent stories that I just can’t get enough. I know they’re all similar. Different plots, but always the same characters (with different names). I don’t care, though. I love the wonderful sense of foreboding I always feel when reading one of her books, and the rather unique way of building suspense that she has – you know something terrible has happened, because she tells you “if only she had known what would happen that day, things would have been different”, and at that point you can’t help but read on. It’s a talent of hers, this method.