A Light in the Window

I have to agree with the previous review that this is not the typical Mary R. Rinehart murder mystery. I, also, thought I was buying a mystery novel written by one of my favorite authors, but was grossly misled as to the genre of this book. It is plain to see that the person who wrote the review that we see on the back of the book NEVER READ IT! There are no murders, no mystery and the only suspense is the normal kind found in all lives. But I have to disagree with the 2-Star Rating, because it is still a wonderful story. I enjoyed it as much as I do her mystery novels. It is the best account that I have ever read of the period leading up to the depression in America, and the hard struggle to hold on and persevere afterwards. It makes that period real, versus the dry, boring accounts that we have read in our history books. For the first time in my very long life, I feel that I understand how and why so many people were ruined, their large amounts of money wiped out by the stock market. For the wealthy in America, it was pure greed and for the poor people, it was the backlash of the wealthy losing their assets. The poor and middle classes were employed by the wealthy and well-to-do, and they lost their jobs when the masters lost their money, and no jobs could be found because the high and mighty had no money to hire menial labor to do their work for them anymore. It took WWII to bring the nation back to prosperity, with the jobs in the factories that were manufacturing war goods, and employing the lower classes, giving them a chance at a decent life, finally, after nearly starving during the depression when there were no jobs available. The people in this story are above average money wise, but they have the same feelings and problems that are universal, love, marriage, birth and death, a blend of happiness and sadness. It is a very entertaining story, one where you get caught up in the lives of this family, and are sad to leave them when the book comes to it's end. MRR's gift is in making her characters real, and that is the same in this book as in the mysteries that she so skillfully weaves. So in spite of this not being the murder mystery that I was expecting, I have to give it the highest rating posssile, as I loved the story!