The Wall

For decades Mary Roberts Rinehart was the queen of mystery thrillers -- the American Agatha Christie. The Circular Staircase was her first published novel and The Swimming Pool was her last, and all of her mystery novels between these two -- including The Wall -- were outstanding. Rinehart's special gift was in the evocation of an underlying and unremitting atmosphere of unease, suspence, and potential danger and it is under such an atmosphere of apprehension that she spins her stories. For some time it has been fashionable to dismiss the novels of Mary Roberts Rinehart as old fashioned. This may apply to superficial details of her early novels -- such as gas light instead of electricity -- but it definitely is not true of the novels themselves which are timeless in their ability to hold the reader in a grip of mystery and suspense. The Wall is an excellent mystery novel. Like all of Rinehart's mysteries it is full of suspense and danger. As in any good mystery, clues are sprinkled throughout -- but they are never obvious -- and the ending is both logical and surprising. If you like mysteries, but haven't yet read any by this master of the genre, this is a good one to start with. If you read it, you'll probably get more of Rinehart's outstanding mystery novels.