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A review by thenaptimewriter
The Man in Lower Ten by Mary Roberts Rinehart
3.0
I received a complimentary copy of this book from Netgalley but all opinions provided are my own.
Attorney and bachelor Lawrence Blakeley’s returning from a trip to Pittsburgh with evidence in a case involving forgery. On the train, he’s robbed, accused of the murder of a man in berth lower 10, and injured in a subsequent train crash. Once he returns home, dazed, he, his law partner, and an amateur detective named Hotchkiss must piece together who took the evidence/who murdered the man in lower 10/and who framed Lawrence for the crime.
Complicating this high-stakes, delightfully complicated mystery is the three women who circulate throughout the mystery, one of whom—Alison West—quickly captures Lawrence’s heart and rouses his protective instincts. How is she involved with the murder and does she care for Lawrence in return?
Throughout The Man in Lower Ten, Rinehart deliciously makes use of foreshadowing to amp up suspense. This mystery has a lot of moving parts which she handles adeptly, and I wasn’t sure of the murderer’s identity until Lawrence was sure. I’d enjoy reading the novel again, now that I know all the secrets.
But as impressive as the mystery actually is, the narrator’s occasionally racist language and misogynistic actions are off-putting and offensive, and while Alison’s a pretty nuanced character (and her actions, to me, often suspicious & therefore interesting), the other females seem pretty flat and easily reduceable to their one prominent characteristic. I wanted more firsthand from the women, especially since the women are central to the mystery and the romance between Lawrence and Alison is no small part of the book.
This was my first time reading a Mary Roberts Rinehart book, and I’m excited to have discovered a new-to-me female mystery writer honing her craft at the beginning of the twentieth century. And one who shows a lot of promise based on this debut, even if I have reservations about it.
Attorney and bachelor Lawrence Blakeley’s returning from a trip to Pittsburgh with evidence in a case involving forgery. On the train, he’s robbed, accused of the murder of a man in berth lower 10, and injured in a subsequent train crash. Once he returns home, dazed, he, his law partner, and an amateur detective named Hotchkiss must piece together who took the evidence/who murdered the man in lower 10/and who framed Lawrence for the crime.
Complicating this high-stakes, delightfully complicated mystery is the three women who circulate throughout the mystery, one of whom—Alison West—quickly captures Lawrence’s heart and rouses his protective instincts. How is she involved with the murder and does she care for Lawrence in return?
Throughout The Man in Lower Ten, Rinehart deliciously makes use of foreshadowing to amp up suspense. This mystery has a lot of moving parts which she handles adeptly, and I wasn’t sure of the murderer’s identity until Lawrence was sure. I’d enjoy reading the novel again, now that I know all the secrets.
But as impressive as the mystery actually is, the narrator’s occasionally racist language and misogynistic actions are off-putting and offensive, and while Alison’s a pretty nuanced character (and her actions, to me, often suspicious & therefore interesting), the other females seem pretty flat and easily reduceable to their one prominent characteristic. I wanted more firsthand from the women, especially since the women are central to the mystery and the romance between Lawrence and Alison is no small part of the book.
This was my first time reading a Mary Roberts Rinehart book, and I’m excited to have discovered a new-to-me female mystery writer honing her craft at the beginning of the twentieth century. And one who shows a lot of promise based on this debut, even if I have reservations about it.