The Yellow Room by Mary Roberts Rinehart

  

 My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Mystery
Content: Clean

A corpse - somewhat charred around the edges - has been discovered in the linen closet of the Spencers' fabulous Maine retreat. No one has a clue as to who she is or how she got there. Certainly not Carol Spencer, who has just arrived to open up her isolated family house for the summer.

 

 

This is the third Mary Roberts Rinehart book I've read and like the other two I liked it, but didn't love it. I'm not sure why, but at the same time I want to keep reading her books. They do fill my occasional need to read something vintage.

This was a good mystery, if rather convoluted. It was hard to figure out and I was surprised at several of the revelations. Several characters withheld vital information that would have helped solve the case much sooner. Apparently that's a Rinehart staple, and I'm not sure how much I care for it. 

What could have been better were the characterizations. Some of that is due to the time period that the book was written. It definitely reads like an older book. This was written in 1945 and women characters were written differently back then, and I'm not always a fan of it. It's the same with watching old movies (although I enjoy them sometimes). The women were viewed as too fragile, and the men had to swoop in and take care of things. I like my female characters to be more involved in the mystery solving, and the main character here wasn't. She was a very passive part of the story, with the two males—a detective and an FBI agent—doing the investigating. I also wanted to feel like there was some sort of danger present for the characters involved but I never felt that way. 

There is also the whole thing of forgiving the men of their "transgressions" and blaming the "trollop" instead of putting the blame equally on them both. Here we have the mentality that it was excusable for the men because they were at war and having a hard time mentally and psychologically, and the woman took advantage. Not enough responsibility was put on the men in my opinion, and they were too easily forgiven. That did seem to be the mindset for back when this book was written though.

There was some romance in the story, but I never really got behind it as it was the insta-love type that was so popular in books of this time period. I can excuse it at times, especially when reading a Mary Stewart book, but this one was too sudden, too bland, and too unbelievable, especially when our main character was so suspicious of him the whole time, and was supposedly heart broken over losing her fiance in the war. She did a real about face on that, and it didn't make much sense to me.

I can't leave this review without mentioning this cover. I like it. I think it's pretty, but I wonder why they chose a beach scene for the cover of this book. A picture of a yellow room would have been the obvious and best choice. I know earlier editions did have more relevant covers, although I wouldn't say they were pretty. 

I'm not sure when I'll get to another Rinehart book, but I will eventually. I'm still hoping I find one I like enough to give at least 4 stars to.