Customer Reviews

The Window at the White Cat (Unabridged Classics in Audio)

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For decades Mary Roberts Rinehart was the queen of mystery thrillers -- the American Agatha Christie. Rinehart's special gift was in the evocation of an overlying and unremitting atmosphere of unease and potential danger and it is under such an atmosphere of apprehension that she spins her stories. The Window at the White Cat was the first Rinehart mystery I read (The Circular Staircase was her first published novel) and I liked it so much that I began to read virtually all of her mystery novels -- many of them more than once. The White Cat in the title is the name of a seedy political hangout in which a killing occurs and the story is a mixture of political shenanigans, romance -- and, above all -- mystery and suspense. The Window at the White Cat is a terrific mystery novel and a very good introduction to the mystery novels of a master of the genre.

With her trademark skill at telling a story rich with ominous portents and foreboding, Rinehart recounts a dark tale of a crooked politician's disappearance and subsequent murder, into which John Knox, a bachelor attorney, is drawn when he falls head over heels in love with the politician's engaged daughter. Clues, like suspects, are everywhere - from missing pearls to switched cases and strange notes scribbled with the numbers "11-22" - but none seems to fit together to fully explain the murder. Nor do they provide answers when the dead man's sister-in-law disappears and his death is followed by a slew of others. Are the events connected in any way? Only after a bumbling investigation full of wrong turns and oversights does John find the answer to both the mystery and his courtship of the politician's daughter, beginning when he looks into the window at the sight of the murder, the political club the White Cat. This absorbing page turner is a must read for all fans of Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers!

There are so many twists, turns, false leads and perplexing clues in this plot, that I made no attempt to solve the mystery myself. I just went with the flow of the investigation.

Yet the investigator does not inspire confidence. Jack Knox is a thirty-five-year-old lawyer who abandons his office work to track down the murderer of Allan Fleming, a corrupt politician. Foolish of him, but he's fallen in love at first sight with Fleming's bereft daughter.

Jack's main asset is doggedness. He's constantly getting bruised and battered stumbling around in dark buildings pursuing intruders. Eventually he learns the trick of having a theory or two, and secrets reveal themselves as well.

Political corruption is a constant presence in this novel. Everyone warns Jack to watch where he steps. But a man in love knows no fear.

The Window at the White Cat is a feast of murder, suicide, break-ins, bank failures, peculiar robberies, sudden disappearances and characters behaving out of character. One inexplicable happening follows hot upon the next.

This novel of detection was published in 1910 and has a very vintage flavor. I'd recommend it to Rinehart fans and readers who enjoy a good old-fashioned mystery.

I used to enjoy MRR's books very much, but this one was too cute and the characters hopped on trains and went into town over and over. Try one of her others.