Episode of the Wandering Knife by Mary Roberts Rinehart

Synopsis From Back Cover: 

Someone Stabbed Sister
     In her fortress of a house - a front-page slaying and a murder weapon that mad the family rounds.

Someone Strangled Mother
     with a damp silk stocking while everybody but one slept.

Someone Smashed Aunt Alice
     at midnight in the kitchen while the family skeleton rattled in the dark.

Blood run thicker and thicker in these three tingling tales of murder and related villainy.

I'm trying to get caught up on reviews, so this one will be rather short and use less florid words than I normally would for a Mary Roberts Rinehart book.  I can promise though, that I could endlessly babble about the suspense that Rinehart is able to produce in these three short stories.  I could wax eloquent on the way Rinehart is able to slowly build the tension until it snaps and explodes of the page, bathing the reader in fearful death.  I could even, in minute detail, recreate the ingenious twists and turns that Rinehart throws out as red herrings to keep her reader on tenterhooks.  I could do all those things, but I think I will let the idea of them speak for themselves.

What I did want to mention, in a few sentences, is that I loved the return of Hilda Adams in the last story.  Her fans know her better as, Miss Pinkerton, the ingenious nurse who always seems to find herself in the middle of familial murders.  I don't know if she is the only reoccurring character that Rinehart created, but I do know that she is one of my favorite characters from any mystery writer.  She is one of those amazing creations that despite her fears and self doubts, never fails to summon the intelligence and courage needed to figure out why people are dying under her nose.  She may not like this part of her job, but when a certain police inspector asks for her help, our Miss Pinkerton is always willing to do what needs to be done.

I was going to continue along the same vein for the primary investigators in the other stories, but I think I would rather leave you with one further sentence.  If for whatever reason I have not managed to convince you that Mary Roberts Rinehart is a mystery writer that you need to read, please pick up one of her books and prove me right.

Challenges:  VM (Occupational Hazards)