Rachel Innes, a 40-some-year-old spinster who has raised her niece Gertrude and nephew Halsey, is persuaded to leave the city and take a house in the country near where they have friends. She leases a large house from the Armstrongs, a banking family who are visiting California for their health.
Miss Innes arrives first with her servants and passes a comfortable night. However, the next night she and her servant see a face at the window and later on hear noises as if someone has broken in, although the windows and doors remain locked.
Gertrude and Halsey arrive with a friend, Jack Bailey, who is a clerk at the Trader’s Bank in town. That night, there is another disturbance. This time, an intruder is shot to death at the bottom of the circular staircase. He is Arnold Armstrong, the estranged son of the house owner, who should not have had a key. If that’s not bad enough, both Halsey and Jack have vanished. Right about this time it becomes known that the Trader’s Bank has failed because someone has stolen millions of dollars of securities. Suspicion has fallen on Paul Armstrong, the bank president, but maybe also on Jack, to whom Gertrude is engaged.
The house now becomes the target of a series of mysterious intrusions. Strangers appear on the grounds, noises are heard in the house, holes appear in the walls of an unfinished ballroom. Miss Innes runs up against someone on the staircase in the dark, and the events continue even with police guarding the house.
It’s not hard to guess why people are trying to break in, especially after Paul Armstrong dies in California, leaving an unexpectedly small estate. But Rinehart keeps the action going with lots of perplexing incidents.
The novel is engagingly written and moves along quickly. There isn’t much character development here, but that’s not to be expected from a thriller from 1908. However, we like Miss Innes and we also like Mr. Jamieson, the police detective who gradually lets Miss Innes in on the investigation.
whatmeread 
It would almost seem to much to have to cope with character development as well, this sounds fun!
It is!
I loved this one when I listened to it recently – the narrator got the humorous tone perfectly and also the enjoyable spookiness! I thought the women seemed a good deal more modern, too, than women in a British novel from that era would have.
Yes, I think maybe I got this one because you reviewed it. I also read a mystery for the 1937 Club in April by Alice Tilton. Those are a hoot!
OH, I haven’t come across Alice Tilton. I shall see what’s available!
I really liked The Iron Clew.
That one’s available on Internet Archive, so I’ve added it to my list. None of her books are available on Amazon over here.
I bought a used copy from Abebooks.
Hi
I read this book last night, I did expect to find some casual racism, and there it was, and more. SO casual, the heroine was just full of her own entitlement, she was better than servants, black people, and native Americans.
Even if I had lived in 1908, I would have found her obnoxious. She was unkind through and through, and I think there was probably a lot of the author in her.
It is of course up to you to choose what to highlight in your reviews. But this woman was such an awful person, I wish you had warned us!
I try not to judge books outside of their time. I remember a few comments, but I didn’t dislike her, although I thought her attitude about her niece’s boyfriend was uncalled for.