Suspended Sesame

THE DOOR--Mary Roberts Rinehart-- Farrar & Rinehart ($2.50).

Miss Bell, middle-aged spinster, Rine-hart-earmarked by common-sense and coolness, presided over a comfortable and well-run household. One evening as she sat in the living room after dinner she saw reflected in the mirror the feet of a man on the hall staircase. In spite of her coolness and common sense, the burglar got away. Soon after came the first murder. It was followed by two more, by three murderous assaults, one suicide. Author Rinehart knows well how to build up complications, weight the story with suspense, illuminate it with sudden flashes of climax that leave the secret darker than before. Her characters are remarkably human for people in the pages of a detective story: they are frail, inconsistent, humorous, faulty. The detective is no Sherlock Holmes but a hard-working policeman who has to satisfy the district attorney, then out of sympathy and professional pride helps Miss Bell demolish the case he has made. But there is a murderer. If it were not for Author Rinehart, the villain might never have been discovered.

Author Mary Roberts Rinehart, 54, was born in Pittsburgh, took a nurse's training course, married Dr. Stanley Marshall Rinehart (1896). She has three sons. Capable in other things than novel-writing, Author Rinehart was appointed by President Hoover last December first woman member of the Public Lands Commission. She lives in Washington, D. C.

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