Haunted Lady

Earlier this year I read Mary Roberts Rinehart's Miss Pinkerton which is about a nurse named Hilda Adams. Perceptive, organised, and efficient, she occasionally assisted the police with delicate inquiries, enabled by her work providing at-home care, usually to the very rich. Her usual partner in these efforts was Inspector Fuller, a policeman who vociferously defended her talents to all doubters, insisting she was as effective as any of his policemen. Fuller affectionately calls her ‘Miss Pinkerton’ for her detection skills.

The Haunted Lady is the fourth, and last of Rinehart's Hilda Adams novels. She did have a small run of short stories to follow, but the series ended here. It really is a shame that we got so few of these, because show more they are quite charming, and on the whole manage to avoid the common pitfalls of mid-century mystery novels such as overt anti-Semitism, classism, sexism, and racism. I say "on the whole" because these books are, after all, a product of a certain time and era and it's a bit hopeless to expect them to reflect our sentiments today. But problems, as there are, are less obvious than those I encountered in books by Ngaio Marsh or Agatha Christie, for example. Really the only jarring note in this book is when Inspector Fuller says he'd like to take Hilda over his knee after she does something that puts herself at risk - the kind of thing that might happen in I Love Lucy. I know it's meant playfully and is supposed to show how he's concerned about her and also, that it doesn't actually happen (she'd kick his ass) but I still didn't like it, even as a joke. What I did like most about these books is Hilda's inner conflict: she's constantly torn between feeling revulsed at poking around the private lives of people she's meant to care for, and at the same time, her strong commitment to seeing justice done in the face of crime. It lends the books a nice depth and tension that a boilerplate mystery might lack.

In The Haunted Lady, an elderly, wealthy woman named Mrs. Eliza Fairbanks is perturbed by a series of occurrences in her house. She hears odd noises, finds rats and snakes released in her chamber, and finds her belongings disturbed despite locking her door. Given her age, most people assume that she’s approaching senility, or is paranoid. Mrs Fairbanks, though, is strong-willed, decisive, and firm, and insists she isn’t imagining things. When the sugar for her strawberries is found to be laced with arsenic, she is finally taken seriously. Inspector Fuller of Scotland Yard calls up Miss Hilda Adams, the efficient, observant nurse, and asks her if she will stay at the Fairbanks residence and keep an eye on the old lady, while they try to find out what is happening.

At the Fairbanks House, Hilda finds a whole cast of suspects. There’s Marian, Eliza’s daughter, who divorced her unfaithful husband, resulting in scandal and ire from Eliza. There’s Frank, Marian’s husband, now married to their former governess, Eileen, who is broke and still paying alimony. There’s Jan, their daughter, seemingly the only guardian of Eliza’s welfare, but Jan is in love with Eliza’s doctor, and they both need money to get started in life. Of course, there’s the doctor too. And then there’s Eliza’s son and daughter-in-law, weak-willed, impoverished Carlton, and Susie, his gauche, ill-mannered wife, who need money as well. When Eliza Fairbanks, who holds the purse strings, is stabbed inside her locked room, Inspector Fuller and Miss Hilda Adams have to figure out who it was that killed her – and how?

The mystery is of the “had I but known” variety, combined with a standard locked-room setup, with plenty of clues sprinkled in to aid the reader, but still a satisfying twist at the end. It’s actually Hilda who does most of the detecting, putting herself at risk sometimes, and amassing a series of clues. When she explains it at the end to Inspector Fuller, he is mixed with frustration and admiration and perhaps something more. “Oh, subtle little Miss Pinkerton!” he tells her. “Lovable and clever and entirely terrible Miss Pinkerton! What I am to do about you? I’m afraid to take you and I can’t leave you alone.” The reader may well agree. I really enjoyed it. show less

The eponymous Haunted Lady is one Eliza Faircloth, a 72-year-old tough-as-nails curmudgeon who rules her household with an iron hand. It seems someone first tried to poison Mrs. Faircloth and then has been trying to frighten the old lady, who has a weak heart. Mary Roberts Rinehart litters the novel with plenty of twists and red herrings, and nurse Hilda Adams has her hands full in figuring out what’s happening. The novel was wonderful, but what else would you expect from the Queen of Mystery?

February 20, 2001
The Haunted Lady
Mary Roberts Rinehart

I just don’t get tired of Rinehart’s books. I’ve even collected a few of the original hardbacks, like The Wall. The Haunted Lady was new to me; it wasn’t one of the ones I bought in New York when I bought all the others, that time in Doubleday when I was drawn by the gruesome covers! No, I bought this one a few years ago when I was on a Rinehart kick and buying reprints of the ones I’d bought in NY and had been through such hell.

The Haunted Lady is one of the Ms. Pinkerton books – Rinehart’s nurse-sleuth. Ms. Pinkerton is staying with the wealthy Fairbanks family, taking care of the old matriarch, who insists that someone in the family is trying to kill her. Turns out show more she’s right.

Rinehart can get dry sometimes, but I always enjoy the “American Agatha Christie” cozies she wrote, involving big houses, family secrets, wealth and murder. It’s a great formula that sucks me in every time. show less

Someone is trying to scare Eliza Fairbanks to death, When Old Mrs. Fairbanks & her granddaughter seek the help of the police, Inspector Fuller calls in the reliable Nurse Adams to stand guard over the old lady & try to figure out what is going on. When Old Lady Fairbanks & one of her maids are killed, there is no dearth of suspects; the old lady held the purse strings & most of her family resented her for it. Everybody in the Fairbanks household is lying, but Nurse Adams perseveres with her investigations and solves the case.

This is a highly engaging page turner. The plot is interesting & it is generally well-written. There are instances of violence against animals which I really could have done without. The culprit is pretty easy to show more spot early on, but the information needed to figure out the how & the why are withheld from the reader until almost the very end. The author overuses the word ‘dryly’ so much when describing dialogue it becomes an irksome distraction at times. show less

The Haunted Lady by Mary Roberts Rinehart is the 2nd novel in The Hilda Adams Mysteries. Hilda Adams is looking forward to a relaxing evening after her latest assignment ends. Unfortunately, Hilda receives a call asking her to take on a special assignment. Eliza Fairbanks claims there have been bats in her sealed bedroom as well as other creatures. Eliza is making some outrageous claims. Dr. Brooke wants Hilda to investigate. Hilda quickly packs a bag and heads to the Fairbanks home. Hilda meets Eliza and finds the elderly woman to be quite sane. Eliza believes someone is trying to kill her. Unfortunately, Eliza is soon proven correct when she is found dead in her room. Can Hilda find Eliza’s killer? The Haunted Lady was originally show more written in 1942. I enjoy reading these older mystery novels. I thought it was well-written with an interesting cast of characters. I quickly found myself drawn into the story. I liked Nurse Hilda Adams who is a keen observer. The mystery was well-done and there were some clever details. I appreciated that it had a nice wrap-up with the strange happenings explained in an easy to understand manner. The mystery was fun to solve. I did find the ending to be a little odd and unsatisfying. I appreciated the introduction written by Otto Penzler with information about Mary Roberts Rinehart writing career and her style of writing. The Haunted Lady is a pleasing historical mystery with baffling bats, a fighting family, a secure room, a nosey nurse, and a mysterious murder. show less

When repeated attempts to rattle or kill wealthy widow Eliza Fairbanks occur, the police send nurse Hilda Adams to care for her. Greeted by a swarm of relatives with motives to kill the woman, Adams knows Eliza's imagination did not get carried away. When the woman turns up dead, the police and nurse Adams must sift through lies and clues to come up with the real murderer. Roberts drops too many obvious hints of future events. The mystery shows its age in some aspects, but it still presents an interesting puzzle for modern readers. I received an advance review copy through NetGalley with the expectation of an honest review.

Slow-moving and I didn't like the solution. Characters didn't really have individual personalities. Even though no one is desperately poor, you do get the sense of how the Great Depression just put a sense of gloom and despair over everybody.