The Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart

Published in 1908, The Circular Staircase, is the first in the "Had I But Known" school of detective fiction, and it is absolutely classic.  Spinster, Rachel Innes rents Sunnyside for the summer and has not even spent one night in the house when a ghost like face appears in a window and the lights suddenly flicker off.  In reality, these are minor events compared to what is about to unfold.  By the time it's over, five deaths will tie together a great mystery involving the collapse of a bank, stolen securities, an orphaned child, and a secret room.

Clever, commanding and observant, Rachel unfolds the mystery as the narrator.  Her voice is humorous and determined, while the violent and disturbing events shake her, she isn't about to detered.  Her narrative creates the suspense.  The foreshadowing she employs is careful and as the threads of the story grown more numerous, so does the thrill.

I enjoyed this classic detective mystery including its setting and its characters.  Sometimes, I was truly frustrated by the stubborness of the characters to share any information but that was true to the time period when one's word meant something.  And, I gasped at the two politically incorrect statements that were normal in 1908. Over all the story is delightfully thrilling.

Most Popular Books According to Library Checkout Across the Nation

1. To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee
2. The Lightening Thief by Rick Riordan
3. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
4. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
5. The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
6. The Red Pyramid by rick Riordan
7. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
8. Looking for Alaska by John Green
9. The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan
10. Night by Elie Wiesel
11. Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
12. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
13. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
14. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
15. Paper Towns by John Green
16. The Maze Runner by James Dashner
17. Red Queen by Victoria Avayard
18. Legend by Marie Lu
19. The 5th Wave by Richard Yancey
20. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling
21. If I Stay by Gayle Forman
22. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Sercrets by J.K. Rowling
23. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
24. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
25. Divergent by Veronica Roth
26. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
27. Matched by Allyson Braithwaite Condie
28. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
29. We are Liars by E. Lockhart
30. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
31. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
32. The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan
33. Where She Went by Gayle Forman
34. City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
35. The Heir by Kiera Cass
36. Insurgent by Veronica Roth
37. The Eye of Minds by James Dashner
38. To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han
39. The Schorch Trials by James Dashner
40. 1984: A Novel by George Orwell
41. The Death Cure by James Dashner
42. The Kill Order by James Dashner
43. Miss peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
44. Allegiant by Veronica Roth
45. The House of Hades by Rick Riordan
46. The Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan
47. A Child Called "It": One Child's Courage to Survive by David J. Pelzer
48. Four: A Divergent Collection by Veronica Roth
49. The Lost Boy by David J. Pelzer
50. The Mark Of Athena by Rick Riordan

A Modest Proposal by Michele Ashman Bell

Lauryn is a fashion designer in New York, who designs outwear for a wonderful woman, Jacqueline Yvonne and her design house.  She loves her job, but lately she feels her dream of having her own line of modest evening wear is slipping away, and her love life has taken a painful hit.  So, when the opportunity arrives for her to move to another design house to do her own evening line, she takes it, inspite of all she's heard about its name sake, Laszlo Molnar. 

Young ladies will love this story. It's cute.  It's built on the love of good friends and faith in God.  It's promoted as a romancy, love story and that certainly plays a part of the story, but the real plot centers on Lauryn seizing her dream and working to make it a reality inspite of Molnar's evil plans.

The drawbacks of the story for me are that Lauryn is a bit too perfect and her blessings are a bit too miraculous while her struggles are glossed over. Don't get me wrong, Lauryn was a loveable, strong protagonist but the story plays to a teen's tendency to believe that everything will work out if you just try hard enough and while Lauryn is a wonderful role model, reality is sorely lacking.

Fatal Vision by Joe McGinnissc

Exhaustive!  I actually chose to read this book because of another, The Journalist and the Murderer by Janet Malcolm.  I wanted to "see" the relationship between MacDonald and McGinniss myself, to make my own judgements.  I concluded that while Malcolm has some very interesting insights, her characterization of McGinniss and MacDonald were shaped by very limited sources, mostly letters between her and MacDonald.

McGinniss obviously started his relationship with MacDonald at MacDonald's request and evidence indicates that MacDonald agreed to let the author draw his own conclusions.  Moreover, while reading I swayed back and forth on whether MacDonald was guilty of the murder of his wife and daughters.  When he spoke for himself, he was engaging, charming, and the fact that so many people befriended and defended him after the accusations and trials speaks powerfully. Yet, now and then he'd say something really odd, misrepresent himself, exaggerate the facts, and I would question whether or not MacDonald was capable of the truth.

Of course, the evidence is all circumstantial, and clearly a man who had been woken at 3:30 in the morning under attack and then being shocked by the murder of his family would probably not recall exactly what happened.  And, in those circumstances, that man would probably respond the way MacDonald did when questioned, "I don't know."  But, left unresolved are the myriad of discrepancies that occur between what he did remember and the evidence, and that's where I continue to wonder.

McGinniss did an excellent job of trying to cover a variety of view points and an almost insurmountable amount of documentation.  And, while I see that the book does lead one to the conclusion that MacDonald did murder his family, part of me wonders, still.