The State vs. Elinor Norton

by Mary Roberts Rinehart

Though a woman has confessed to murder, her friend tries to piece together what really happened in a mystery from the #1 New York Times–bestselling author.  The state has accused beautiful young Elinor Norton of murder, and she refuses to mount a defense. Guilt is written all over her elegant features, but her childhood best friend refuses to believe it when Elinor confesses to the crime. Forced into a dull marriage against her will, Elinor is just beginning to adjust to life with Lloyd when she meets the man who will tear her world apart. Blair Leighton is her husband’s best friend and was his companion in the war, and he has a charm that makes Elinor quiver from the inside out. At first, her husband is oblivious to this illicit attraction, but when the two men go into business together, the tension threatens to rip the triangle apart. Soon, Elinor is forced to make a chilling decision. One of these men must die—but which? 

Genres: Mystery, Gothic, Fiction, Suspense, Novels, Mystery Thriller

265 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1934

About the author

Mysteries of the well-known American writer Mary Roberts Rinehart include The Circular Staircase (1908) and The Door (1930).

People often called this prolific author the American version of Agatha Christie. She is considered the source of the phrase "The butler did it," though the exact phrase doesn't appear in her works, and she invented the "Had-I-But-Known" school of mystery writing.

Rinehart wrote hundreds of short stories, poems, travelogues, and special articles. Many of her books and plays were adapted for movies, such as The Bat (1926), The Bat Whispers (1930), and The Bat (1959). Critics most appreciated her murder mysteries.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Ro...

Reviews

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

All Caroline Somers wanted for her only daughter, Elinor, was a proper marriage. Money wasn't the issue, they had plenty of their own, but marrying into the right social class was what mattered. Caroline was dogmatic on the issue, drilling proper form and etiquette into Elinor from day one. So it was no surprise to anyone when Elinor was set to marry Lloyd Norton. He was from the right sort of family and had the money to spare. Elinor was never in love with him, but she agreed to the marriage to make her mother happy. She had already met and fallen in love a young man from the wrong side of the tracks, but that was quickly swept away.

Once Lloyd and Elinor are married, life seems to have fallen into a stable, if boring existence. Elinor is never really all that happy, but has steeled herself for her role in life. When Blair Leighton enters the picture, things start to change. She falls in love with him, despite every signal that she shouldn't. When the two men come back from the war, things start to change a little too rapidly for everyone involved. Lloyd had been changed by the war, he was moody and would become violent with his wife. He suspected her of cheating, not knowing that despite her feelings for Blair, she had never acted on them. He wasn't even aware Blair existed, until a chance encounter changes all their lives forever.

The two men decided to go into business and invest in a cattle ranch in Montana, which is a far cry from New York City. The three of them set up home and everything seems to be going okay at first. Then Lloyd starts to change, suspect things. His moods grow even more dangerous and violent, it doesn't take very long for Elinor to start having feelings for Blair again. Now a man like Blair, a womanizer to the core, can't help but feed of that kind of attention. Though nothing happens between them, the tension fills the ranch house.

By the end of the book, both men are dead and Elinor is on trial for killing one of them. She refuses to mount a defense and seems to willingly go to her own death. All of the story is told in flashbacks from the perspective of Carroll, Elinor's childhood friend who has always carried a torch for her. Carroll has been around the periphery of everything that has been going on, but didn't realize just how bad the situation had gotten. Carroll is the one good man in Elinor's life, the only one who never seems to let her down. He is obviously in love with her, and at times you get the impression the feelings may have been returned.

What I loved about this book is how Mary Roberts Rinehart tells it. The story starts with Elinor going on trial for murder, so you know right away that she killed someone. You don't know which man it is or how it happened. As the story progresses and Carroll allows the reader into the back story, I started to have my own conclusions about what was going on and who it was Elinor killed. It's only toward the very end that I realized I was completely wrong. Rinehart didn't mislead me, I just followed the trail in the wrong direction. I have to say, I prefer the ending Rinehart came up with.

I know I've said it before, but I'm in love with everything Rinehart does. With each book, I feel as if I've getting to appreciate her storytelling a bit more. I loved the way this one shifted back and forth between the past and the present. I loved the idea of the narrator being someone who was around, but not directly involved in the pertinent action. I loved the way the story played around with societal norms and what was acceptable moral behavior, I loved the interaction between the three main characters, especially towards the end when all the relationships were fraying around the edges, the tension was perfectly executed. But most of all, I love the way Rinehart is able to create and maintain a fine balance between an oppressive atmosphere, compelling characters, and narrative voice that is all her own.

[Marigold · Rating 1 out of 5]

I picked this up at a Dollar Book Store, & therefore got what I deserved! I've read a couple of other Rinehart mysteries & enjoyed them for what they are - old school style mysteries. Don't be fooled by the description on this one. There's about 2 pages of "media sensation" & almost no trial, so if you're looking for courtroom drama, there isn't one. The "bleak and isolated estate" is in Montana, of all places. And the murder isn't particularly gruesome (if you're intrigued by gruesome, check out Rinehart's "The Album" which is a different book completely). This book should have been a black & white movie starring - I think - Joan Fontaine as the Incredibly Idiotic Heroine, & some male star who would be boring & stiff but in the end a Good Guy. I have to wonder, though, if Rinehart was being fantastically bitter & ironic in this book. Things the author doesn't like much - and therefore you won't either - women; men; rich people; mothers; religion; marriage; not being married; the state of Montana. Seriously, there isn't one good person or good thing that happens in the whole book. I was looking for a mindless 1930s courtroom potboiler & I got an incredibly slow motion indictment of society. Well OK then - I won't move to Montana after all!

[Anna Katharine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have a love-hate relationship with Mary Roberts Rinehart. Her characters are well developed, and she's a genius at suspenseful storytelling, but in so many of her books a 'happy ending' just means that the female protagonist finally caves to the 'right man.' Since Rinehart did the majority of her writing in the early 20th century, I suppose that often was the most desirable ending available for these woman- but to a modern reader, it may elicit a groan of despair. Regardless, when I found a 1934 Dell Mystery Crime Map copy at a used bookstore, I snapped it up. I LOVE these editions- their lurid dramatic covers, the comic-book-like maps on the back cover, and the dramatic descriptions of the key player inside the front cover. I'll read almost anything I can find in Dell Crime Map Mysteries, and Rinehart is one of the better authors they featured. In The State vs. Elinor Norton, her suspenseful storytelling is at its best. Framed by Elinor's trial for murder, readers know from the beginning that both Elinor's husband and lover are dead, but it takes only two chapters to make the story so engrossing that this foreknowledge is unimportant. It's only in the last few chapters that murder occurs, and literally the very last line before we learn Elinor's fate. In the mean time, readers are driven head-long through a twisted maze of motive and betrayal, and introduced to a varied cast of characters, perceptively drawn. Other than the now-antiquated societal rules that bind some of the women, the players are as accessible and relatable as their modern counterparts. The beauty of a classic is its ability to provide understanding of the human motivation in people far removed (temporally or otherwise) from a reader's own life, and Rinehart delivers that in spades.

[Allison · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an incredibly interesting story!! It was very different from standard, run-of-the-mill murder mysteries. In fact, the question of "murder" isn't really an issue at all. The book opens with the fact that Elinor Norton killed Blair Leighton. What the novel is about is how Elinor comes to the point of shooting Blair.

After the opening pages of Elinor's trial, the story quickly shifts to Elinor's early life, as told by Carroll (actually a man, Warren Carroll, but Elinor always calls him "Carroll"). Carroll is the narrator and piece by piece, he describes Elinor's highly privileged East Coast life in the early part of the 20th century. He tells of her domineering mother, Caroline, her absentee father, her proper "debut," and eventual marriage to an older man, Lloyd Norton.

The marriage became even more difficult after the war (WWI), and Lloyd decides the best thing to help his war nerves is to buy a ranch in Montana with their friend, Blair Leighton. The ever-dutiful wife goes along to the place where there's very little civilization (at the time). Things are difficult, and during a storm, Lloyd dies. Now there's only Blair and Elinor.

Throughout all of this, Carroll pines deeply for Elinor. His is the voice of reason. Surely now that Lloyd is dead and this horrible marriage is ended, Elinor can come home? Perhaps the two of them go could make a go of it?

The last few chapters are chilling. So many people in this book are selfish and try to use Elinor for their own ends. This is a tale of dysfunction, sadness, and the ultimate conclusion.

Mary Roberts Rinehart is a master storyteller. She is able to create plots and characters that completely sweep the reader up into the events as if they are happening in real life.

HIGHLY HIGHLY RECOMMEND

[Freya Gordon · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really liked this until the ending. It was a wistful story of missed chances, wrong paths and tragedy. It was also a look at societies view of women and their morality by way of perceived sexual behaviour in the first years of the 1900's. But then in its last few words it throws all that out the window. I genuinely couldn't believe that's how it ended. It was easily a 4 star read until then.
It almost seemed like the author didn't know how to end it and wrote all the endings she had in mind. We have the conviction fake out (which should have been the real ending) then the moving back West delay, then the nunnery dalliance....before the theme tune to How I Met Your Mother started playing in my head at the last page. Wish I'd stopped reading at the trial. Or the author had stopped writing there.

[Nellie Kampmann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Based on the description, I was expecting something more suspenseful. Instead, it was a long, dreary tale about a woman involved in disastrous relationships with 2 controlling men. It was well written if you like that sort of thing. I don't.

[Pat Young · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was written in the 1930s so you must understand the characters in the context of that time. There is nearly no courtroom activity as the book focuses primarily on how the characters got to the point of the murder.

[Kevvie]

DNF @ 10%

[Katy Koivastik]

Spoiler alert: How about a nice courtroom drama? Yet another story that uses animals to tell readers how cruel and despicable a character is — disgusting!

[Mare · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mary Roberts Rinehart always pleases.

[Christie Hakala · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting. I thought this would be a suspense novel in the vein of most of MRR's other novels that I have read. It is not, but instead almost a biography. Rinehart's vintage novels always hold my interest so it was a satisfying read. Just not what I was expecting.

[Whistler's Mom · Rating 1 out of 5]

The mystery here is why I finished this book. It certainly wasn't because I care one whit what happened to the heroine. I've seldom encountered such an unappealing character.

I love most of Rinehart's books. She was an unapologetic feminist before women could even vote. She was a happy wife and mother, but proud that her writing not only contributed to the family coffers but spread her can-do message to millions of women. She believed that girls should have access to education and job training. She believed that woman could and SHOULD have careers. She promoted Girl Scouting at a time when many people opposed it as "unfeminine". Her female characters are strong-minded woman. You may not always agree with their goals, but you have to admire their determination and single-mindedness.

So where did that wet-noodle Elinor Norton spring from? From girlhood on, she's totally lethargic and unwilling to make any effort to oppose her domineering mother's plans. OK, we know there ARE people like that, but do we want to read about them? I don't!

Many of Rinehart's books explore the theme of a cold, domineering mother who is determined to force her daughter into making the "right" marriage. But all the other daughters fought like tigers and (ultimately) married the men they loved. It was a winning formula and I think she should have stuck to it.

I kept reading (to answer my own question) because I thought there must be something, somewhere in the book that would make me glad I did. And the two minor themes were interesting and well-handled, probably because Rinehart knew what she was talking about in both cases.

The first was the upheaval created by WWI and the difficulty of young men adjusting to civilian life when it was over. Rinehart's oldest son served in the war and she herself was a war correspondent in Belgium. She knew the score and what she has to say about it is of interest.

The second theme was life in rural, isolated parts of the American west and how it affected people, especially Easterners used to companionship and comfortable living. Rinehart's middle son worked as a cowboy on western ranches before finally returning to school and a career as a playwright. And the Rinehart family traveled and camped extensively in the West. She was fascinated by the rawness of the still unsettled land. It offered the potential for great wealth, but sometimes at a heart-breaking cost.

So, yes, there's some good stuff, but none of it can overcome my distaste for this weak woman and her largely self-inflicted problems. A person who's life philosophy seems to be "I'm going to be miserable anyway, so what does it matter" doesn't have MY sympathy.

Furthermore, I think there's a fatal flaw in the plot. Caroline Somers is painted as a shrewd woman. Admittedly, she's blinded by her faith in a social system that was dying, if not dead. The narrator speaks of her "latent Calvinism" that made her despise her pleasure-loving husband and raise her daughter with a strictness that was out-dated even then.

But the narrator also describes her as "ambitious." Why then did she insist that her daughter marry Lloyd Norton, a man who inherited modest wealth and lacked the brains or initiative to make more? Caroline Somers was far from wealthy herself, so how was this couple suppose to live? And Norton was a womanizer like Caroline's late-unlamented husband. Out of all the men who were attracted to her lovely daughter, why did Caroline pick this particular one? It's never explained and it left me feeling like I was watching a train wreck that the engineer simply choose not to avoid.

Rinehart wrote some wonderfully entertaining novels. I can't recommend this one.

[Susanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

First off, the bride is NOT recalling anything. Her male, desperately in love, childhood friend is the narrator.

Basically, if Great Expectations had continued and Estella murdered her husband, this would be that book. Carroll (the male narrator) is as blindly devoted as Pip, and with as little cause.

There's no mystery (other than what does anyone see in Elinor). Just Elinor making one Bad Decision after another and the unrealistic narrator (he *enjoyed* WWI?? WTF?!) ponderously explaining how none of them are her fault.

At the very beginning Elinor says she's guilty and doesn't care about her fate. Which begs the question, why should we?

[Ida Mcgarity · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly Engrossing

I loved this book from start to finish. I have read three books by Elinor Norton this week. This one is the best so far. I couldn't put it down. The people in this story were so imperfect. Read it. You will be entertained and satisfied.

[Victoria Mixon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Now that's what I call a boring way to tell a story.

[David Vanness]

My copy is hardback Large Print 432 pages by Holt, Rinehart & Winston.

[Marci · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another good psychological drama/mystery from the ever-reliable Mary Roberts Rinehart.