The Great Mistake

by Mary Roberts Rinehart

Murder leads to scandal at a wealthy woman’s mansion in this mystery from a New York Times–bestselling author with ten million books in print. In an elaborate house known as the Cloisters, Maud Wainwright rules supreme. The queen of society in the small town of Beverly, she has a table long enough to seat one hundred, and she keeps an iron grip on the guest list. Her right-hand woman is Pat Abbott, a local girl who is beautiful, innocent, and kind. Pat has no idea how cutthroat high society can be, but she’s about to get a deadly first lesson.   Pat has fallen head over heels in love with Maud’s son, Tony, a clever young rake with a single his vicious, gold-digging wife. At the same time that she is dangerously infatuated with a married man, Pat’s world is turned upside down by a series of attacks on the estate—and a truly shocking murder. To save Tony and Maud, Pat must find the killer. But the list of suspects is as long as one of Maud’s guest When a woman has room at her table for one hundred friends, she’ll have more than her share of enemies.   “Anyone who aspires to become a writer,” said the New York Times, “could not do better than to study carefully the methods of Mary Roberts Rinehart.” The Great Mistake is a classic example of the golden age murder mystery at its best.  

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Classics, Golden Age Mystery, Mystery Thriller, Romance, Crime

407 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1940

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

[Peggy · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Great Mistake by Mary Roberts Rinehart was a great who dunnit! I never even got close to figuring it out. This novel was published in 1940 (follow the link to a complete list of her works with publication dates). Set in a rambling, eccentric mansion, The Cloisters, and full of interesting, suspicious characters this novel weaves a large web of mystery and suspense. Three murders, one mysterious attack and subsequent missing person and romance, this novel has it all!

Pat Abbott goes to work for Maud Wainwright as her live-in personal secretary. Not long after she starts work there a mysterious attack on Evan, the night watchman, occurs. His pants and his keys to Cloisters is missing! Things start moving fast from that point with Maud mysteriously coming home from an outing frail and nervous with a weak heart. Now pretty much bedridden. What happened that day as she was riding home in her car? What did she see that so shocked her? Maud's wayward, money hungry daughter-in-law shows up unexpectedly and moves back in with no intention of leaving anytime soon. A man who had run off years ago with a young girl returns home sick and ends up dead beside Maud's pool. Evan, the watchman goes missing from his hospital room. Tony, Maud's son, is falling for Pat, but there is that no good wife back and refusing to divorce and threatening to expose a big secret. Then there is the secret emergency meetings Maud has with her family attorney. Hmmm, lots of intrigue going on at the Cloisters. Great name for a mansion isn't it!? This story is told by Pat Abbott in recollection fashion as she writes a novel about the happenings at The Cloister. If you love Mary Roberts Rinehart you don't want to miss this one!

[Sandy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have read several other mysteries by this author, all of which were excellent. This one, however, does not rank among my favourite novels. In the case of this story, the author ought to have been awarded a prize for Most Convoluted Plot and Largest Cast of Suspects. Both seemed to be endless. About midway through, I began to wonder if the “great mistake” had been made by a character, the author, or the reader!

For me personally, the surprise ending compensated for the plodding narrative and earns the book a second star. If you like your mysteries complicated, this one is definitely for you. Bolster yourself with a pot of coffee and a warm blanket. It will keep you up well into the wee hours of the morning — or I should say several mornings!

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars This was loooong for a mystery with lots of detail. I’m not sure I wholly buy the villain’s motive too. It’s also interesting that MRR tells the story from Pat’s point-of-view so that the actual detecting by the local police chief, Jim Conway, is largely off the page. I can’t decide if I like this or not. It gives the story an immediacy because Pat is right in the middle of all the horrible things happening at The Cloisters. But we don’t get much of what actually helps solve the mysteries in the end until Jim gives a Poirot-like recitation. I did think one of the characters who ends up being the key to the whole thing was excellent. He was connected to so many characters in such interesting ways. Maud Wainwright is a superb character as well.

I thought there were a lot of similarities between this mystery and another of MRR’s called The Wall. I think I liked that one better on the whole. It was more cohesive. This one felt quite busy at times and the details didn’t pull together quite as crisply at the end. I loved listening to the Close Reads subscriber ‘Mystery Pod’ on this one. So fun!

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Published in 1940 originally, and I do recall reading books by this author many years ago. For Goodreads record this will appear to be the first I have read by Rinehart.

It is a slow burn with the young woman narrator in the act of reconstructing events over a period of time in which she took a position as private secretary to a wealthy woman in the area where she had grown up, now orphaned. She is soon invited to move in to the mansion, called The Cloisters. Also living there is her employer's son, someone the young woman is attracted to.
The characters always lie when given the opportunity to tell their stories. There are a good many murders, a very healthy dose of blackmail of and by many and misleading "facts" abound. A good book for a rainy, chilly day even if somewhat aggravating.
The descriptions of the house and servants are true to life as Rinehart herself owned several like properties as a result of her success.

I am amazed to see a Collection by Rinehart for sale in kindle format for ,99 cents on Amazon. It is 4,514 Pages! So...if you like her work and you're stuck inside...

Kindle Unlimited

[Lynn Neilson · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a writing style that likely was popular when the book was written, but is a little arduous to read in 2017. Everything is prefaced by either gloomy apprehension, or alerts that something dire is to come. "We didn't know then that. . . ." "I should have seen that there was worse to come. . . " With this method, the reader is dragged forward to find out what next catastrophe is going to occur. And there are a lot of catastrophes in this book. The problem is that this is somehow tiresome. I did finish the book, and overall it was a good story that concealed well the "who" in whodunnit, but I was pretty anxious for it to end. I know Ms. Rinehart is credited as being the inventor of the "Had-I-But-Known" school of mystery writing, and it likely is a genre that everyone should read at least once, but i think once was enough for me.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well here it is, my first Mary Roberts Rinehart book of the year. It's nice to kick off the year with such a fabulous read and a revisit to an author I feel as if I've know for years. Of course it hasn't been for years. It's only been since the middle of last year that I discovered her, and boy am I grateful for it. So I want to take a second and thank Yvette of in so many words... for the introduction. This was my 9th book by her and I already have another read, plus have started in on my third for the year.

Now onto my predictably glowing review of this book, and I promise not too much sugar. Well maybe just a tad too much. I'm sure you will forgive me. Like in almost all her other books, the back blurb goes overboard and makes poor Tony sound like such a cad. In fact Tony is a wonderful young man (the kind I would love to meet) who just happens to have made a huge mistake in marrying his gold digger of a wife. He and his mom, Patricia's new employer, are still paying for that mistake. It's not his fault that Patricia finds herself get into more than one close call. We would just have to chalk that up to bad timing and a overly strong sense of curiosity.

The story itself is one of the more complicated plots that I've read by Rinehart, and it was fantastic. Their is such a large cast of characters, many of whom have secrets that they really don't want to come out. More than one character arrives back in town after years of being away. Some of them aren't who they claim to be. More than one person will pay with their lives to keep all the secrets buried in the past.

See that wasn't too saccharine. I am almost positive, though won't say for certain, that I will probably not be able to do a Mary Roberts Rinehart review without it being overly positive. If I ever do, I will buy everyone chocolate cupcakes with cherry frosting.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my first experience with this author and it was a good read! After I finished, I read the first few chapters again so that I could see what I had missed the first time through. I didn't see it coming.

[Janelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a clever, complicated mystery! I loved the first person narration and the way the author built the tension and the suspense.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

The wealthy Wainwrights become enmeshed when they are subject to strange visitations, a wounded man is found on their premises, another man is murdered—and traced to their swimming pool. Young Pat Abbott, Widow Wainwright’s secretary-companion, tells the story, and reveals her growing love for Tony, son of Mrs. Wainwright’s first marriage, whose life is ruined by a beastly wife whose arrival introduces further complications. Additional murders and threats of murder—and eventually the apprehension of the killer. In her usual chatty vein, sometimes on the repetitious side, of novel-cum-mystery-cum-romance-plus obstacles.

4* The Circular Staircase
4* The Amazing Interlude
4* The Door
4* The Wall
4* The Yellow Room
3* The Red Lamp
4* Twenty-three and a Half Hours' Leave
3* The Great Mistake
TR The Man in Lower Ten
TR Through Glacier Park in 1915
TR The Bat
TR The Case of Jennie Brice
TR When a Man Marries
TR The Breaking POint

[Kaethe · Rating 4 out of 5]

One can't help thinking of Rebecca, but despite the high body count, this is more fun and less oppressive. Some banter, some ludicrous elements, but compelling and entertaining as all get-out.

I'm learning to value Penzler's picks for neglected crime classics.

Library copy

[Doreen Petersen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good.

[Marci · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really like Mary Roberts Rinehart’s books. Despite the padding in this story, I couldn’t make myself skim through anything, because there’s simply too much that could be vital to the solution that might be missed in a single skimmed page. I think the padding is due to the frame story: this tale is told by Patricia Abbott, looking back a year after the mystery starts. Rinehart does a brilliant job of getting into the mind of this level-headed young woman whose parents are dead and whose place in society is demoted by the necessity for her to earn her own living. She takes a job as social secretary to millionaire Maud Wainwright (this is back when “millionaire” meant somebody fabulously rich). Pat’s voice is sometimes naive, sometimes astute, and almost always reliable. She has two stories to tell, the main one being the murder mystery, and the secondary one being her own romance, which she keeps subtle.

The cast of characters was long enough that I got a couple slips of paper and kept notes to keep them all straight. I also kept notes of every time Pat foreshadows (in Rinehart’s famous “had I but known” style) the next problem or disaster. This way I was pretty sure of what was happening behind the scenes and why by the time I had read about three quarters through. But I didn’t figure out the culprit until close to the end. By then there was nobody else left with a remote possibility of being guilty, unless you could concoct a wildly improbable backstory for the French chef.

My only real criticism for this story was about Roger. It should not have happened. Roger could have been shut up somewhere or otherwise put out of action without it being permanent.

[Aubrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars
I really enjoyed this for about the first 2/3 of the story. Exciting, dark (but not too dark), foreshadowing reminiscent of Stephen King, and some sort of secret hovering over all like in Rebecca.
But it started to drag, and get too long, and I basically skimmed the last couple chapters. I sort of got to the point where I was no longer as invested in whodunnit as I was at the start.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this, but it was definitely too long. If it had been at least a hundred pages shorter it would be greatly improved. I enjoyed the narrative voice and the characters, but the solution itself was disappointing in certain aspects.

[Beck Henreckson · Rating 4 out of 5]

she really is the queen of American mystery!! just as good as Christie but always with the best heroines and cutest romances 🥹 didn't figure out the killer till very near the end because I was out of other options lol

[Kellie Reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

Awesome book very interesting plot and I love the old language. A lot of the book reminded me of the game of Clue.

[Franki]

A keep you on your toes mystery. This was my first Reinhart and I would definitely read another!

[Rick Mills · Rating 4 out of 5]

Major Characters:

Patricia “Pat” Abbott, Maud’s social secretary, our narrator
Maud Wainright, a wealthy widow
John Wainright, her husband (dead prior to story)
Tony Wainright, Maud’s son by her first marriage
Bessie Wainright, Tony’s estranged wife
Audrey Morgan, Pat’s friend
Lydia Morgan, her mother
Don Morgan, her runaway father
Dr. Bill Sterling, Audrey’s fiancé
Julian & Margery Stoddard, neighbors to The Cloisters
Dwight Elliott, Maud’s attorney
Amy Richards, a nurse
Jim Conway, chief of police
Larry Hamilton, Audrey’s friend
Evan Evans, night watchman

Locale: 1930’s Beverly (state not specified)

Synopsis: It is the tail and of the Depression, and rumors of war in Europe abound. The city of Beverly is divided in two society enclaves: the wealthy estates on The Hill (dominated by The Cloisters), and the village (home of the middle class). The Cloisters is a magnificent estate, comprising over 50 rooms and 20+ servants in a three story manse, square, surrounding an open courtyard; with an adjacent “playhouse” consisting of an indoor pool, indoor tennis courts, bar, and guest suites. Matriarch of The Cloisters is aging widow Maud Wainright, who lives there with her son Tony Wainright. She recruits young Patricia “Pat” Abbott from the village to serve as her social secretary.

Told in recollection, Pat describes her friendship with Audrey Morgan, daughter of Lydia and Tom Morgan. Tom had run away when she was a child and has not been seen since, and Lydia had divorced him in absentia. Pat fits in at the Cloisters, handling all Maud’s social affairs and correspondence with efficiency. There is concern when a prowler is seen lurking about The Cloisters and the adjacent Stoddard place, The Farm. The family dog, Roger, comes home one night with blood on his paws, having apparently walked through it. Checking about, they find the night watchman, Evan Evans, unconscious next to the pool, his trousers missing. His keys had been locked to a belt loop of the trousers, so the prowler now has all the keys to The Cloisters. Evans recuperates in the hospital, but escapes through a window and cannot be found.

Two long-forgotten people suddenly reappear in town. Bess, estranged wife of Tony, shows up at The Cloisters and begins to lord it over everyone. Don Morgan, Audrey’s father, comes home but is quite ill and seems near death; just looking for a place to rest quietly. Then he is missing - and turns up dead on a distant roadway, in his pajamas.

In the dark, Pat steps into an open elevator shaft and falls onto someone lurking at the bottom. This injures her ankle, but now it appears the lurker has used his keys to gain entry to The Cloisters. Tragedy will again occur - again at the swimming pool.

Review (Possible almost-spoilers ahead):

This is my second journey through this novel. I always enjoy Mary Roberts Rinehart, and this one does not disappoint, except for the "detective's list" trick pulled on the reader noted below.

One thing which makes for easy following in the Had I But Known (HIBK) tradition, is that the important things are highlighted by the author for us to remember, such as:

“Perhaps I should explain here the elaborate telephone arrangement at the Cloisters … the library had its own outside connection. All our private talks took place over it, a fact which was to be important later on” (Chapter V).

By the final chapter, I had quite a list of loose ends awaiting closure. They all got resolved, although a couple were just red herrings. In particular, the explanation of the cemetery vandalism incident was a real stretch and I was hoping for something relevant to the plot (plot - cemetery - get it?)

I was amused at the description of “the playhouse”. Indoor pool, indoor tennis courts, bar, and guest suites? Today we would call it a YMCA! (Well, the bar rules that out, I suppose)

One annoying point: The suspects are all nicely listed, reviewed, along with motives and opportunities, in the “detective’s list” in Chapter XXXV (page 317 in my 1946 edition). However, the killer is not on the list. Ouch!

As for the “Great Mistake” of the title: We are teased in the first chapter (page 11 in my edition) when Pat writes “Someone has said that murder is the great mistake, the one irrevocable error any individual can make,” but the real Great Mistake is finally revealed in Chapter XXXIX (page 348 in my edition). Maud’s first husband had been reported killed in the war (WWI in France), and she had remarried before waiting out the seven year period for him to be declared dead. That was the great mistake. Not a big deal, plot-wise, but there it is.

For additional reviews indexed by author, please visit The Mystillery Blog and try The Mystillery Reading Challenges!

[Troy Lindeman-Wyner · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just discovered MRR. She is known as the American Agatha Christie.
She wrote her books in the early to mid 1900’s. I look forward to reading many more of her books.

[Silver Screen Videos · Rating 4 out of 5]

During the peak of her forty-year writing career, Dorothy Roberts Rinehart was called the American Agatha Christie. Her novels outsold those of her male counterparts and reached the top of the general fiction bestseller lists. Unlike Christie, Rinehart’s books were more often romantic suspense stories than pure mysteries. Her novels featured female protagonists getting themselves into and out of trouble. But Rinehart could craft tricky mysteries that would have made Agatha Christie proud. “The Great Mistake,” written in 1940, provides relatively little suspense, but is a complex tale of multiple murders that might have given Hercule Poirot pause. Unfortunately, the book is also an example of a peculiar stylistic convention Rinehart popularized that many enjoy, but I find annoying.

Rinehart popularized the “had-I-but-known” school of mystery/suspense writing. I can best summarize the convention by referencing the principle of Chekhov’s gun. That maxim states that if there’s a gun on the wall in Act One of a play, it must go off by Act Three. In the had-I-but-known suspense writing style, the protagonist would say: “Had I but known the gun on the wall was loaded, the next day’s tragic events might never have occurred.” Rinehart uses her favorite device several times in “The Great Mistake,” which, in my opinion, was the book’s great mistake.

The protagonist of “The Great Mistake” is Pat Abbott, social secretary to wealthy widow Maud Wainwright. Maud and her son, Tony, live in a gigantic mansion called The Cloisters, a former European monastery that Maud’s late husband had taken apart and reassembled in the United States. The Cloisters and other homes of the ultra-wealthy residents of the town of Beverly lie in what’s called the “Hills” above the city itself. Pat grew up and lived in the town proper when Maud hired her. In contrast to the book’s scenes set in Beverly, the elite lifestyles of the Wainwrights and the other families living in the Hills stand out. The Hills’s residents spend much of their time throwing elaborate dinner parties. Pat even confesses her job requires skills in golf, tennis, and horseback riding rather than shorthand and typing.

“The Great Mistakes” is a murder mystery precipitated by the arrival of two long-missing individuals whose more recent whereabouts are shrouded in their own mysteries. First, Don Morgan, the ne’er-do-well husband of one of the Wainwrights’ neighbors, returns from France. Soon after, Tony’s equally ne’er-do-well wife, Bessie, returns from her European sojourn. Those who have read even a single mystery will suspect the two reappearances are connected, and they are. In the subsequent months, many bizarre events take place, including three murders, a disappearance that may be a fourth murder, and several assaults. Pat is at the center of two assaults. She falls down an open elevator shaft (the Cloisters has its private elevator) and later gets clunked in the head. Since turnabout is fair play, Pat later shoots a policeman. (This is not a spoiler since Pat names the cop and mentions his impending fate several times in the novel.)

Besides being the narrator of “The Great Mistake,” Pat occasionally plays detective. She’s more of a Nancy Drew than a Miss Marple. The local chief of police solves the mystery here. However, Pat goes undercover in Beverly to befriend a secretary who worked with a younger woman who abruptly left for France at the same time as Don Morgan 15 years earlier. The younger woman’s identity and current whereabouts are part of the book’s overall puzzle.

As a mystery, “The Great Mistake” is as Byzantine as I can recall. The book is about 400 pages long and takes place over several months. That timeline and the leisurely pace of the police’s usually fruitless investigations allow many bizarre events to transpire. As these strange events multiplied, I wondered if the author would eventually tie everything together by the novel’s conclusion. To my relief, Rinehart explains everything. The solution relies on several coincidences that occur rarely in real life but far more often in mysteries. These coincidences make it nearly impossible for readers to figure out the solution here other than by sheer lucky guessing. I think genre fans will enjoy the ultimate revelation, even though the author makes them wait until the last possible moment to do so.

The book’s length also allows the author to develop the characters well. As the book progresses, Pat, Maud, Tony, Bessie, and several others come alive. Rinehart reveals enough about the eventual victims to make their deaths seem pre-ordained in a Shakespearean sense rather than mere necessary elements out of a game of Clue. Several characters are unlikeable, but they are unlikeable in their unique ways. I enjoyed Pat’s conversations, digressions, and descriptions, even though they made the book much longer than it would have been at the pen of another author. Only rarely did I wish the author would get on with it.

Unfortunately, most of my annoyance centered on the author’s continued use of had-I-but-known foreshadowing. Rinehart does so in the worst possible manner by highlighting clues. Authors from Arthur Conan Doyle to Agatha Christie and beyond took great pride in revealing clues as their mysteries progressed, yet concealing them among innocent details and red herrings. Rinehart calls attention to some clues, like Maud’s unwillingness to answer the one working telephone in the mansion (unthinkable today, but not that unusual in 1940). The effect is like having Dr. Watson say: “Only later would I realize the significance of the dog’s failure to bark that night.”

Despite my frustration with the author’s overuse of the had-I-but-known device, I enjoyed “The Great Mistake.” The central mystery reminded me of those found in Ross MacDonald’s Lew Archer novels, with the sins of the past emerging to disastrous effect in the present. Also, the author’s loving attention to how the Wainwrights and others lived reminded me of our recent obsession with reality TV shows like the various “Real Housewives” series. But despite their wealth, the characters always struck me as real people. Fans of Golden Age mysteries or those willing to try this type of book would make a mistake by avoiding this novel.

[Robyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Early Bird Book Deal | Only one real suspect, despite the large cast of characters, but still a more entertaining book than some of her others | I was fairly sure how this would all shake out in the end, but so much was happening and there were so many people bound up in each other's pasts in strange ways that it was just a matter of waiting to see where the ride would take me.
The dog does not survive the book, which was unnecessary.

[Melinda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this okay but it was at times confusing. It was written in a different style swapping back and forth from the past to present on the same page at times. The mystery was intriguing though and I never suspected the person who did all the murders.

[Marigold · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mary Roberts Rinehart wrote mystery novels and other forms of fiction and non-fiction, between 1908 and the mid 1950s. I'm not sure how I discovered her, possibly through my mother? I got my hands on Rinehart's novel "The Album" when I was a teenager, and fell for it with every fiber of my Agatha Christie-obsessed nerdy little heart. The Album opens with an ax murder that happens in broad daylight in a home on a street mostly inhabited by families who still live as if it's 1897, though in the book it's more like the 1920s. I love The Album so much!

This mystery, The Great Mistake, has much in common with other works by MRR. There's a spunky heroine from a once-wealthy family who's down on her luck and has to work for a living. There are a lot of wealthy or semi-wealthy people who still employ drivers, landscapers, head maids, etc.

There are very few modern books that can get away with this, but in Rinehart I adore it for some reason, and that's the "had I but known" style! "If I had only known what was to happen next." "I would never see them alive again." "That night was the last time I would...." In Rinehart, I lap it up and love it so much!

In The Great Mistake, Pat has gone to work as a private secretary to Maud Wainwright, the wealthy social queen of the town of Beverly, at her mansion called The Cloisters. Then people start being murdered; Maud begins to act strangely; Pat is attacked; men are de-pantsed! Maud's handsome son Tony may or may not be a good guy and may or may not be falling for Pat. Tony's estranged wife makes life hard for everyone. And everyone is a suspect. This book is pretty long and by about 3/4 into it I was pretty sure Pat was going to be the killer herself! (That may or may not be true.)

Pat is that character who decides, MORE THAN ONCE, to walk around the house and grounds in the dark even though she knows the killer is probably someone very familiar with the house, who can get in anytime they want, or is someone already in the house. This is a plot device that drives me nuts!

Also - and I think this is not a spoiler because people want to know this kind of thing - the dog dies, very unnecessarily. It's not horrific or anything, but it's disappointing, because I feel like it was just done to increase the body count!

Overall though, I enjoyed this. It was long and very, very convoluted, but entertaining. Even when I reached the end and everything was explained, I still didn't understand completely the why and how behind it all, so Rinehart kept me guessing until the end and beyond.

[Pharmacdon · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title comes from a quote in the book: "Someone has said that murder is the great mistake, the one irrevocable error any individual can make."
There are similar plot lines to The Wall.
The narrator is the principal female character, although in The Wall, the narrator was the matriarch, whereas the narrator in this book, Pat, was the secretary to the matriarch.
There is a son in both books who was married to a gold-digging hussy, to use a kinder way of describing her, who returns unexpectedly and unwanted to the family home, in search of more money, even though the bills are paid by the family.
The narrator hints at things to come as well as retains information that she doesn't tell the chief of police, who, oddly enough, are friends. The district attorney and other outsiders mostly interfere with the investigations.
A lot of running around at night and secret meetings.

The central mystery begins when a man who had run off years ago with a young girl is found dead at the estate. This murder is the first in a series of strange events and attacks, and more deaths. Pat is drawn deeper into the investigation, even as she develops feelings for Tony, the son who is already married. The mystery is rooted in secrets from the past that are finally coming to light, with multiple characters having motives and hidden connections. The book's conclusion ties all the disparate plot threads together, revealing a surprising killer.
When I read the chapter on when the killer was finally caught, I had to read it again because I thought I had missed the name. But the killer's name isn't revealed until the last chapter when the events are reviewed by Pat, the narrator, who was writing a book about what had happened.
This is a mystery you would never guess who did it, because of the intertwining of the relationships and family secrets.

[Pupottina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mary Roberts Rinehart, scrittrice statunitense della prima metà del secolo scorso, ci ha lasciato dei capolavori del giallo classico. Ottimi romanzi che non temono uguali. Durante la sua carriera, ha riscosso un grande successo di pubblico che l’ha consacrata ad essere una delle gialliste più famose e meglio remunerate di tutti i tempi. I suoi polizieschi non hanno eguali. Inoltre, molte delle sue storie poliziesche sono state adattate per il cinema.
La protagonista di IL GRANDE ERRORE è Patricia Abbott che ha come un sesto senso sotto forma di un brivido d’inquietudine, prima di prendere servizio come segretaria presso la famiglia Wainwright.
Quell'inquietudine, forse, è dovuta alle parole che inconsciamente le tornano alla mente. In molti hanno espresso pareri contrari alla sua decisione lavorativa. Molti hanno cercato di dissuaderla dal mettere piede in quella splendida tenuta. Ma lei, la dolce Patricia, non sta nella pelle. È eccitata dall'idea di intraprendere una nuova esperienza professionale. La tenuta, dove Patricia si trasferisce, è popolata da un bizzarro campionario umano. Patricia non può immaginare che di lì a poco accadrà una tragedia. È così che Patricia diventa più attenta e perspicace. Si pone domande che avrebbe dovuto porsi prima. Alcune situazioni, strane o bizzarre, cominciano ad assumere un diverso, terribile significato.
Luoghi e piccoli episodi della sua quotidianità, perfino semplici oggetti, si apprestano a diventare elementi di cruciale importanza nella ricerca della verità che dovrà scoprire lei stessa.
IL GRANDE ERRORE è un noir dall'andamento lento, ma coinvolgente. I dettagli assumono grande importanza. Il lettore attento può ragionare e farsi delle idee. Può affiancare Patricia Abbott nella sua investigazione da dilettante. Il lettore, come Pat, può vedere come i suoi sogni, in realtà, si stiano trasformando nel peggiore incubo della sua vita. È una lettura avvincente, perfettamente costruita nella trama e nello stile classico.

[MaryJo Dawson · Rating 4 out of 5]

When you can't put a book down because you have to see how it all comes together and who was commiting all the murders, it deserves a 4 star rating. But in some areas I'd give it a 3, so perhaps a 3.5 is the most accurate. The setting for the book is at least seven decades ago, and still written late in Rinehart's career. So you have an abundance of refined and wealthy ladies who take to their beds when they are stressed, and pampered by private nurses for weeks when they sustain an injury either physical or emotional. That seems rather ludicrous these days.
And the plot gets so involved the reader has to pay very close attention in order not to miss anything. But I loved the way the author gives you clues as to what the future is going to hold, and gives you enough information to come up with at least a portion of the solution.
There is romance, an unlikable wife as the result of a bad marriage, a very likeable heroine in Pat, occasional bursts of humor, the wealthy family with plenty of secrets, and a very good local detective.
The whole story takes place over many months, and I like the way Pat admits she and others often come to totally wrong conclusions, refuse to admit vital facts due to fear and trying to protect those they care about, and generally muck up the whole business.
And after all of that, when the entire mess not completely revealed until the last few pages, it comes together in a very satisfactory manner.

[Darien · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well written, with some complex plotting, but I didn't develop a connection or even liking for the characters. They were all either naïve, stupid, mean, cowardly or ineffectual. Except for the small town police, they were actually the most competent humans in the story. And for the story to work the reader must accept the incredible coincidence that if anyone goes to Europe they end up on Paris, meeting the only other people with connections to this small town who are also in Paris. And when people from Paris come to the United States, they all end up on this small town. And one womanizing man can end up having three wives, two children and one lover all connected and living in close proximity to one another - and yet in total ignorance of said connection.
And please tell me how one small town cop can find out easily that a man who abandoned his wife years ago actually divorced her, and the woman marries a very wealthy man and never takes the time or effort to find out if her marriage is legal? What?
And a stupid young wealthy man who marries a gold-digger never takes the time or effort to prove grounds for divorce as she parties her way around the world?
*sigh*, this is why I don't read many of the older "classic" murder mysteries.

[Tara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not sure what my ultimate opinion of this book is, despite having finished it some time ago. Its pace was rather slow, which accounts for its length of nearly 400 pages. But in a way, this almost extreme attention to the day to day drudgery of living through a long murder investigation that drags on for months felt very realistic. Some cases are solved in days or even a few hours, others may take years to fully unravel. So while sometimes it felt like a slog, ultimately this was a unique approach that worked in its favor. Where I felt like it failed was in the ending--you might be able to figure out who the killer was, but not really because of any evidence that you are given. Key pieces of information were withheld until the very end, which always feels like a dirty trick. I also felt as though the central romance was a bit lacking--the narrator seemed too nonchalant about the fellow for it to have any heat. Overall I would say I preferred it rather that not, even if its not my favorite book.

[Barb · Rating 4 out of 5]

THE GREAT MISTAKE by Mary Roberts Rinehart originally was released in 1940. It's a classic mystery story told from the perspective of Pat, a young woman who finds herself in the middle of deception and murder. I don't do spoilers in my reviews, so I will just reveal that there are three human murders, multiple deceptions of people hiding who they really are, and many lies about who knows what. The mystery weaves together several characters, and it's how they are truly connected that causes the chaos.

Like many classic mysteries written in the 1930s and 1940s, THE GREAT MISTAKE features a sprawling manor house, a wealthy widow, her secretary (Pat), a hateful wife, doting son, a house full of servants, and an entire roster of characters that live in town but who play integral roles. Overall, I enjoyed the mystery. It provided a nice diversion and the final wrap-up of the murders (the who & the why) satisfied me as a reader.

[Megan Willome · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Great Mistake Mary Roberts Rinehart

I'd never heard of Mary Roberts Rinehart, the American Agatha Christie, but she is definitely a mystery writer I would read again. One review compared the narrator, Pat, to a slightly older Nancy Drew, and that was definitely her vibe, but with a more complicated backstory.

Rinehart is said to have popularized the "had I but known" trope, which I enjoyed at first, when it felt fresh, but grew tired of as the plot unfolded.

I've read that Rinehart was as much interested in writing a romance as a compelling mystery, and in this book, I preferred the mystery to the romance.

Roger

For you, Patricia,
there is only one true love,
who barks, never bites.

–Megan Willome