Sight Unseen by Mary Roberts Rinehart (1916)

 

abebooks

This story is contained in Sight Unseen and The Confession. Please see my separate review of The Confession.

About the author: About the author: Mary Roberts Rinehart (1876 – 1958) was an American writer, often called the American Agatha Christie, although her first mystery novel was published 14 years before Christie's first novel in 1920. Rinehart is considered the source of the phrase "The butler did it" from her novel The Door (1930), although the novel does not use the exact phrase. Rinehart is also considered to have invented the "Had-I-But-Known" school of mystery writing, with the publication of The Circular Staircase (1908). (from a Wikipedia article).

Major characters:

The Neighborhood Club:

• Horace Johnson, our narrator, an attorney
• --- Johnson, his wife
• Herbert Robinson
• Alice Robinson, his wife
• Dr. Sperry, a heart specialist
• Mrs. Dane

and others:

• Arthur Wells, neighbor, and the victim
• Elinor Wells, his wife
• Suzanne Gautier, the Wells governess
• Arthur Hawkins, the Wells butler
• Miss Alice Jeremy, a medium
• Clara, Mrs. Dane's companion
• Charlie Ellingham

Locale: not stated

Synopsis: The Neighborhood Club is a gathering of six neighbors (see above list) who have dinner together Monday evenings in rotation at their homes. The dinners are followed by a discussion or some entertainment. 

It is Mrs. Dane's turn to host. She is confined to a wheelchair and has a companion, Clara, to assist her. The others are surprised to find she has lined up a medium to conduct a seance for them. The medium, a young woman named Miss Alice Jeremy, arrives and conducts the seance; and Mrs. Dave has Clara record the proceedings. It is 9:30 PM. They are surprised when Miss Jeremy describes a certain room, a man being shot to death while shaving, and someone trying to cover up the crime. The Club is shocked at this account but put it down to just a dramatic entertainment.

The party breaks up. At midnight Horace Johnson (our narrator) receives a phone call from Dr. Sperry. Sperry has received a call to attend their neighbor Arthur Wells.  Horace joins him and they go to the Wells home to him shot to death, and several aspects of the death align with Miss Jeremy's visions: the location of the house key, the time and location of the injury, and the fact the victim was in the midst of shaving.

Review: This short story started out strong but ultimately was disappointing. The premise was interesting: how could a medium give a real-time, play-by-play account of a murder happening a few houses away? I was expecting a "Murder of Roger Ackroyd" trick type explanation at the end of how this was accomplished, but the explanation was nothing remotely reasonable. I realize spiritualism and mind reading was a big thing as of this writing, but using that as the explanation doesn't really cut it. It came across as an easy way out to end the story quickly.

The other thing that bugged me about this story is - who is Charlie Ellingham, anyway? He is mentioned briefly in the story but never really introduced or connected up to any of the characters, and here he is a big part of the "solution".

Please also see this review by Bev Hankins on My Reader's Block.

Be sure to visit The Mystillery for my mystery reading challenges!