K Paperback – June 13, 2013

At the start, you aren't surefire you've picked a mystery or a romance. While there are questions, this is not a novel of mystery. It is a romance - and in a broad, over arching way, we know the end from the beginning.The sub plots, however, are many. The book is engaging enough to read without being tiresome, but its easy to put down & return to later. The story plods along, much like life. Most characters make bad choices & feel the burden of those consequences.While it has philosophical and moments of moral questioning it does not become too deep and is not stuffy.The loose ends are tied up neatly at the end of the story, and, for some, we imagine a happily ever after.A nice, average story.

...but rather a character study of a damaged man finding his feet and his purpose again. Rinehart excelled in denoting character, and this is worth reading. The "annotated" is a bit disappointing, consisting only of a brief afterword; to me "annotated" means copious footnotes.

Here is a mystery, but not a common mystery about crime. But about a man's life. He's so mysterious, his name is just a letter. We get to take a tour of the "street", with all its faults, and all its considerations. We learn about all the people, and their thoughts and feelings, and then, we get to see them all intertwine, like lace. With K and Sidney, and Max and Dr Ed, Aunt Harriet and Sidney's mother, and how their lives all touch. And then the mystery is solved, and it's astounding and happy. I love a happy ending.

I don't go for hero-as-saint books. Also, the plot has been used so many times; although to be fair, given that this book was written about a hundred years ago it may not have been so shop worn. OTOH, I have encountered this very same plot mostly in older books. People aren't so saintly these days, I guess.

Quite philosophical and very evocative of another time, other values, another world view.Still has plenty to say about both good and evil. About second chances and the problem of sin....Really fun to discover not what I think about people shortly after the turn of the 20th century, but of what people at the turn of the century thought about themselves.

I like Mary Roberts Rinehart mysteries but not so much her other books. She is a great writer in describing the culture and emotions of her characters. Her plots often seem the same though. I have read most of her books and this one is good but not her best.

I love sweet, innocent romances with a twinge of mystery. Rinehart has a charming way of weaving such stories, while also growing her characters through hardship and self-realization. Overall, a pleasant read.

Absolutely lovely tale with multiple love situations. K is such an ideal character and he is the center of the whole narrative even when it deals with the sub-stories. Thus one enjoys his actions and reactions throughout. This is essentially a love story with just a touch of mystery.

K by Mary Rinehart Roberts3 stars & 3/10 hearts. Honestly, I’m not sure what to rate or think about this book. From the beginning it made me uncomfortable. There’s an awful lot of swearing, a man who’s always flirting with women, a man & woman who move in together & end up expecting (they marry in the end), hints that a man had an affair with a girl, lots of talk of & a scene of a man kissing/wanting another woman after he’s married, a man & a woman taking a room in a hotel (nothing happens)... and more. Lots of talk of infidelity/affairs. And the whole outlook on how women are trapped into marriage with men who’ll just go chase other women was so sad. The redeeming quality was K. and Johnny. I love K. so very much. He was amazing. He was the most upright of them all, next to Sidney. And Johnny was soo amazing. Sidney was sweet too. The message of evil being paid for in the end & second chances I did enjoy, and the cozy homey-ness, as well as the humour. But though there were good stuff in it, honestly this book had way too much content for me to enjoy it. I rate it 3 stars for the sake of the writing, K, Johnny, Sidney, & the good parts of it, but I don’t want to read it again & I’m deleting it off my kindle. People who aren’t sensitive to the content I mentioned (which is not glorified or endorsed) will probably enjoy it.A Favourite Quote: “Surely the wages of sin were wretchedness and misery. None of it paid. No one got away with it.”A Favourite Beautiful Quote: “As different as smug, satisfied summer from visionary, palpitating spring[.]”A Favourite Humorous Quote: “‘Him,’ said Mrs. Rosenfeld, who was occasionally flowery, ‘sittin' up as straight as this washboard, and his silk hat shinin' in the sun; but exceptin' the car, which was workin' hard and gettin' nowhere, the whole outfit in the arms of Morpheus.’“Mrs. Lorenz, ... who was unfamiliar with mythology, gasped at the last word. ‘Mercy!’ she said. ‘Do you mean to say he's got that awful drug habit!’”