The Red Lamp: 0 (An American Mystery Classic) Paperback – 30 Nov. 2018

Da sonst amazon nicht erreichbar: das Taschenbuch ist in sehr guter Verfassung bereits kurz nachder Bestellung bei mir eingetroffen!!! Also: NICHT verloren gegangen

This is a completely charming mystery about an absent-minded professor who longs for more excitement in his life - and lives to regret he ever had such a wish.Who'd have dreamed that the professor would end up in a hotbed of sinister happenings by spending the summer on the lovely waterfront property he just inherited from his Uncle Horace? Or that he'd become the number-one suspect for a host of appalling crimes?In the once placid neighborhood of Oakville, sheep are found with their throats cut, ghosts are everywhere, and an oddly random assortment of people turn up dead. The professor's wife is not surprised. She's inherited "the second sight" from her Scotch ancestors and in fact predicted a terrible outcome from going anywhere near Uncle Horace's haunted house.The professor, who addresses us via his journal, never ceases to be amusing, even in his darkest hours. After all, he's a man who, when he can't sleep, instead of counting sheep repeats over and over, "Milton and Dryden and Pope."To provide a change of pace from ghosts, messages from the spirit world, dead sheep and murder, there's a quirky love story between the professor's niece and a heroic young man who can't afford to marry her.Meanwhile, the ever-thickening mystery will have your head spinning (at least it did mine). The title comes from the red lamp found lit in the library with Uncle Horace's corpse.Published in 1925, this book was written in an era when educated people were hosting séances, and the Society for Psychical Research was in full swing, seeking scientific proof of life after death.I absolutely loved The Red Lamp. It's thoroughly American (people run around the countryside armed with pistols and shotguns), yet has the air of an English country house mystery.

The book was enjoyable, but a little confusing to me at first. I had difficulty keeping up with what time periods. I felt like I was going around in circles. It’s difficult for me to explain without giving the plot or ending away.

I was disappointed in this MRR (and I have read most.) This was written from a male point of view, and the females don't play a big role in it. Far too much internal monologue, and 'telling' rather than showing.

I love the chatty, warm writing voice Mary RR had, and though her books can be a little diffuse in their ideas, and very wordy, I love to read them. In this one, she chose to structure the book as journal entries made by a professor of English Literature. I still hear her feminine voice, though, and it didn't bother me.This novel has much more of a supernatural touch than her others, and had a conclusion that wrapped up all the storylines that a mystery reader wonders about, and left a few tantalizing questions about life after death and the possibilities of "crossing over." I've been interested in the whole Spiritualism craze that swept the country 100 years or so ago, and Rinehart's details about the way they did seances were accurate.A note to newcomers to Rinehart: She was the forerunner of the "Had I But Known" school -- in fact she may have been the whole school. Example: "Had I but known what tragedy awaited us all, I would've never picked up that dead fish," or whatever. It will indeed drive you crazy at times. She has a habit of talking about a clue before it has fallen into the stream of the narrative. Don't bother rereading and thinking "What necklace?" or "Who's Nancy?" She'll explain it soon. Just think of Rinehart as your chatty, slightly batty, Aunt Mary, who turns out to actually know what she's talking about.