The Case of Jennie Brice

By Mary Roberts Rinehart

Book Overview

Mrs. Pittman's well-to-do Pittsburgh family didn't approve of her marriage, so the young bride moved away and lost touch with her relatives. Years later, she has returned to her native city as a widow and now runs a boarding house, one of the only jobs available to respectable women in the early twentieth century. Rooms at Mrs. Pittman's place are cheap because of the annual floods from the Allegheny River, which inundate the building's basement and first floor. Ordinarily, the overflowing waters are just a mild nuisance but this year the flood takes a sinister turn when a headless corpse emerges from the waters. One of Mrs. Pittman's tenants, actress Jennie Brice, has disappeared and the landlady is certain not only that the unidentified body is Jennie's but also that Jennie's husband is the killer. Lacking evidence, the police have dropped the case but Mrs. Pittman's discovery of a broken knife and blood-stained rope are enough to strengthen her resolve. An eager young reporter and other amateur detectives join Mrs. Pittman in her crusade to solve the crime, and their efforts lead to a budding romance that might help bring the lonely landlady back into the family fold.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0486819469
• ISBN13: 9780486819464
• Release Date: November 2017
• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Length: 112 Pages
• Weight: 0.36 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Not at all dated

This book was written in 1912, but unless readers take the time to check out the publication history in the front of the book, they will probably never guess that this book is almost a century old. The Case of Jenny Brice is still an intriguing murder mystery with a realistic heroine. What strikes me most about this (and others by Rinehart) is that as you read, you don't think, "This is an amazing book to have been written 100 years ago." You think simply, "What an amazing book." This is a very short book, actually more of a novella, which makes it an excellent book to read when you can take a day just to enjoy a good mystery. The Case of Jenny Brice is atmospherically set during a flood in a boardinghouse of a poor Pittsburgh neighborhood. From the very beginning, Rinehart develops a real sense of place. Unlike too many amateur detectives in novels, this heroine has a believable reason for being involved in the case. Again, seen as a product of 1912, Miss Pittman is an especially extraordinary woman, but even without that in mind, she is a convincing character. The Case of Jenny Bright has been referred to as not one of Rinehart's most outstanding mysteries, but in light of the stiff competition from her other novels, that is not really a criticism. Compared with many of today's better mysteries, The Case of Jenny Bright holds its own. It is not just a curiosity because of its age; it is a fascinating mystery in its own right.