This is a small collection of 3 short mystery stories including : 

 

Episode of the Wandering Knife: After a party at Strathmore House which included the Mayor, the host’s daughter-in-law is found murdered as the investigation begins the murder weapon has a habit of appearing and disappearing. 

 

The Man Who Hid His Breakfast; Inspector Tom Brent’s last case is a doozy Mrs Ingalls is strangled by her daughter’s stocking in her bedroom. 

 

and The Secret: When Hilda is disappointed after being refused a war post overseas instead she accepts a post as a nurse for a lady whose life could be being threatened by her daughter after a series of accidents. 

 

Only the last one actually features sleuth Hilary Adams as mentioned on the cover.  

 

Mary Roberts Rinehart is considered to be the US equivalent to Agatha Christie and having read these I can understand how she acquired this reputation and why they were popular - they are an easy read and have interesting storylines which are certainly page turners.  These were published in 1950 and the language is naturally dated in places and often is very much of a certain ‘class’ not what I would term everyday language for an ‘average’ person (and I include myself in this category). 

 

The stories certainly were not formulaic but were quite complex in plot terms and had unexpected twists and turns.  I also found that police involvement was minimal in the same way that many Agatha Christie’s were a lot of detecting is done by the experienced amateur with police support.