So much has been going on this first week after Christmas break. I had so much planning to do for my literature/writing class and then in Latin we were preparing for our first Certamen competition. (We got 2nd place out of 27 teams! We even beat out the elite public high school that all the smart kids go to!) I was very tense about it all. The weather was crazy this week, so Sean got a day off and a couple 2 hour delays which messed up carpooling. Then there are other things going on as well. . . . so the week felt chaotic.
I was going to be a good girl and read my first book that I had selected for my Mystery of the Month challenge, The Name of the Rose. But, alas, it is very similar in tone and length to Joan of Arc, a book I just finished reading, so even though the Name of the Rose seemed intriguing, I just wasn't up for another long, detailed book, written in the style of forgotten Medieval manuscript. So after a couple days I gave up and instead I turned to my old friend, Mary Rinehart Roberts and I downloaded The Bat on my Kindle. I can not read her books slowly and I wound up consuming it in a couple days.
The Bat has a lot of the same conventions that Roberts' many other mysteries have: an old spinster rents a house for the summer. She brings with her her personal maid of many years. Their relationship brings a lot of humor into an otherwise hair-raising story. There is also a beloved niece who is staying with her. And there's something about a bank heist and a falsely accused bank employee. These features have all been in other mysteries I've read by Roberts. This one though has the mastermind criminal The Bat in it. He seems almost supernatural and all sorts of legends have cropped up. There is always some sign of a bat at the site of his crimes, even sometimes, a dead bat nailed to a wall. The police have been stymied by the Bat's elusiveness and no one ever knows where he will appear next.
Our heroine, the old lady spinster (I can't even recall her name right now!) is of a plucky nature. She's always wanted an adventure, but her quiet life has always prevented it. Now's her chance. When she begins to receive death threats that apparently are meant to drive her away from her newly rented home, she determines to get to the bottom of things. She begins to practice shooting a revolver, she has locks installed on the french windows, and she calls a detective to come help her out. One scary, surprising thing happens after another and it is all crowded into one harrowing night with many twists and turns and unexpected happenings. Really, it seemed to me Roberts was having fun seeing how much she could stuff into one night without becoming entirely ludicrous. I bet she had lots of fun writing these.
This story was a fun romp. The final twist at the very end was quite satisfying. I heartily enjoyed reading The Bat.
For more book reviews go to Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks.
Sounds like a great story. Will have to check it out.
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