The Breaking Point

I just had to bail on The Breaking Point, an out of copyright mystery by Mary Roberts Rinehart. It's the first of her books to disappoint me and after struggling to Chapter 8, I just can't finish another 40. It's a shame because like her previous works, it is filled with astute observations about social classes and daily life in the 1920s. The idea is very worthy as well - a 10 year old scandal is revived by chance - but her writing is terrible here. It didn't take too long to get confused about who was who, and sentences are written in a curious, almost backwards way. It reads like a breathless first draft that lacks real polish. Time to pick another one - that's the advantage of free :)