Locked Doors

Mary Roberts Rinehart was known as the American Agatha Christie for her many short stories and novels of mystery and suspense. Locked Doors is the second of her Nurse Hilda Adams stories. (The first is The Buckled Bag.)

The intrepid private nurse/investigator is charged with the care of two young boys in a home full of conundrums. Both parents are fearful but refuse to leave their home and won't say why. The rugs have been rolled up and the furniture piled into the middle of each room. Their anxiety is catching, as Miss Adams too furtively watches for danger as she searches for clues. Why, she wonders, do they lock every door in the house? And who or what is the menace that terrifies them?

Public Domain (P)2016 Anne Hancock

A great short story!

This was written in 1914, so this is a delightful peek into the past. There are no antibiotics yet, and children died of the flu everyday. It is a mystery thriller with (maybe) a little romance.