Bedelia (31 page)
Authors: Vera Caspary
“You must read
Bedelia
to see just how slick Miss Caspary's technique of soft-shoe terror can beâhow frightening she can make the chatter at an innocent dinner party, the lure of a lady's deshabille, the glimpse of a black pearl in a dresser drawer.”
â
New York Times
“A sinister entertainment, especially for admirers of the psychological horror story.”
â
New Yorker
“Vera Caspary's gift is perhaps more subtle and deadly than Jim Thompson's, David Goodis's, and Charles Willeford's.”
âRobert Polito, author of
Savage Art: A Biography of Jim Thompson
“A tour de force of psychological suspense,
Desperate Housewives
meets
Double Indemnity
in Caspary's
Bedelia.
”
âLiahna Armstrong, President Emerita, Popular Culture Association
Vera Caspary
Afterword by A. B. Emrys
ISBN: 9781558615052 (print only)
Meet Laura Hunt, a “modern woman” âravishing, elegant, ambitious, and utterly unknowable. No one can resist her charms, not even cynical NYPD detective Mark McPherson sent to track down the killer who has turned Laura into a faceless corpse. By day McPherson interrogates the men who loved her; by night, he combs her apartment for clues, gazing at her portrait, smelling her lingering scent. One stormy night, the door opens to an electrifying plot twist.
Laura
is a work of riveting psychological suspense, earning Otto Preminger's 1944 film adaptation an Academy Award, and lasting renown as one of the greatest film noirs.
“An intriguing melodrama . . . A top-drawer mystery.”
âNew York Times
“Everyone loves the movie, of course, but it is now possible again to read this stunning novel with one of the great surprise moments in the history of mystery fiction. Brava!”
âOtto Penzler, owner, The Mysterious Bookshop
“
Laura
continues to weave a spell . . . achieving a kind of perfection in its balance between low motives and high style.”
âRoger Ebert,
Chicago Sun Times
“
Laura
will beguile and unsettle readers: a love story with a sinister underside . . . it remains a compelling original.”
âLiahna Armstrong, president emerita, Popular Culture Association
VERA CASPARY
is the author of many books, plays, and screenplays. Her film credits include
The Blue Gardenia
and
A Letter to Three Wives.
Dorothy B. Hughes
Afterword by Amy Villarejo
eISBN: 9781558617742 | ISBN: 9781558614680
For three years Julie Guilles, the daughter of wealthy American expats, has navigated Nazi-occupied Paris as an agent of the French Resistance. Caught in a web of political intrigue, Julie flees to New York in secret, where an acquaintance from the old world turns up dead on her doorstep. Once a sheltered socialite, Julie must rely on raw nerve and a smuggled diamond necklace to find the legendary Blackbirder, a trafficker who flies refugees to freedom across the Mexican border.
“One of crime fiction's finest writers of psychological suspense.”
âMarcia Muller, author of the Sharon McCone novels
“Dorothy B. Hughes was such a mistress of dark suspense, I always had to read the end of her books first to keep from biting off all my fingernails.”
âMargaret Maron, author of the Deborah Knott novels
Dorothy B. Hughes
Afterword by Lisa Maria Hogeland
eISBN: 9781558617223 | ISBN: 9781558614550
Postwar Los Angeles is a lonely place where a strangler is preying on young women. Dix Steele, a cynical vet with a chip on his shoulder, is the LAPD's top suspect. Dix knows enough to watch his step, especially since his best friend is on the force, but when he meets the sultry Laurel Gray, something begins to crack. Hughes's brilliant portrayal of American masculinity and the fine line between danger and desire became the classic film noir by Nicholas Ray, starring Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Grahame.
In a Lonely Place
is an unforgettable thriller.
“If you wake up in the night screaming with terror, don't say we didn't warn you.”
âNew York Times Book Review
“A tour de force laying open the mind and motives of a killer with extraordinary empathy. The structure is flawless, and the scenes of postwar LA have an immediacy that puts Chandler to shame. No wonder Hughes is the master we keep turning to.”
âSara Paretsky, author of the V.I. Warshawski novels
“A superb novel by one of crime fiction's finest writers of psychological suspense . . . What a pleasure it is to see this tale in print once again!”
âMarcia Muller, author of the Sharon McCone novels
“This lady is the queen of noir, and
In a Lonely Place
is her crown.”
âLaurie R. King, author of the Mary Russell novels
DOROTHY B. HUGHES
(1904â1993) was the author of several crime novels, many of which were made into major motion
pictures. Her books include
The Blackbirder
,
In a Lonely Place
,
Ride the Pink Horse
, and
The Fallen Sparrow
.
Evelyn Piper
Afterword by Maria Dibattista
eISBN: 9781558617759 | ISBN: 9781558614741
Blanche Lake, a young mother, arrives to pick up her daughter at nursery school. But Bunny Lake has vanished, and soon everyone suspects that she is merely a figment of her mother's female imagination. Searching desperately for her daughter, with no help from the police, Blanche needs every trick in the book to navigate a world that distrusts and disowns her. This psychological thriller was made into a classic motion picture in 1965 by Otto Preminger.
“The distraught, gutsy, and hip mother I played in
Bunny Lake Is Missing
is my all-time favorite role.”
âCarol Lynley
“A brilliant tale of psychological suspense,
Bunny Lake is Missing
is a classic thrillerâa riveting revisit to the dark side of the 50s, where the tension beneath the calm surface has an undertow that drags the reader into its grip. Prime pulpâpure pleasure.”
âLinda Fairstein, author of
The Bone Vault
“A beautiful job . . . Frantic scenes of action, contagious terror, and near hysteria.”
â
San Francisco Chronicle
EVELYN PIPER
was the pseudonym of Merriam Modell (1908â1994), whose novels include
The Lady and Her Doctor
,
Hanno's Doll
, and
The Nanny
(1965), which was made into a
film starring Bette Davis.
Olive Higgins Prouty
Afterword by Judith Mayne
eISBN: 9781558616332 | ISBN: 9781558614765
A soaring romance and one of the greatest makeover stories in literature,
Now, Voyager
, first enthralled readers in 1941 and became a screen phenomenon the following year. Bette Davis triumphantly portrayed heroine Charlotte Vale, the shy, dowdy Boston heiress who blossoms into a defiant, sexually liberated woman. After a nervous breakdown releases her from the tyranny of her mother and blueblood society, Charlotte embarks on an ocean cruise where her fabulous new wardrobe and burgeoning charm lead to a love affair with a married man. Charlotte's transformation has just begun. . . .
“At last we have the moon and the stars: at last, that is, the public can read the novel on which one of Hollywood's most stirring melodramas is based.”
âTania Modleski, author of
Loving With a Vengeance
“Like the film it inspired, Olive Higgins Prouty's
Now, Voyager
is as striking for the conventions it bucks as for the ones it embraces: a vivid reminder of a time when people crossed the ocean in liners and wore hats, and a hymn to an American ideal of social, moral, and emotional independence.”
âDavid Leavitt, author of
The Man Who Knew Too Much
OLIVE HIGGINS PROUTY
(1882â1974) is the author of many books including
Stella Dallas
(1923), which was adapted into three films and a long-running radio serial. Later in her life, Prouty became patron and mentor to Sylvia Plath, and the inspiration for Philomena Guinea, the meddlesome character in Plath's
The Bell Jar
.
Gypsy Rose Lee
Afterword by Rachel Shteir
eISBN: 9781558617612 | ISBN: 9781558615038
A mystery set in the underworld of burlesque theater in 1941,
The G-String Murders
draws from the larger-than-life experiences of the legendary queen of the striptease. When one performer is found strangled with a g-string, no one is above suspicion. The cops face off with the theater's tough-talking guys, and it's clear that Gypsy will have to crack the case herself. The basis of the 1943 film
Lady of Burlesque
starring Barbara Stanwyck,
The G-String Murders
was the first of two murder mysteries written by Gypsy Rose Lee.
“Recommended for the readers who feel better when their eyebrows are raised.”
â
New Yorker
“A rich and lusty job, brimming over with infectious vitality and a hilarious jargon of her own.”
â
Life
“Lurid, witty. . . rich show business vocabulary and stage door gags make her book almost a social document.
The G-String Murders
builds up to a hair-raising climax.”
â
Time
Gypsy Rose Lee
Foreword by Erik Lee Preminger
eISBN: 9781558618022 | ISBN: 9781558618015
A sexy, hard-boiled murder mystery by America's most famous burlesque entertainer, this steamy sequel to
The G-String Murders,
Gypsy Rose Lee's noir thriller, reads as if it's ripped from her own diary pages. When her mother finds a dead body in Gypsy's honeymoon trailer, Gypsy realizes that no one is who they seem to be and everyone is worthy of suspicion.
“Pure ozone to those tired of ordinary oxygen.”
â
New Yorker
“One of the greatest mysteries ever written.”
âPhiladelphia Daily News
“Our most famous burlesque queen may raise the temperature with a strip tease, but she chills the blood when she goes into her detective routine.”
â
Boston Post
GYPSY ROSE LEE
(1911â1970) was the most famous burlesque performer and striptease artist of her day, renowned as much for her witty repartee as for removing her clothes. Born Louise Hovick in Seattle, Washington, Lee first performed with her sister on the vaudeville circuit, eventually landing star billing at a top New York City burlesque theater. In 1937 she moved to Hollywood and went on to appear in twelve films and her own television show. A regular contributor to the
New Yorker,
Lee published two novels, and her memoir,
Gypsy
(1957), which became the inspiration for the hugely popular Broadway musical,
Gypsy: A Musical Fable
and the 1962 film starring Rosalind Russell and Natalie Wood.
Valerie Taylor
Afterword by Lisa Walker
eISBN: 9781558617629 | ISBN: 9781558614567
Annice, Barby, and Pat are the girls in 3-B, three young women
straight out of high school who leave their hometowns and land in the big city. In 1950s Chicago, they find refuge and danger. Encounters with predatory beatnik men, workplace drama, and lesbian trystsâthe girls grow up quickly in this explosive melodrama about sexual identity and female friendship.
“
The Girls in 3-B
will give you a sense of the dangers and delights of passion between women in another era. . . . Valerie Taylor's much-loved story has achieved well-deserved classic status in the lesbian pulp canon.”
âAnn Bannon, author of
Odd Girl Out
“A remarkable slice of bohemia, Valerie Taylor gives âpulp' a good name and weaves a wondrous tale of love, lesbianism, poetry, and sex around three young women who leave their small town for the allure of the big city.”
âJudith Halberstam, author of
Female Masculinity
Valerie Taylor
Afterword by Marcia Gallo
eISBN: 9781558618008 | ISBN: 9781558617995
Sexy, beautiful, frustrated . . . a neglected housewife finds the delights and degradations of forbidden love. Frances, a 1950s housewife, becomes bored with her suburban life and enrolls in a class at the local community college. When she meets Bake, a butch lesbian, her life completely changes. In thrall to a world of martini lunches, late nights at queer bars, and a sexual passion she never knew was possible, Frances must choose between the safety of being a wife and mother, or the dangers of life on the edge of society. In this age of
Mad Men
fever, the reissue of
Stranger on Lesbos
comes at a perfect moment, invoking an era we can't help but romanticize yet despise.