Hours to Kill

by Ursula Curtiss

VERY GOOD to LIKE NEW. Dust jacket missing. Bright clean boards have very slight wear. Text is perfect. Same day shipping first class from AZ.

Genres: Mystery

168 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1961

About the author

Daughter and sister of, respectively, US mystery writers Helen Reilly and Mary McMullen. She worked as a copywriter and columnist before becoming a full-time self employed writer.

Reviews

[Mary Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this mystery a lot. Short, sweet and very suspenseful. This was very much like the type of novel I read when a teen so it was a little like a trip down memory lane in that respect.

[Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Margaret is asked to fly to her sister's rented house in New Mexico to house-sit and baby-sit a friend's daughter while her sister takes a tour with her new husband, Philip to recover from a flu attack. Margaret tries to forget the fact that she and Philip were once close, and that the Hilary, her temporary responsability, is an unpleasant, inquisitive, uncooperative brat. The old adobe house is dark and depressing, and various visitors who come to inquire after the house's absent owner, Mrs. Foale, do nothing to dispel the impending sense of gloom. There's Jerome Kincaid, who may or may not have been a classmate of Margaret and her sister. There's a rather snippy neighbor who seems to have had designs on the deceased Mr. Foale. Various finds around the house- a picture of Philip with a moustache, an embroidered handkerchief, an unanswered picture postcard, make Margaret wonder what the relationship is between the unseen Mrs. Foale and her brother-in-law. But then when the flu epidemic affects first Hilary and then Margaret, she feels unable to respond to the threats around her.

Like most of Ursula Curtiss' books, this is more romantic suspense than thriller. The author does a good job of dropping little tidbits here and there, which can all be explained away individually, but which taken together, add up to a picture of deceit, deception and danger.

[Ernie · Rating 5 out of 5]

HOURS TO KILL is a fast 190 pages in a vintage Dodd & Mead "Red Badge Detective" edition on creamy, ragged-edge paper. Reading it in a single day helped me keep track of first wife vs. second wife, although I still had to go back and find the page that first distinguishes between the two. Familiarity with the author's style might have helped me crack the "mystery" earlier than I would've otherwise, or maybe it's fairly clear if you know the founding myth that inspired this modern-day 1961 version.

There are two sisters: Margaret, the protagonist, and Cornelia, for whom she does a favor. Cornelia and her husband have rented a house, which they leave in the care of Margaret whilte they go off on a relaxing road trip. This leaves Margaret alone in a stranger's house and saddled with the care of a stranger's child, so she's got lots to worry about. Worry is the great theme of Curtiss's books, from an age of worry. The thing about worry is you never know if you're overdoing it, if it's necessary to avert disaster, or if you're losing your mind. The tension is maintained with wit.

[Stormcrow Hayes · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is my fourth book by Curtiss and it's mostly been a downhill road after the first, Noonday Devil, which I really enjoyed.

I went into this without knowing the story and was immediately wondering, "What is going on?" when our protagonist is thrust into not only traveling across country (in the 50s when this wasn't so easy) to merely house sit for her sister, but is then also forced to watch a child that belongs to their friend... and the house is a rental. It's all almost too much from the start.

But the book is so short so I shrugged it off. (Yes, the book is 190 pages, they're fast pages, I read this book in less than three hours total. It's practically a novella.)

There's enough going on to be sort of interesting, but we're stuck in a house with an annoying child and then joined my mysterious, but also annoying guests who always want to snoop around the house and for reasons unknown, Margaret just lets them in.

Again, it all stretches credulity to a point and as I neared the end, this was going to be a solid two stars for me, but with 20 pages to go, Curtiss threw me for such a loop, I was flabbergasted. I absolutely loved where the ending takes us, but unfortunately, it's just not enough to really excuse the somewhat tedious journey the reader takes to get there. So I'll bump it up to a three star review for the ending, but I'm not sure I would recommend it.

While the bloom is off for me on Curtiss as a writer, I'm not giving up completely. Her books are short enough that they're worth taking a chance on. I'm still hoping to find another gem hidden in these old works that not many people know about anymore.

[Nattie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such a good book and it kept me on the edge of my bed. There were a number of things I didn't see coming.

[Joanne McPortland · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice escape into old-fashioned mid-century suspenser. Bonus points for characters coming down with quinsy.

[Sue Star · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dated, but a fun read and quite suspenseful.

[Neer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not as good as the others read of Curtiss. More here: https://ahotcupofpleasureagain.wordpr...

[Joan McKenzie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my favorite type of story, but the suspense is gripping.