Widow's Web by Ursula Curtiss

by Ursula Curtiss

Some women have a talent for attracting men. But Annabelle Fennister had an additional flair - a talent for murder.Jim Torrant had never met Annabelle when she was married to Martin, his ex-partner. After Martin's strange death Jim tried to look her up. But Annabelle and her husband's money had disappeared.He followed her cloudy back trail until he caught up with her. But instead of a grieving widow he found a woman who was waiting for another inheritance from another man in her life who had just died.It was then Jim learned about the second "accident". It was then he met Annabelle's sinister new boy friend. It was then he discovered a third stiff who had stumbled into the widow's web.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1956

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

[Ernie · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is an early Curtiss, 1956 Dodd, Mead, or 1957 Pocket Book with a knock-out cover of a lady in black with cocktail at the center of a spider web. gets off to a quick start with a male protagonist, Torrant, deciding to track down the evil bitch who mind-controlled his photographer pal into committing suicide. soon, a female co-protagonist, the less battle-ready Maria, joins the search for the same she-devil after two more deaths in an apparent accident. Curtiss incrementally builds such a great villainess until about 80% of the way through, when she changes course, which disappointed me somewhat, but i still give the book 5 stars because i read it with such pleasure.
i was reminded of Chandler, because of the tawdry eccentric characters playing crooked games with each other, and the theme of a knight errant (Torrant) tracking down a demon to avenge the death of his fellow knight. it's noble but low-key and down-to-earth, and he finds himself despite his better judgement caring what happens to the borderline silly Maria, who doesn't understand the risks she's running. the murders as they happen are sudden and for keeps, in the Chandler tradition, and Curtiss never runs out of variations to play on the reader's expectations, even to the point of overdoing the possibilities, but that makes her an exciting writer.

[Mel · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Bunta Potter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an intriguing pageturner with moments of real suspense and more twists than a corkscrew. It follows Ursula Curtiss' well-practised formula, more successful in holding the reader's attention in the early novels - this is one of them - where the narrative fairly bounces along, than in later books when it's all a bit mechanical. As it is the foundations are already laid: caring, resourceful thirty-odd hero, attractive, younger woman (yes, romance could blossom) who imagines herself independent, sassy and resourceful but when the chips are down, gets all wobbly and realises what a gal needs is a manly shoulder to rest on and a manly intelligence to sort her problems. Quirky, sometimes very sinister, minor characters flesh out the plot and keep it simmering. The fifties setting in well-heeled small town New England circles now seems so far distant ... fur stoles, alligator bags, pale blue convertables, mega-cigarette consumption .....
It needs to be read with very close attention to make sense of the denouement - don't worry, no spoiler coming up - which I found not just 'startling' as the Publisher claims but positively audacious, lengthy, complicated and requiring more talent than I have in suspending disbelief. If you can deal with that, you will enjoy 'Widow's Web' on a wet afternoon or holiday.

[Catsalive · Rating 3 out of 5]

An entertaining, suspenseful tale; a little predictable at times but enjoyable nonetheless. I'm a little disappointed in the ending, I was hoping The Widow would get more suitable justice, certainly Louise Mallow deserved a different result. Torrant was very slow on the uptake, there were lots of clues about the very attractive Mrs Fennister that he didn't pick up on. I didn't like the leading man & think Maria Rowan would be better off with someone more astute.

[Colin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid suspense story, compact and brisk. There's a well done sense of threat and tension but one aspect of the writing makes me rate it a little lower. That's the author's tendency to slip out of dialogue and into reported speech, something I found not only distracting but it also seemed to add in a layer of distance or separation from the events unfolding on the page.

[Roeland · Rating 4 out of 5]

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