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The Woman Is Mine
She was young, she was lovely, she was rich. And she was shut away in the great white building with wrought-iron bars around it, where they were systematically draining her of sanity.I was in love with her. I'm Jeffrey Patterson and I met her one especially lovely night in Florida when I stopped her from drowning herself.They took her away from me again, drugged and quiet, back to that gleaming, expensive prison, but I followed, because I believed in her.Then they framed me for murder.
140 pages, mass market paperback
First published January 1, 1954
10 people want to read
About the author
Harry Whittington
180 books42 followersHe also wrote under the names Ashley Carter, Harriet Kathryn Myers, and Blaine Stevens, Curt Colman, John Dexter, Tabor Evans, Whit Harrison, Kel Holland, Suzanne Stephens, Clay Stuart, Hondo Wells, Harry White, Hallam Whitney, Henri Whittier, J.X. Williams.
Harry Whittington (February 4, 1915–June 11, 1989) was an American mystery novelist and one of the original founders of the paperback novel. Born in Ocala, Florida, he worked in government jobs before becoming a writer.
His reputation as a prolific writer of pulp fiction novels is supported by his writing of 85 novels in a span of twelve years (as many as seven in a single month) mostly in the crime, suspense, and noir fiction genres. In total, he published over 200 novels. Seven of his writings were produced for the screen, including the television series Lawman. His reputation for being known as 'The King of the Pulps' is shared with author H. Bedford-Jones. Only a handful of Whittington's novels are in print today.
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Harry Whittington (February 4, 1915–June 11, 1989) was an American mystery novelist and one of the original founders of the paperback novel. Born in Ocala, Florida, he worked in government jobs before becoming a writer.
His reputation as a prolific writer of pulp fiction novels is supported by his writing of 85 novels in a span of twelve years (as many as seven in a single month) mostly in the crime, suspense, and noir fiction genres. In total, he published over 200 novels. Seven of his writings were produced for the screen, including the television series Lawman. His reputation for being known as 'The King of the Pulps' is shared with author H. Bedford-Jones. Only a handful of Whittington's novels are in print today.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 29, 2022
Mega Maratona Classici Giallo #6
Agli inizii prometteva bene ma più andava avanti più sentivo qualcosa di strano e poi la fine........
Slide: Storiella inserto italiano. Ovviamente come inizia già è da buttare. Il solito poliziotto/a smaronato/a sin dal principio. Almeno per una volta i nomi non sono abbreviati in dialetto ma dai che deja vu. Ogni volta che leggo qualcosa di italiano c'è sempre lo smaronato. Una cosa che ne ho a sufficenza con gli inglesi alla cactus come ben sapete quindi mi secca il solito italiano alla cactus anche. Toglietevi quei cactus dal culo che non vi uccide fare un protagonista simpatico per una volta. 🌵🌵🌵🌵🌵🌵🌵🌵🌵🌵🌵
Agli inizii prometteva bene ma più andava avanti più sentivo qualcosa di strano e poi la fine........
Slide: Storiella inserto italiano. Ovviamente come inizia già è da buttare. Il solito poliziotto/a smaronato/a sin dal principio. Almeno per una volta i nomi non sono abbreviati in dialetto ma dai che deja vu. Ogni volta che leggo qualcosa di italiano c'è sempre lo smaronato. Una cosa che ne ho a sufficenza con gli inglesi alla cactus come ben sapete quindi mi secca il solito italiano alla cactus anche. Toglietevi quei cactus dal culo che non vi uccide fare un protagonista simpatico per una volta. 🌵🌵🌵🌵🌵🌵🌵🌵🌵🌵🌵
November 5, 2025
I believe this was Whittington's first paperback for Gold Medal. If you're a fan then you already know he wrote quite a few tales for this particular publisher that would qualify as stone cold classics. It's been my opinion for some time that Harry Whittington and Gil Brewer epitomized a certain type of noir writing. You can use words like 'doom' or 'desperation' to describe the style of both, but there's something else about their styles that eludes me. Of course David Goodis and Jim Thompson wrote tales involving desperate, criminal men or couples that were undeniably effective as well. But despite the fact Goodis and Thompson also published GM originals, it's Whittington and Brewer (and a few others, but mainly them) who come to mind when I think of Gold Medal. Perhaps it's just Whittington and Brewer's quantity of output and I have no fuckin' clue what I'm talking about. I often don't. Of course, with any of the writers I just mentioned, the doom and desperation show up in different books to varying degrees. It's probably a difficult affect to put across on a consistent basis. In THE WOMAN IS MINE, I don't believe Whittington had developed what he eventually would, at least affect wise. I'm talking about that terrible, ugly tension that stretches back to Woolrich, or maybe even Poe.
Korean war vet Jeffrey Patterson is on vacation in Florida. He has rented a cabin on the beach, where he falls for an escaped mental patient also staying in a cabin, who's name is Joyce
Glissade....or is it? Before her husband and Dr. Cosof, whose care Joyce is under, come to take her away, she swears to Jeffrey she is not Joyce Glissade, but Instead, a woman named Paula.
As with most of Whittington's novels, he gives each character of importance special care, portraying Dr. Cosof as a real calculating type, and police lieutenant Chris Hughes as an impartial cop who only goes where the evidence points him. Jeffrey Patterson, much to his relatives dismay, extends his vacation and launches a plan to get the straight dope on the supposed lunatic he has set his sights on. The fact that he is not exclusively lust driven is a bit of a departure from noir tradition, but hey, can't a guy just fall head over heels for a mental patient? Jeffrey attempts to see Joyce at the sanitarium but is denied. This is when he starts to smell a rat as the Yankees say. To add to his suspicion, he sees the nurse from the hospital out at a bar with Joyce's husband, who had just put on a great show when they came to take Joyce away. Jeffrey tries questioning the nurse about Joyce in private, but this only leads to the nurse being killed, and Jeffrey being framed for it.
Eventually, a nefarious plot is uncovered, and we find out the truth of the girl from the sanitarium. I made a few guesses about the plot, all of which were wrong, and when the inevitable end-twist came it was more subtle than I expected, but I was glad for that because there was really no need for some shocker of a revelation. Whittington played it just fine. I would have rated it higher except I've read several Whittington novels that were way more memorable. Having said that, if this had been my first Whittington novel, I still would have considered it above average. Don't skip it if you can get a copy. Unfortunately it's still out of print.
Korean war vet Jeffrey Patterson is on vacation in Florida. He has rented a cabin on the beach, where he falls for an escaped mental patient also staying in a cabin, who's name is Joyce
Glissade....or is it? Before her husband and Dr. Cosof, whose care Joyce is under, come to take her away, she swears to Jeffrey she is not Joyce Glissade, but Instead, a woman named Paula.
As with most of Whittington's novels, he gives each character of importance special care, portraying Dr. Cosof as a real calculating type, and police lieutenant Chris Hughes as an impartial cop who only goes where the evidence points him. Jeffrey Patterson, much to his relatives dismay, extends his vacation and launches a plan to get the straight dope on the supposed lunatic he has set his sights on. The fact that he is not exclusively lust driven is a bit of a departure from noir tradition, but hey, can't a guy just fall head over heels for a mental patient? Jeffrey attempts to see Joyce at the sanitarium but is denied. This is when he starts to smell a rat as the Yankees say. To add to his suspicion, he sees the nurse from the hospital out at a bar with Joyce's husband, who had just put on a great show when they came to take Joyce away. Jeffrey tries questioning the nurse about Joyce in private, but this only leads to the nurse being killed, and Jeffrey being framed for it.
Eventually, a nefarious plot is uncovered, and we find out the truth of the girl from the sanitarium. I made a few guesses about the plot, all of which were wrong, and when the inevitable end-twist came it was more subtle than I expected, but I was glad for that because there was really no need for some shocker of a revelation. Whittington played it just fine. I would have rated it higher except I've read several Whittington novels that were way more memorable. Having said that, if this had been my first Whittington novel, I still would have considered it above average. Don't skip it if you can get a copy. Unfortunately it's still out of print.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews