The Black Curtain

by Cornell Woolrich, George P. Pelecanos (introduction)

After a slight accident on a tawdry street, Frank Townsend goes home - only to discover he hasn't been there in years. Suffering from amnesia, accused of murder, and the object of a deadly pursuit, he must overcome the crime that time has thrust upon him...

Genres: Mystery, Noir, Fiction, Crime, Suspense, The United States Of America, Thriller

216 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1941

About the author

Cornell Woolrich is widely regarded as the twentieth century’s finest writer of pure suspense fiction. The author of numerous classic novels and short stories (many of which were turned into classic films) such as Rear Window, The Bride Wore Black, The Night Has a Thousand Eyes, Waltz Into Darkness, and I Married a Dead Man, Woolrich began his career in the 1920s writing mainstream novels that won him comparisons to F. Scott Fitzgerald. The bulk of his best-known work, however, was written in the field of crime fiction, often appearing serialized in pulp magazines or as paperback novels. Because he was prolific, he found it necessary to publish under multiple pseudonyms, including "William Irish" and "George Hopley" [...] Woolrich lived a life as dark and emotionally tortured as any of his unfortunate characters and died, alone, in a seedy Manhattan hotel room following the amputation of a gangrenous leg. Upon his death, he left a bequest of one million dollars to Columbia University, to fund a scholarship for young writers.

Source: [http://www.hardcasecrime.com/books_bi...]

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Frank Townsend is knocked unconscious by a falling piece of plaster. When he comes to, he wanders home to find his apartment empty and his wife gone. He tracks his wife down to find that three years are missing from his memories and that he ran out on her sometime after the last day he can remember. Frank tries to rebuild his fragmented life until a man from the missing three years shows up looking for Frank. Will Frank pierce The Black Curtain and put the missing piece of his life in place?

This Woolrich was okay, if a little long-winded for what it was. Frank Townsend, aka Dan Neary, loses three years of memories after a bump on the head, then goes about clearing his name. The revelation of who the man in the gray suit was was one of the better parts of the story. Everything else seemed a little convoluted and flimsy. The women, as per usual in Woolrich's stories, didn't have many favorable qualities. Who would let a man back into their life after he ran out on them without a word three years before, no questions asked?

As a friend recently commented, Woolrich's Black series were probably his way of coping with his alcoholic blackouts and it's nowhere more apparent than in The Black Curtain. Townsend trying to piece together the fragments of his memories is very similar to someone trying to figure out what they did during a blackout.

Not my favorite Woolrich but not terrible.

[Karl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Originally "The Black Curtain" by Cornell Woolrich was published in 1941. The times were different than today. All the men wore hats and suits and most everyone smoked. In 1945, a poll asked Americans, "Do you know what television is?" Most didn't. There certainly were no credit cards, so pennies mattered. The book should not be judged by today's standards much less by today's world.

Although the story that Woolrich tells here is highly improbable, the paranoia that he is able to build and maintain throughout the story is something quite amazing. Not knowing who you are or what you did has been utilized often in today's television and books.

I seem to recall reading an Ace paperback of this book many years ago, however I enjoyed it much more this time around.

This is copy 40 of 300 signed and numbered copies, this copy is signed by:
Jack Seabrook (Introduction Author)
Matt Mahurin (Cover Painting)
Jacob McMurray (Jacket design)

[Carla Remy · Rating 4 out of 5]

08/2018

Another book about amnesia. I just have to say I have never even heard about anyone who ever had amnesia. Yet it is a constant plot trope in books and movies.

[Ajeje Brazov · Rating 4 out of 5]

Frank, il nostro protagonista, si ritrova per terra soccorso dalla polizia ed ambulanza, per fortuna non ha niente di rotto, allora decide di tornare a casa, per riposarsi. Nel tragitto però sente che qualcosa non va, ci sono cose non proprio al loro posto. Così arriva alla sua casa ma, non è più la stessa, è dismessa, non c'è più sua moglie... Cosa sarà successo?

Primo approccio con Woolrich, uno dei capostipiti del genere noir. Nato nel 1903, inizia a scrivere negli anni 20, anche se la popolarità arriverà nei 30 ed ancora di più nei 40.
Sipario nero è stato scritto nel 1941 e da subito, dalle prime pagine, si capisce che l'autore punta tutto sulla suspense, sul dubbio, sull'incubo incombente.
La lettura è adrenalinica, non ti lascia respirare, da leggere, anzi non si riesce a staccare gli occhi dalle pagine che scorrono come un fiume in piena. Pochi e scarni dialoghi, invece con periodi lunghi di descrizioni di situazioni buie, offuscate, piene di tensione, di paura, di terrore, che rendono la lettura ansiogena. Molto, film in bianco e nero anni 40!
Il finale mi è parso un po' confuso, troppe situazioni, azioni, raccontate in poche pagine, ma il riepilogo dell'ultimo capitolo mi ha chiarito tutto. Buona scoperta! Grazie amapola ;-)

La locomotiva in capo al treno mandò un lungo, lamentoso fischio di struggente tristezza. Quando il rumore si spense, continuò a ronzare nei suoi timpani per un paio di secondi, con un riverbero. Poi svanì del tutto. E Townsend capì che a svanire era molto più dell'eco del fischio solitario di un treno che attraversa la campagna. Era il passato, a svanire. Per sempre.

[Antje · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cornell Woolrich enttäuscht mich auch mit diesem seiner Bücher nicht. Von der ersten Seite an zieht die Handlung einen in den Strudel von Gegenwart und Vergangenheit des Frank Townsend, der sich in einem schier unlösbaren Dilemma befindet. Durch einen Schlag auf dem Kopf scheint sein Leben nicht mehr das, was es einst war. Seine Adresse, die er am Morgen auf dem Weg zur Arbeit verließ, stimmt nicht mehr. Seine Ehefrau, von der er sich noch verabschiedet hatte, ist umgezogen und behauptet, dass sie ihn seit drei Jahren vermisst hat. Sein Hut trägt die Initialen D.N. Doch dem nicht genug, muss er feststellen, dass er von einem unbekannten Mann unerbittlich verfolgt und bedroht wird. Townsend sieht nur noch eine Möglichkeit, sich aus dieser unheilvollen Situation zu retten. Er muss die verlorenen drei Jahre wiederfinden.

Die Geschichte ist derart gekonnt erzählt, dass ich das Gefühl hatte, vor einer großen Leinwand zu sitzen und in einem Film Noir einzutauchen. Ohne Ausschweifungen, sondern mit wenigen und gebündelten Worten, treibt Woolrich seine Handlung mit steigender Spannung voran. Es ist eben ein Krimi der alten wunderbaren Garde, bei dem die Handlung allein vom Hauptakteur getragen wird, der unschuldig von der Polizei gejagt wird und ihr immer wieder durch Zufälle entkommt.

Obwohl ich am Ende mit zwei offenen Fragen zurückbleibe, deren Beantwortung mir selbst nach reiflicher Überlegung nicht gelingen mag, verdient Woolrichs abenteuerliche Geschichte fünf Sterne.

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Black Curtain by Cornell Woolrich is my second attempt at his writing. I had previously read a collection of his short stories. This was just as good.

The story starts off quickly and just keeps on going. Frank Townsend is hit on the head by falling plaster. Not seriously injured he returns home but finds that his wife no longer lives at their address. He discovers that she has moved to a new address and goes there (confused of course). He discovers that he has been away for 3 years. He has no recollection of that period between his last departure for work 3 years previously and his return home.

Frank begins to try and get his life back to normal. His company hires him back and he starts working again. However he has no recollection of the last three years. One day someone stops on the street and stares at him. Frank begins to feel discomfort about this and tries to evade the man; who has a gun.

Thus begins Franks 'adventure' as he tries to discover what happened during that three years. He will meet Ruth and put both of them in danger as he further explores his past. It's not a perfect story by any means; a bit too much self-examination at times and at times some of the actions Frank will take struck me as odd. But for all that, it's a fascinating story, with a great concept and lots of action.

I readily admit that I had some difficulty understanding parts of the ending, but that was from a technical stand point. The book was a page-turner, tense, exciting and overall satisfying. I will continue to explore Woolrich's writing. The Bride Wore Black is currently on my book shelf. (4 stars)

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

This is a 'standard' Woolriich novel; one that should satisfy the author's fans... somewhat.... due to what works well in it (particularly a lengthy, nerve-racking sequence in its last third; a highlight). It's also a narrative which, in at least two glaring instances, readers will have to overlook a large gap in storytelling.

In the first instance, including an explanation of the author's main dilemma would have meant adding a long section that would have complicated the story's set-up. In the case of the second, not allowing a few years to pass would rob the novel of its suspense in its first of three parts.

I imagine, in both cases, Woolrich probably figured that neither compromise was of any major importance.

Reportedly, Woolirich wasn't big on rewriting. That suggests that he preferred creating in a 'crazed' flurry of inspiration; a state he didn't tend to question or second-guess. A sort of conscious automatic writing. If that's the case, he would have been content to trust his gut, letting the results lie where they may... as he moved onto his next inspiration.

He was said to be a 'worker' - another word for a 'machine'. The guy did write a *lot*.

'TBC' is certainly mysterious and suspenseful overall, even without Woolrich's trademark element of pronounced terror (something that distinguishes his better books). The lack of that may directly connect with the fact that, here, Woolrich (for a change) gives us a protagonist who actually keeps his head (no small feat for an amnesiac). At almost every turn, his hero - Frank Townsend - is able to overcome the first flights of fear.

A drawback for me came in sensing where the story was headed and would more or less end. As well, the actual conclusion seemed a bit long-winded.

But, 'warts' and all, I still appreciated the novel. I'm a Woolrich fan.

(btw: the 1942 film version - 'Street of Chance' - runs 74 minutes. I recall finding it so-so but, of course, at that length, much of the book has been either altered or given the heave-ho.)

[tortoise dreams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Double amnesia. Frank forgets who he is and starts his life over. Then after an accident, he regains the memory of his former life as if it was yesterday, but doesn't remember the more than three years he spent in between. This is where The Black Curtain begins, and Frank soon learns that someone he doesn't know is after him and he needs to figure out what happened during those lost years. Woolrich fully embodied the Kafkaesque in his stories of an ordinary person who stumbles into something incomprehensible, a world now surreal, disorienting, oppressive, nightmarish. The suspense and tension are kept taut as a piano string as we watch over Franks's shoulder, happily suspending our disbelief while he goes after his past. If Cornell Woolrich had agoraphobia as suggested in the book's Introduction (by George Pelecanos) that too is on display as paranoia strikes deep on every page; the outside world is a scary, scary place. All leading to an over the top finale in an amnesiac fog. My seventh Woolrich, all worth reading. Also a 1942 film called Street of Chance with Claire Trevor and Burgess Meredith. [4★]

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vintage 1941 pulp fiction -- really fun. Like reading a noir movie. Some of the phraseology set me back a bit. On page 73, "His face was an unbaked cruller of rage." First of all, crullers are fried, not baked. Second of all, what the? But I could overlook that in the midst of such an intriguing, fast-moving plot. Then on page 178, "The ticket seller had hard crullers of stubborness around his eyes." Seriously, take a break, Woolrich, treat yourself to a doughnut and a cup of coffee and get past this obsession. There were maybe a few plot holes but, honestly, I was having too much fun reading it to be very picky (other than that cruller thing). Overall, a great, quick, moody diversion.

[Jack Bell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cornell Woolrich is one of those forgotten giants of classic crime fiction (in the "revered by bibliophiles, unknown by everyone else" category, it seems) that I've honestly been meaning to read for a long time now. And I might have a whole lot earlier if his books weren't so hard to come by -- but getting past all the typos and formatting errors in this obviously low-grade ebook copy I downloaded, I finally read this as my start and can see now how his reputation has absolutely preceded him.

I definitely wouldn't wager that The Black Curtain is considered his best novel, but it's a very offbeat and often spellbinding little piece of true noir that works on a simple but amazingly nightmarish premise: our everyman protagonist is going about his humdrum life when one day he receives a minor head injury. He feels fine, but right afterward finds his hat bears different initials than his name. Not only that, but once he goes home he discovers his house hasn't been lived in for years. And worst of all: a mysterious man seems to be stalking and attempting to kill him. Weird, huh?

It's in the second half of the story -- in which our amnesiac sets off on a quest to discover why, even suddenly missing three years of memory, he's positive he can't have been responsible for a murder he'd been accused of in that time -- that the hypnotic power of the novels wanes, since attempting to explain nightmare logic invariably disappoints.

But even along with a lot of unexplained narrative incongruities and paper-thin characters, it's still a very absorbing and pretty creepy book nonetheless, with a gold mine's worth of truly amazing writing from Woolrich that exemplifies the best of the literate pulp style in combining poetically philosophical prose with urgent, readable simplicity (I can see why the French love this guy!). This definitely won't be the last of him I read, and I'm pretty excited to pick which nightmare I dive into next.

[Maddy · Rating 5 out of 5]

PROTAGONIST: Frank Townsend
SETTING: 1941
RATING: 4.5
WHY: After receiving a nasty blow to his head, Frank Townsend goes home to a wife who is shocked, but happy, to see him. He has been missing for 3 years. He doesn’t recall anything that happened during that time and is determined to see what happened during his amnesiac stage. In his other life, it seems that Frank murdered a man. He doesn’t believe himself capable of that act. His investigation is a compelling story, with a brilliant plot, superb prose and suspense up the wazoo. Unfortunately, the conclusion was a bit too convoluted to be credible, but this book was still easily one of my best reads of the year.

[Bruce · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the world of The Black Curtain paranoia runs rampant. The protagonist is besieged by he knows not what, and Woolrich's rich command of metaphor effectively insinuates an insidious malevolence into the reader's sensibility. Here's a small sample:

The things of the night began to slink into view. Blue shadows, like tentatively clutching fingers, began a slow creep toward Townsend out from under the trees. Deepening, advancing only furtively when they weren't watched closely, pretending to be arrested when they were. At first azure, scarcely visible in the still-strong light of day. Then dark blue, like ink rolling sluggishly amidst the grass blades and dyeing them from roots up. At last, freed of the vigilance of the closing red eye of the sun, turning black, showing their true color.

The denouement, however, is far too mechanical to dispel the pervasive paranoia conjured up in the first three quarters of the novel. In addition, no attempt is made to explain the protagonist's amnesia which figures so prominently, and the love interest of his second, forgotten life is conveniently killed so that, after all the mystery has been tidily explained, he can blithely return to his wife and forget the past--"Forever", as the last word of the novel has it.

Sorry, Mr. Woolrich. The box is open. More than a few brisk strokes of your pen to tie up loose ends are needed to neutralize the dark forces you've let loose.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've had Woolrich on my shelf for almost 20 years after I bought it in Webster, Texas. Xavier, an old friend of mine, reminded me of this writer of whom I had occasionally read favorable reviews. Well, The Black Curtain was pretty good for this genre. Woolrich probably got better as he wrote more. A couple of times his physical detail was a little hard to smoothly follow. I could imagine him doing repairs at home and bumping his head on a shelf he had just put there an hour ago. The tone was good (the real reason for reading noir thrillers). I'll read the other novel I have by him now.

[Rodger Payne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Woolrich does a very good job of making the reader feel the main character's fear and paranoia, caused largely by his (double) case of amnesia. The book begins with Frank Townsend gaining memories of a life that he had unwillingly left for some unknown reason some unknown time period in the past. Townsend was apparently a different person during that now forgotten time period (later revealed to be 3 years), a person who may have committed a horrific crime. And a person who in parallel fashion was not aware of Frank's life.

Kind of contrived, yes.

The book is a quick read, however, and that's good because the reader is bound to get frustrated by the character's refusal to reveal his amnesia to a woman who clearly cares for him -- nor to any officers of the law. Much of the book occurs inside Frank's head with not all that much real action.

I liked the ending when the character finally uses his brain to help address his problems.

[Bradthad Codgeroger · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid noir from a very good writer, though the plot was a little iffy. The amnesia (yeah, I know) that sets the whole thing up is never explained!!

[Shane · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thriller up to the end, then gets a bit silly.

[Mark Bacon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recommend the 1941 novel, The Black Curtain, as an introduction to Woolrich. In it, Frank Townsend gets a bump on the head and suddenly three years of his life disappears–or reappears. He searches for his home and discovers his apartment is vacant and that his wife has moved out. He finally finds her and she tells him she hasn’t seen him for three years.

So starts this different version of an amnesia story. After he’s been back with his wife a short time, Townsend discovers someone is following him. The more dangerous the pursuit becomes, the more Townsend realizes he must figure out what happened during the missing three years.

His struggle to discover his past leads him through a threatening world of suspicious looks and dead ends. The fast-paced story includes a case of murder and a decrepit, isolated mansion.The Dancing Detective

Like most roman noir novels, there isn’t exactly a Hollywood ending. The plot twists at the end leave some unanswered questions, but each step along the quick trip through Townsend’s cloudy world is worth the effort and then some.

[TrumanCoyote · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unless I missed the point somewhere along the way, all the threads weren't tied up at the end (ie, we still don't really know why Frank became Dan in the first place). And as always with Woolrich, there are a lot of lines that I wish he had excised. Some of them work, but for the most part they just come across as rather hammy and belaboring the obvious.

[Edoardo Nicoletti · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quasi perfetto, in particolare la graduale accelerazione senza scampo alcuno della seconda parte della storia. Come una locomotiva che si avvia sbuffando e alla fine, in piena corsa, "fischia come urlasse d'angoscia".

[P.S. Winn · Rating 4 out of 5]

An accident has Frank Townsend heading home. The problem when he gets there is that he hasn't been to the place in years. Frank not only has amnesia, but is accused of murder. This is a great suspense read by an author who knew how to tell a story.

[Diana]

Amnesiac Frank Townsend regains his memory; overjoyed at returning to his old life, he soon discovers that those missing three years aren't as harmless as he had hoped...

If you've ever read a Cornell Woolrich mystery, many of his familiar tropes appear: the ordinary guy who has a finite amount of time to prove that he didn't commit a despicable crime; the young woman who will do anything to help him -- even at great risk to herself; and contrived plots that contain unlikely coincidences and complex denouements. The author has even used the story's central conceit -- a man terrified that he might have lost control during a memory loss -- in Nightmare.

If you've ever read a Cornell Woolrich mystery, you know that you need to check your skepticism at the door. Yes, Frank and Virginia's instant acceptance of their circumstances is unbelievable; yes, his refusal to go to the police is questionable; yes, we never find out how he lost his memory or how he got to New Jericho. But, the author was less invested in realism than he was in atmosphere -- particularly noir's existential dread that none of us knows what we are capable of and, ultimately, who we ever really are.

I thought the first half of the book was slow (Mr. Woolrich often gets lost in detail), but picks up later. I highly recommend it, in particular, for its unusual ending (the solution to the mystery is ingenious). Ruth -- Frank's Girl Friday -- and her demise are particularly poignant and I applaud the author for letting her die without learning the truth about "Dan".

Shout-out to the reviewer who said that the alcoholic Woolrich depicted Frank's amnesia as an drunkard's blackout. Another interpretation references his infamous "double life." Mr. Woolrich was a closeted gay man and deeply ashamed of it. Given his numerous paranoid characters who are panicked about what they may have done when not compos mentis (Nightmare, Deadline at Dawn), it's impossible not to consider this reading. Finally, I'll also add that with Frank's ego and Dan's id, no other mystery author depicted Freud's fractured sense of self better than this one.

Note: I watched the movie before I read the book: it's very similar except for the ending -- I assume that the Code wanted to ensure that Frank had feelings for no one except his lawful wife.

[Sophie · Rating 2 out of 5]

First everything was blurred. Then he could feel hands fumbling around him, lots of hands. They weren't actually touching him; they were touching things that touched him. He got their feel one step removed.

That's the opening of this novel, and I get what the author is trying to do here—convey the character's bewilderment about where he is and what is happening to him—but unfortunately the entire novel feels like it's "one step removed." There's a detached feeling to the action, as if there's a screen between us and the character making the action more opaque than I would have liked.

The setup of the novel is intriguing, and the author does a good job of creating suspense and a feeling of menace, but I didn't find the ultimate resolution all that convincing. For instance, I thought it was beyond stupid that Townsend walked knowingly into the trap without doing anything more definitive than make an anonymous tip to the police. If he'd planned a little better, maybe three people wouldn't have had to die, although I can see that for the author, it was convenient to get Ruth out of the way. I also didn't like that Townsend showed no curiosity about how he ended up in another life to begin with. There was probably no way for him to figure out exactly how he stopped being Frank Townsend and became Dan Nearing, but it didn't even seem to occur to him to wonder. That seemed unlikely Overall, I enjoyed the story but thought it could have been better.

[Andy Weston · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unlucky enough to be clobbered on the head by a piece from a stone statue which falls from a building, Frank Townsend dusts himself down and continues on his way home to his wife Virginia.
But, she doesn’t live there any more. When he eventually tracks her down, he realises that he has been missing for three years, and that Virgina assumed that he walked out on her on, at the end of January in 1938, a day he can barely remember.
This all happens in the first short chapter, which is the norm for Woolrich’s openings.

To say any more about the plot would deter from the enjoyment of anyone considering reading it, which I would recommend. But, the plot isn’t the reason to read Woolrich. It’s his prose that keep readers like me coming back. At one stage Townsend makes a narrow escape from a chase, and emerges..

feeling like a bath towel after three people have used it

Written in four parts, the denouement, the last part, falls apart a bit in terms of a climax, and by way of explanation.

For anyone new to Woolrich, I wouldn’t start with this. Instead perhaps, The Bride Wore Black or Night Has a Thousand Eyes. But for those who would consider themselves fans, as I do, there are plenty more quotable snippets like the one above.

[Ruthiella · Rating 3 out of 5]

Frank Townsend comes to after being knocked unconscious by a piece of falling plaster on a New York City street. He declines calling an ambulance, but notes that the initials inside his hat are not his and he doesn’t recognize the cigarette case in his pocket. Disoriented, he makes his way home to his wife and apartment only to find it empty. He speaks to the landlady and finds his wife moved away almost three years ago! Somehow Frank has lost three years of his life. When he realizes that someone is trying to hunt him down and he has no idea who it is or why, he decides to go back to that street where he came to, to try to figure out what he was doing during the missing years and why he is being chased.

My mother and I read an article in the sadly now defunct magazine “Mystery Scene” about Cornell Woolrich who was an incredibly successful pulp writer of the mid 20th century. He wrote under his own name and under two pseudonyms and many of his novels and stories were made in to films; most famously the movie “Rear Window” was adapted from his short story titled, “It Had to Be Murder”. As a result of the article, we checked out this book because it has been re-issued in 2025 by Penzler Publishers and our library system had a copy. I thought it was pretty good. The story is implausible, it hinges on a man having double amnesia and I was a little disappointed not to find out how he created his new persona. But otherwise, it pretty taut and page turning; a good example of classic noir fiction with its edge of paranoia.

[Michael Reilly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good but not great Cornell Woolrich novel. It was recently re-released in the American Mystery Classics series. It was originally published in 1941. Woolrich was one of the best noir novelists.

Frank Townsend awakens on a New York city street to find that he has been knocked out in an accident. He is confused and disoriented. He heads back to his apartment and wife. She tells him that he disappeared over three years ago. He has no memory of where he has been. That's a good set up for a noir thriller.

He gets trailed down the street by a stranger. He has to quit his job and send his wife away for her safety. He discovers that he is a suspect in a murder. He sets out to find out what he had done during that period and to clear his name.

Woolrich was a first-rate thriller writer. He rushes a story along. He is great at foreboding and suspense. No one ever gets to relax.

Another value of that style for a writer is that it draws attention away from the plot. There are several parts of the story that don't make much sense. The ending is not satisfying, and leaves lose ends unresolved. In the rush of things, Frank Townsend never gets developed as a character.

It was a fun read which I galloped through, but not one of his better books.

[Jesse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really three separate novellas, or novelettes, or whatever a 60-page short story should be called, that each build on what has been revealed in the previous section. Maybe an implicit model for Ariel Winter's Twenty-Year Death, on Hard Case? One is a classic Woolrich-paranoia tale, which was the most resonant for me--our protagonist has no idea who he is, but people are hunting him, and there's an excellent element of random terror. As a distillation of the author's themes, this is top-notch. Matters get somewhat less compelling after that, once we know more of the story. though we do get, kind of out of nowhere, a locked-room mystery that then gets solved almost incidentally, and a possible love triangle that also gets more or less waved away and then disposed of before it becomes a narrative inconvenience. So a case of diminishing returns along the way, but the first part is scary and resonant and distressing in all the good Woolrich ways.

[Bernard · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5
An entertaining and gripping book for most part, but at first wasn't totally sure about the ending.
I did read parts again, and some things became clearer, but there were still some unanswered questions going through my mind after finally closing the book.

Frank Townsend has been beset with amnesia for the past three years. He said goodbye to his wife one day early in 1938 to start another day's work but never returned home. A hit on the head one day in 1941 has returned him to his old life, and his wife is shocked to see him suddenly return home after all this time, as if nothing happened. But what did happen? Where has Frank been for the last three years, and why is someone following him in the streets everywhere he goes?

There is a lot that Frank finds out about the past three years. He has been living under the name Dan Nearing and has been accused of murdering his employer. Frank has no memory of this happening, but it must have something to do with someone following him and planning an eventual arrest. One can do is get to the bottom of this mystery, and Frank goes out of his way to clear his name. He feels sure he has committed no murder and wants peace of mind.

The book gives one an entertaining account of Frank/Dan's determination unravel the mystery of what happened in his other life. The final conclusion, in which much is revealed, also left some issues unexplained. But in the end, I was prepared to accept that how Frank became Dan would never really be known, even though his wife Virginia made a few flimsy guesses in one of the earlier chapters.

The book has plenty of atmosphere, which some have said is more important than technical plot details. There may be something in what they say. A Woolrich book, which despite some flaws, is still a good entertainment.

[Williwaw · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have read several novels by Cornell Woolrich, and enjoyed them quite a bit. This one, however, struck me as rather flat. The plot is highly contrived and melodramatic. That's often the case with Woolrich, but it never bothered me too much until now.

The flow of the writing was, at times, brilliant. But I simply did not engage with the characters. The plot -- based upon a case of amnesia with slowly trickling revelations -- seemed to drag.

I have purchased the Centipede Press editions from the beginning. I have also collected several vintage paperbacks along with some older hardcover editions, so my shelves are overflowing with Woolrich! I pulled this volume off the shelf at random. It is a relatively short novel, so I figured that I could get through it in the course of a weekend.

[Michael Bartolone · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty enjoyable - great setup, lots of vivid scene-setting, and finished the last 100 pages in one setting because I couldn't put it down. Loved the descriptions of the down-on-its-luck city street as Frank wanders it, trying to piece his life together. A little ham-fisted language in the way common to this genre. Three stars instead of four because for a genre famous for explaining everything (as is done with the crime at the heart of this story), it is left a complete mystery why Frank left his wife in the first place and how or why he became Dan. Also I'm a little dense sometimes, but it was actually unclear to me until the last page whether Ruth was dead. And if she was, then quite an unceremonious ending for such an important character.

[Gibson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sospeso nel tempo

Frank Townsend ha un piccolo incidente, grazie al quale scopre di aver dimenticato gli ultimi 3 anni della sua vita.
Oltre che fuori tempo, Frank si sente anche un uomo fuori posto, non sa più chi è. Decide quindi di ritrovare il suo passato.

Partendo da questa premessa, Frank - un Jason Bourne ante litteram targato 1941 - comincia un percorso a ostacoli fatto di ombre, inseguimenti e indizi che lo guidano verso l'altra sua vita, quella sospesa.

Woolrich, qui, imposta un ritmo altalenante: dopo una partenza briosa, il romanzo, nonostante l'azione, pare rilassarsi, per poi impennare verso il finale, più interessante che credibile.