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Women Crime Writers: Library of America #1
Women Crime Writers: Four Suspense Novels of the 1940s: Laura / The Horizontal Man / In a Lonely Place / The Blank Wall
Women writers have always had a central place in American crime writing, although one wouldn’t know it for all the attention focused on the men of the hardboiled school. This collection, the first of a two-volume omnibus, presents four classics of the 1940s overdue for fresh attention. Anticipating the “domestic suspense” novels of recent years, these four gripping tales explore the terrors of the mind and of family life, of split personality and conflicted sexual identity.
Vera Caspary’s Laura (1943) begins with the investigation into a young woman’s murder and blossoms into a complex study, told from multiple viewpoints, of the pressures confronted by a career woman seeking to lead an independent life. Source of the celebrated film by Otto Preminger, Caspary’s novel has depths and surprises of its own. As much a novel of manners as of mystery, it remains a superb evocation of a vanished Manhattan.
Helen Eustis’s The Horizontal Man (1946) won an Edgar Award for best first novel and continues to fascinate as a singular mixture of detection, satire, and psychological portraiture. A poet on the faculty of an Ivy League school (modeled on Eustis’s alma mater, Smith College) is found murdered, setting off ripple effects of anxiety, suspicion, and panic in the hothouse atmosphere of an English department rife with talk of Freud and Kafka.
With In a Lonely Place (1947), Dorothy B. Hughes created one of the first full-scale literary portraits of a serial murderer. The streets of Los Angeles become a setting for random killings, and Hughes ventures, with unblinking exactness, into the mind of the killer. In the process she conjures up a potent mood of postwar dread and lingering trauma.
Raymond Chandler called Elisabeth Sanxay Holding “the top suspense writer of them all.” In The Blank Wall (1947) she constructs a ferociously taut drama around the plight of a wartime housewife forced beyond the limits of her sheltered domestic world in order to protect her family. The barely perceptible constraints of an ordinary suburban life become a course of obstacles that she must dodge with the determination of a spy or criminal.
Psychologically subtle, socially observant, and breathlessly suspenseful, these four spellbinding novels recapture a crucial strain of American crime writing.
Vera Caspary’s Laura (1943) begins with the investigation into a young woman’s murder and blossoms into a complex study, told from multiple viewpoints, of the pressures confronted by a career woman seeking to lead an independent life. Source of the celebrated film by Otto Preminger, Caspary’s novel has depths and surprises of its own. As much a novel of manners as of mystery, it remains a superb evocation of a vanished Manhattan.
Helen Eustis’s The Horizontal Man (1946) won an Edgar Award for best first novel and continues to fascinate as a singular mixture of detection, satire, and psychological portraiture. A poet on the faculty of an Ivy League school (modeled on Eustis’s alma mater, Smith College) is found murdered, setting off ripple effects of anxiety, suspicion, and panic in the hothouse atmosphere of an English department rife with talk of Freud and Kafka.
With In a Lonely Place (1947), Dorothy B. Hughes created one of the first full-scale literary portraits of a serial murderer. The streets of Los Angeles become a setting for random killings, and Hughes ventures, with unblinking exactness, into the mind of the killer. In the process she conjures up a potent mood of postwar dread and lingering trauma.
Raymond Chandler called Elisabeth Sanxay Holding “the top suspense writer of them all.” In The Blank Wall (1947) she constructs a ferociously taut drama around the plight of a wartime housewife forced beyond the limits of her sheltered domestic world in order to protect her family. The barely perceptible constraints of an ordinary suburban life become a course of obstacles that she must dodge with the determination of a spy or criminal.
Psychologically subtle, socially observant, and breathlessly suspenseful, these four spellbinding novels recapture a crucial strain of American crime writing.
848 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 2015
106 people are currently reading
1670 people want to read
About the author
Sarah Weinman
36 books306 followersSarah Weinman is the author of The Real Lolita: A Lost Girl, An Unthinkable Crime, and a Scandalous Masterpiece, which was named a Best Book of 2018 by NPR, BuzzFeed, The National Post, Literary Hub, the San Francisco Chronicle, and Vulture, and won the Arthur Ellis Award for Excellence in Crime Writing. She also edited the anthologies Unspeakable Acts: True Tales of Crime, Murder, Deceit & Obsession (Ecco) Women Crime Writers: Eight Suspense Novels of the 1940s & 50s (Library of America) and Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives (Penguin).
Weinman writes the twice-monthly Crime column for the New York Times Book Review. A 2020 National Magazine Award finalist for Reporting, her work has also appeared most recently in New York, The Wall Street Journal, Vanity Fair, the Washington Post, and AirMail, while her fiction has been published in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, and numerous anthologies. Weinman also writes (albeit less regularly) the “Crime Lady” newsletter, covering crime fiction, true crime, and all points in between.
She lives in New York City.
(sarahweinman.com)
Weinman writes the twice-monthly Crime column for the New York Times Book Review. A 2020 National Magazine Award finalist for Reporting, her work has also appeared most recently in New York, The Wall Street Journal, Vanity Fair, the Washington Post, and AirMail, while her fiction has been published in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, and numerous anthologies. Weinman also writes (albeit less regularly) the “Crime Lady” newsletter, covering crime fiction, true crime, and all points in between.
She lives in New York City.
(sarahweinman.com)
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March 22, 2024
Women Crime Writers in The Library Of America -- The 1940s
The Library of America has published many volumes of American noir and crime writing. It has recently published a two-volume anthology, "Women Crime Writers", consisting of four suspense novels from the 1940s and four from the 1950s by eight different women authors. I am reviewing the first volume, which consists of the four 1940s novels here. Sarah Weinman, a scholar of crime fiction selected the contents and edited the volume. Weinman has edited an earlier volume of suspense stories by women authors, "Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives: Stories from the Trailblazers of Domestic Suspense".
This collection is entertaining, absorbing, and a pleasure to read. Even those readers familiar with suspense fiction are unlikely to know all of the novels included here. The themes and settings of the works resist easy generalization. As with most good suspense writing, the themes and character development in these books go beyond genre. The works are written by women authors, but it would be a mistake to reduce their content to what today is described as women's issues. Of the four books, two, Vera Caspary's "Laura" and Elisabeth Holding's "The Blank Wall" are set in New York City or its environs. Helen Eustis' "The Horizontal Man" is set in an exclusive northeast women's college. "In a Lonely Place" by Dorothy Hughes is set in Los Angeles and its suburbs.
The impact of WW II on American life is an important theme in two of the novels. Hughes' "In a Lonely Place" is a story of a serial killer who served as a fighter pilot during the war. His wartime friend has become a Los Angeles detective and eventually brings down his former friend for the murders he committed. The novel masterfully develops from the inside the mind and heart of the serial killer. Holdings' "The Blank Wall" has more domestic themes. A middle-aged woman whose husband is overseas in the navy becomes involved in a series of crimes and in a romantic affair which bring excitement to while shaking the foundations of an outwardly routine life. In a quieter way than Hughes' novel, Holding develops the complexities of the life and dreams of its main character.
The remaining two novels also show a great deal about American life in the 1940s without the emphasis on WW II. Caspary's "Laura" shows the fast-paced world of middle and upper class New York City. The book became the basis for a famous movie directed by Otto Preminger and an even more famous song. The title character is a successful advertising executive who has risen in her profession by determination and talent. Although she has many friends and suitors in a busy life, she is also lonely and looking for love. Caspary's book describes the complexities of her character in a book narrated by three participants in the story.
Eustis' novel, "The Horizontal Man" portrays university life in the 1940s with observations about character and love that are at least as important to the book as the murder of a young English professor which drives the story. The characters of the novel include a young student with a crush on the victim who, under emotional stress, confesses to the killing, an ambitious reporter who befriends an intellectual, apparently no-nonsense student, and two professors who were friends and colleagues of the victim. The tenor of the book is psychological and Freudian with many literary allusions.
The four novels also see women in different ways which resist reduction or contemporary stereotyping. Laura is a successful woman in a field and time when this was uncommon who seeks love. Lucia Holley in "The Blank Wall" is a housewife outwardly contented in her role but in search of meaning, risk and adventure. "In a Lonely Place" focuses on the serial killer, but two highly intelligent women, the detective's wife, Sylvia, and the killer's lady friend, Laura, are pivotal in bringing him down. "The Horizontal Man" develops several different women characters, including Molly, the student enamored of the victim, the sensual femme fatale Mrs. Cramm, an intellectual young woman who becomes involved in the investigation of the crime, and more. In short, although each book is written by a different woman, no clear women's theme emerges from the anthology.
Each of these books is important and well-written in its own right. Together they make an outstanding collection of little-known suspense novels by women from the 1940s. Each individual title is separately available, but it is valuable to have the books preserved, accessible and honored by the LOA. The volume includes short biographies of each of the four authors together with Weinman's notes on the text which center on allusions to 1940's America that many readers will find unfamiliar. The LOA has an extensive website on the two-volume anthology which includes further information about the set, the books, and the authors, including rare cover art. The LOA kindly provided me with this box set for review. I am looking forward to reading the 1950s volume.
Robin Friedman
The Library of America has published many volumes of American noir and crime writing. It has recently published a two-volume anthology, "Women Crime Writers", consisting of four suspense novels from the 1940s and four from the 1950s by eight different women authors. I am reviewing the first volume, which consists of the four 1940s novels here. Sarah Weinman, a scholar of crime fiction selected the contents and edited the volume. Weinman has edited an earlier volume of suspense stories by women authors, "Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives: Stories from the Trailblazers of Domestic Suspense".
This collection is entertaining, absorbing, and a pleasure to read. Even those readers familiar with suspense fiction are unlikely to know all of the novels included here. The themes and settings of the works resist easy generalization. As with most good suspense writing, the themes and character development in these books go beyond genre. The works are written by women authors, but it would be a mistake to reduce their content to what today is described as women's issues. Of the four books, two, Vera Caspary's "Laura" and Elisabeth Holding's "The Blank Wall" are set in New York City or its environs. Helen Eustis' "The Horizontal Man" is set in an exclusive northeast women's college. "In a Lonely Place" by Dorothy Hughes is set in Los Angeles and its suburbs.
The impact of WW II on American life is an important theme in two of the novels. Hughes' "In a Lonely Place" is a story of a serial killer who served as a fighter pilot during the war. His wartime friend has become a Los Angeles detective and eventually brings down his former friend for the murders he committed. The novel masterfully develops from the inside the mind and heart of the serial killer. Holdings' "The Blank Wall" has more domestic themes. A middle-aged woman whose husband is overseas in the navy becomes involved in a series of crimes and in a romantic affair which bring excitement to while shaking the foundations of an outwardly routine life. In a quieter way than Hughes' novel, Holding develops the complexities of the life and dreams of its main character.
The remaining two novels also show a great deal about American life in the 1940s without the emphasis on WW II. Caspary's "Laura" shows the fast-paced world of middle and upper class New York City. The book became the basis for a famous movie directed by Otto Preminger and an even more famous song. The title character is a successful advertising executive who has risen in her profession by determination and talent. Although she has many friends and suitors in a busy life, she is also lonely and looking for love. Caspary's book describes the complexities of her character in a book narrated by three participants in the story.
Eustis' novel, "The Horizontal Man" portrays university life in the 1940s with observations about character and love that are at least as important to the book as the murder of a young English professor which drives the story. The characters of the novel include a young student with a crush on the victim who, under emotional stress, confesses to the killing, an ambitious reporter who befriends an intellectual, apparently no-nonsense student, and two professors who were friends and colleagues of the victim. The tenor of the book is psychological and Freudian with many literary allusions.
The four novels also see women in different ways which resist reduction or contemporary stereotyping. Laura is a successful woman in a field and time when this was uncommon who seeks love. Lucia Holley in "The Blank Wall" is a housewife outwardly contented in her role but in search of meaning, risk and adventure. "In a Lonely Place" focuses on the serial killer, but two highly intelligent women, the detective's wife, Sylvia, and the killer's lady friend, Laura, are pivotal in bringing him down. "The Horizontal Man" develops several different women characters, including Molly, the student enamored of the victim, the sensual femme fatale Mrs. Cramm, an intellectual young woman who becomes involved in the investigation of the crime, and more. In short, although each book is written by a different woman, no clear women's theme emerges from the anthology.
Each of these books is important and well-written in its own right. Together they make an outstanding collection of little-known suspense novels by women from the 1940s. Each individual title is separately available, but it is valuable to have the books preserved, accessible and honored by the LOA. The volume includes short biographies of each of the four authors together with Weinman's notes on the text which center on allusions to 1940's America that many readers will find unfamiliar. The LOA has an extensive website on the two-volume anthology which includes further information about the set, the books, and the authors, including rare cover art. The LOA kindly provided me with this box set for review. I am looking forward to reading the 1950s volume.
Robin Friedman
August 17, 2016
5 stars for 2 of the four novels: In a Lonely Place by Dorothy B. Hughes is a noir masterpiece --an extraordinary rendering of tension and suspense in L.A. , and Elisabeth's Sanxay Holding's The Blank Wall offers a continually surprising turn of events for a wartime housewife and mother.
The other two are good reads as well but less plausible and less masterful in the use of tension and suspense, more social dramas.
The other two are good reads as well but less plausible and less masterful in the use of tension and suspense, more social dramas.
May 23, 2016
Perhaps not quite as good as the companion volume of 1950s stories, but all in all a satisfying read. The Horizontal Man is, to my mind, the weakest of the four stories here and the reason I give this volume three stars instead of four.
May 20, 2025
A compelling collection!
September 26, 2015
I read the two-volume Women Crime Writers: Eight Suspense Novels of the 1940s & 50s: A Library of America Boxed Set set continuously over about two weeks, which means everyone around me probably got tired of hearing me explain the virtues of the set: that nearly all of the authors had fallen out of print over the years, that it was an important task for canon-formation to bring these books to everyone's attention once more, that Weinman had previously edited a collection of similar-era domestic suspense short fiction by some of the same authors that was also great (Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives: Stories from the Trailblazers of Domestic Suspense). Also that, more importantly, the books are terrific.
Weinman eases you in with Vera Caspary's Laura, which noir buffs are probably already acquainted with from the film. The book is sleek, smart, and playful, its story revealed and its characters masked and unmasked through a revolving door of narrators with their own motivations, biases, and outright lies. It centers around a successful and vibrant woman, Laura Hunt, whose body, face ruined by a shotgun blast, has been found in her apartment. She has a clever, petty mentor with excellent taste; a good-looking fool of a fiancé; one or two checkered rivals; and an investigating detective who is falling under the spell of her history. The liveliness of Caspary's writing, plus the glossy sheen she uses to disguise her discussion of some very sordid topics (for more discussion of this, I recommend the Out of the Past noir podcast and its discussion of the film), make this a great introduction to the collection.
Next is Helen Eustis's The Horizontal Man, a nervous and jittery concoction of Freud and unsatisfied longing set on a college campus and revolving around a handsome murdered poet. Where Laura is smooth, Eustis is jagged, and consequently the damage of her characters shows through more clearly and is the focus of the story. More than anything else, this novel offers the pleasure of the well-constructed and busy community, with a huge cast of vivid characters bobbing in and out of the action and colliding in unexpected ways and wanting very different things. Some of the psychology has not held true and some of the twists of it have been over-used, but that doesn't matter much, because the people are still real and recognizable: snarky, heroic, pathetic, and erotic, and working their way towards the truth of the mystery and of themselves.
Dorothy B. Hughes's In a Lonely Place: if this were the only worthwhile novel in the whole collection, the collection would still be worth buying. This, like The Talented Mr. Ripley and The Killer Inside Me, is a bravura look at a killer from the inside-out. Dix Steele is compulsive, lonely, unhappy, and vindictive. He seethes with resentment that can turn on a dime towards either melancholy or outright violence. It's Hughes's great achievement that he's both sympathetic and horrifying, and it's a further achievement that she doesn't forget to populate her story with people with goodness, perception, and strength that's equally well-realized: sometimes dark novels are just as unrealistic as chipper ones, but Hughes understands the world in full. The ending, too, is a kicker, with considerable staying power.
Finally, in this first volume, there's Elisabeth Sanxay Holding's The Blank Wall, about a woman holding together her family while her husband is away in the war. At first, she's just dealing with her son's polite condescension and her daughter's more combative contempt, but soon there's a dead body, blackmail, and gangsters. It could be the stuff of satire, but the novel never abandons nuance, and instead, it's deeply involving and even moving to watch Lucia gain strength and insight even as her situation tightens in around her like a noose. It's also about the struggle to make good choices in bad times, and whether the truth is worth the risk of consequences, and mother-daughter relationships, and reformation and romance. In a Lonely Place is more perfect, but this ended up being my favorite novel of the collection.
This is a terrific novel collection, and the empathy, intelligence, and power of all the writing is striking. Highly recommended. (On to the 1950s volume.)
Weinman eases you in with Vera Caspary's Laura, which noir buffs are probably already acquainted with from the film. The book is sleek, smart, and playful, its story revealed and its characters masked and unmasked through a revolving door of narrators with their own motivations, biases, and outright lies. It centers around a successful and vibrant woman, Laura Hunt, whose body, face ruined by a shotgun blast, has been found in her apartment. She has a clever, petty mentor with excellent taste; a good-looking fool of a fiancé; one or two checkered rivals; and an investigating detective who is falling under the spell of her history. The liveliness of Caspary's writing, plus the glossy sheen she uses to disguise her discussion of some very sordid topics (for more discussion of this, I recommend the Out of the Past noir podcast and its discussion of the film), make this a great introduction to the collection.
Next is Helen Eustis's The Horizontal Man, a nervous and jittery concoction of Freud and unsatisfied longing set on a college campus and revolving around a handsome murdered poet. Where Laura is smooth, Eustis is jagged, and consequently the damage of her characters shows through more clearly and is the focus of the story. More than anything else, this novel offers the pleasure of the well-constructed and busy community, with a huge cast of vivid characters bobbing in and out of the action and colliding in unexpected ways and wanting very different things. Some of the psychology has not held true and some of the twists of it have been over-used, but that doesn't matter much, because the people are still real and recognizable: snarky, heroic, pathetic, and erotic, and working their way towards the truth of the mystery and of themselves.
Dorothy B. Hughes's In a Lonely Place: if this were the only worthwhile novel in the whole collection, the collection would still be worth buying. This, like The Talented Mr. Ripley and The Killer Inside Me, is a bravura look at a killer from the inside-out. Dix Steele is compulsive, lonely, unhappy, and vindictive. He seethes with resentment that can turn on a dime towards either melancholy or outright violence. It's Hughes's great achievement that he's both sympathetic and horrifying, and it's a further achievement that she doesn't forget to populate her story with people with goodness, perception, and strength that's equally well-realized: sometimes dark novels are just as unrealistic as chipper ones, but Hughes understands the world in full. The ending, too, is a kicker, with considerable staying power.
Finally, in this first volume, there's Elisabeth Sanxay Holding's The Blank Wall, about a woman holding together her family while her husband is away in the war. At first, she's just dealing with her son's polite condescension and her daughter's more combative contempt, but soon there's a dead body, blackmail, and gangsters. It could be the stuff of satire, but the novel never abandons nuance, and instead, it's deeply involving and even moving to watch Lucia gain strength and insight even as her situation tightens in around her like a noose. It's also about the struggle to make good choices in bad times, and whether the truth is worth the risk of consequences, and mother-daughter relationships, and reformation and romance. In a Lonely Place is more perfect, but this ended up being my favorite novel of the collection.
This is a terrific novel collection, and the empathy, intelligence, and power of all the writing is striking. Highly recommended. (On to the 1950s volume.)
February 2, 2017
Given that most of the famous crime writers of the 1940s are men, it was fun to see what women crime writers were doing then. The American Library Association made that possible with the publication of four novellas. My favorite turned out to be the best known, "Laura," by Vera Caspary, which became a movie. All of the stories have something to offer, and the back gives a brief biography of each that shows how accomplished they were, if no well known.
October 18, 2018
Excellent collection. Laura is just as good as the classic film. The Horizontal Man starts out well enough but ends up feeling like a Mickey Rooney/Judy Garland romp. In a Lonely Place was downright creepy. The Blank Wall was probably the best of the lot. Well done collection
March 25, 2023
Before I picked up this volume, I've only heard the names of one of the 4 authors collected here - Dorothy B. Hughes - and even with her, I am not sure I had read anything by her. I like the period and I like the genre in the period so that is a curious oversight (which has a lot to do with what is kept in print - if you had asked me a few months ago to name 4 female suspense novelists from the 1940s, I probably would not have been able to name even Hughes).
The 4 novels collected here may be in the same genre but they are very different from each other. And while all of them have dated elements, they are no more dated than anything published in the 40s.
Laura by Vera Caspary (originally published in serialized form in 1942 and in a book form in 1943) uses multiple narrators to tell us the story of a murder. Each part is narrated by someone new thus adding new pieces to the puzzle. The murder victim is presumed to be Laura, an advertiser who was not exactly the meek woman everyone expected her to be. Her face was completely destroyed when she was shot - but based on where the body was and what she wore, everyone is pretty sure in her identity. And this is where this novel probably read very differently 80 years ago. These days the destroyed face makes you expect a wrong identification - it had become a cliche in the genre (and a clumsy one at that for the most part). So a lot of the surprise in the novel is lost - when Laura shows up alive and well, it felt expected. And yet, the novel managed to surprise me. Giving one of the voices to the detective assigned to the case who proceeds to fall in love with the woman he believes to be dead gave the story the grittiness it needed.
Of course the format was not new even back then - Wilkie Collins used the same narrative style in "The Woman in White". What makes the format work is managing to create believable voices and keeping track of who knows what when (and who does not know what when). Capary pulls it off - she even managed to surprise me with the end - not because it was illogical but because there were more obvious (and a lot less satisfying) endings possible.
The Horizontal Man by Helen Eustis (published in 1946) won the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best First Novel in its year (it was only the second year for the award). Kevin Boyle, a professor who likes women a bit too much, manages to get himself killed and the novel follows the investigation of that murder. The college president is too worried about the reputation of the college so the job ends up being done by an undergraduate, Kate, and her newspaper reporter friend (who spends half of the book trying to get Kate). It is a somewhat psychedelic novel - at different times it is unclear who is breaking down and who is faking a break down and at various times different characters, from both genders, end up hysterical. While I can see why it got the award in its year, it was my least favorite of the 4 novels in this omnibus (which does not mean that I disliked it). Eustis plays with the expected norms for the genders, bending them out of shape and having characters behave as one would expect a member of the other genre to behave. It feels almost caricaturish in places but then I am looking at it 80 years later.
In a Lonely Place by Dorothy B. Hughes (1947) is as noir as a novel can be. The story is told by an ex-airman named Dix Steele had ended up in LA after the war. He connects with a friend from the service who happens to be a policeman now, chasing after a serial killer. And the game of cat and mouse starts - because our Dix had been spending some of his nights strangling women. It becomes clear to the reader early in the novel so one can appreciate the complexity of the novel. Having Dix narrate the story was a brilliant choice - we know he is an unreliable narrator but finding the line between him lying and him not knowing things and having him surprised by events a reader can see coming was delightful. Psychological suspense is a popular genre and there are a lot of modern writers who excel in it - and this novel is probably better than most I had read in the genre.
In The Blank Wall by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding (1947), we meet Lucia Holley - a mother of two, with a husband deployed overseas (the novel is set during WWII), living with her father and children (and the African American housekeeper Sybil) in a big house, away from the big city. Both her father and her daughter are strong-willed and willing to push Lucia as much as possible and trying to deal with a household in the middle of the war shortages is stressing on its own. To find herself in the middle of a blackmail scandal, with a dead body showing up and a man she may be falling in love with despite his past being around, was the last thing she expected. Except that she cannot have the scandal so the timid housewife decides she will do anything she can to save her family - without telling them what she is doing. The novel could have descended into parody but it never happens. And somewhere in the middle of all that, we get to learn a lot more about Sybil and two women who had depended on each other anyway, get closer and closer to a friendship - as unlikely as this may be on the surface.
All 4 novels had been adapted into movies (and some of them in radio-plays as well). I had not watched any of the movies - all 4 stories were new to me. And I greatly enjoyed them. None of them is perfect but none of them feel so dated so that it becomes unreadable either.
Library of America has a companion volume with 4 more novels (from the 1950s) and I plan to read them soon - and then go chasing more of these early stories. LOA put together a site for the series of 2 omnibuses who has (among other things) a chronology of suspense novels by women (http://womencrime.loa.org/?page_id=367) and their movies adaptations (http://womencrime.loa.org/?page_id=189), reviews/appreciations for each of the 8 novels by a currently working in the genre female author (with one exception - Charles Finch for The Horizontal Man - which is oddly appropriate considering the novel) and Sarah Weinman's introduction to the series and the genre (http://womencrime.loa.org/?page_id=187) which LOA decided not to print in the books so if you want it, you need to read it online.
The 4 novels collected here may be in the same genre but they are very different from each other. And while all of them have dated elements, they are no more dated than anything published in the 40s.
Laura by Vera Caspary (originally published in serialized form in 1942 and in a book form in 1943) uses multiple narrators to tell us the story of a murder. Each part is narrated by someone new thus adding new pieces to the puzzle. The murder victim is presumed to be Laura, an advertiser who was not exactly the meek woman everyone expected her to be. Her face was completely destroyed when she was shot - but based on where the body was and what she wore, everyone is pretty sure in her identity. And this is where this novel probably read very differently 80 years ago. These days the destroyed face makes you expect a wrong identification - it had become a cliche in the genre (and a clumsy one at that for the most part). So a lot of the surprise in the novel is lost - when Laura shows up alive and well, it felt expected. And yet, the novel managed to surprise me. Giving one of the voices to the detective assigned to the case who proceeds to fall in love with the woman he believes to be dead gave the story the grittiness it needed.
Of course the format was not new even back then - Wilkie Collins used the same narrative style in "The Woman in White". What makes the format work is managing to create believable voices and keeping track of who knows what when (and who does not know what when). Capary pulls it off - she even managed to surprise me with the end - not because it was illogical but because there were more obvious (and a lot less satisfying) endings possible.
The Horizontal Man by Helen Eustis (published in 1946) won the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best First Novel in its year (it was only the second year for the award). Kevin Boyle, a professor who likes women a bit too much, manages to get himself killed and the novel follows the investigation of that murder. The college president is too worried about the reputation of the college so the job ends up being done by an undergraduate, Kate, and her newspaper reporter friend (who spends half of the book trying to get Kate). It is a somewhat psychedelic novel - at different times it is unclear who is breaking down and who is faking a break down and at various times different characters, from both genders, end up hysterical. While I can see why it got the award in its year, it was my least favorite of the 4 novels in this omnibus (which does not mean that I disliked it). Eustis plays with the expected norms for the genders, bending them out of shape and having characters behave as one would expect a member of the other genre to behave. It feels almost caricaturish in places but then I am looking at it 80 years later.
In a Lonely Place by Dorothy B. Hughes (1947) is as noir as a novel can be. The story is told by an ex-airman named Dix Steele had ended up in LA after the war. He connects with a friend from the service who happens to be a policeman now, chasing after a serial killer. And the game of cat and mouse starts - because our Dix had been spending some of his nights strangling women. It becomes clear to the reader early in the novel so one can appreciate the complexity of the novel. Having Dix narrate the story was a brilliant choice - we know he is an unreliable narrator but finding the line between him lying and him not knowing things and having him surprised by events a reader can see coming was delightful. Psychological suspense is a popular genre and there are a lot of modern writers who excel in it - and this novel is probably better than most I had read in the genre.
In The Blank Wall by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding (1947), we meet Lucia Holley - a mother of two, with a husband deployed overseas (the novel is set during WWII), living with her father and children (and the African American housekeeper Sybil) in a big house, away from the big city. Both her father and her daughter are strong-willed and willing to push Lucia as much as possible and trying to deal with a household in the middle of the war shortages is stressing on its own. To find herself in the middle of a blackmail scandal, with a dead body showing up and a man she may be falling in love with despite his past being around, was the last thing she expected. Except that she cannot have the scandal so the timid housewife decides she will do anything she can to save her family - without telling them what she is doing. The novel could have descended into parody but it never happens. And somewhere in the middle of all that, we get to learn a lot more about Sybil and two women who had depended on each other anyway, get closer and closer to a friendship - as unlikely as this may be on the surface.
All 4 novels had been adapted into movies (and some of them in radio-plays as well). I had not watched any of the movies - all 4 stories were new to me. And I greatly enjoyed them. None of them is perfect but none of them feel so dated so that it becomes unreadable either.
Library of America has a companion volume with 4 more novels (from the 1950s) and I plan to read them soon - and then go chasing more of these early stories. LOA put together a site for the series of 2 omnibuses who has (among other things) a chronology of suspense novels by women (http://womencrime.loa.org/?page_id=367) and their movies adaptations (http://womencrime.loa.org/?page_id=189), reviews/appreciations for each of the 8 novels by a currently working in the genre female author (with one exception - Charles Finch for The Horizontal Man - which is oddly appropriate considering the novel) and Sarah Weinman's introduction to the series and the genre (http://womencrime.loa.org/?page_id=187) which LOA decided not to print in the books so if you want it, you need to read it online.
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December 29, 2020Fantastic collection!
June 17, 2025
3 of them were DNFs.
April 6, 2016
This was an interesting collection of 4 crime novels written by women in the 1940's. I had only been familiar with one story, Laura by way of the 1945 film noir movie which starred Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews and Clifton Webb. The book was written by Vera Caspary, and tells the story of a beautiful and independent young woman who was loved by most every man she met, including the policeman investigating her murder. There is a surprise twist that changes everything about the case. I found the now obsolete slang and expressions and the mannered narration dated the book and took me out of the story occasionally, but it is still a strong crime story.
The Horizontal Man, by Helen Eustis, is set in a University Campus and involves the murder of a young English Professor. The characters are mostly quirky and entertaining. There is psychiatric and psychoanalytical theory to explain some of the characters' mental instability. These theories have been mostly disputed today. I felt there was enough humor, some of it unintentional, to update this into a TV movie.
In a Lonely Place by Dorothy B. Hughes, is the story of of a young man who was an Air Force pilot in WW2 and has returned to the States. His life has gone downhill and he is getting by with fraud and deceit, making no attempt to find honest employment or lodging. He feels the need of a woman in his life, and pretends to be a wealthy writer to attract a woman who expects to be royally supported by men. As he narrates the story we become aware through his wartime buddy, who is a policeman, that there is an ongoing investigation concerning the serial killing of young women. We begin to suspect the narrator is the killer as the suspense builds.
The Blank Wall, by Elizabeth Sanxay Holding, is the story of a woman struggling with running a household while her husband is away in the Pacific War. She is contending with two teenagers, her elderly father, rationing, and isolation but has a very efficient housekeeper. Her rebellious teenaged daughter was involved with an unsavory man who is killed. She is determined to keep the girl from scandal, but her muddled attempts to protect the girl make matters worse and entangle her with some dangerous criminals.
Having previously enjoyed the collection of crime stories by woman novelists of the 1950's, I hope there will be similar sets of books by male authors from the 1940's and 1950's.
The Horizontal Man, by Helen Eustis, is set in a University Campus and involves the murder of a young English Professor. The characters are mostly quirky and entertaining. There is psychiatric and psychoanalytical theory to explain some of the characters' mental instability. These theories have been mostly disputed today. I felt there was enough humor, some of it unintentional, to update this into a TV movie.
In a Lonely Place by Dorothy B. Hughes, is the story of of a young man who was an Air Force pilot in WW2 and has returned to the States. His life has gone downhill and he is getting by with fraud and deceit, making no attempt to find honest employment or lodging. He feels the need of a woman in his life, and pretends to be a wealthy writer to attract a woman who expects to be royally supported by men. As he narrates the story we become aware through his wartime buddy, who is a policeman, that there is an ongoing investigation concerning the serial killing of young women. We begin to suspect the narrator is the killer as the suspense builds.
The Blank Wall, by Elizabeth Sanxay Holding, is the story of a woman struggling with running a household while her husband is away in the Pacific War. She is contending with two teenagers, her elderly father, rationing, and isolation but has a very efficient housekeeper. Her rebellious teenaged daughter was involved with an unsavory man who is killed. She is determined to keep the girl from scandal, but her muddled attempts to protect the girl make matters worse and entangle her with some dangerous criminals.
Having previously enjoyed the collection of crime stories by woman novelists of the 1950's, I hope there will be similar sets of books by male authors from the 1940's and 1950's.
March 4, 2018
The subtitle of this collection is more accurate than its main title, because the stories are all much more about suspense than about crime (although there are crimes in them). I can't say much without spoiling the stories, all of which have their surprises, but I will say that they are all excellent -- "In a Lonely Place" is one of the creepiest things I have ever read, right up there with JCO's Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?, and "The Blank Wall" is downright gut-wrenching. Highly recommended.
September 19, 2024
Four celebrated suspense novels from women crime writers of the 1940s.
Here are the four novels:
Laura by Vera Caspary (1943) - A thriller with multiple narrators and one of the most beloved (and copied) plot twists in crime fiction. I have three problems with Laura: (1) The Otto Preminger movie is much better than the book, (2) Waldo Lydecker, the effete, obese, and vicious columnist and friend/mentor to Laura, is the only interesting character, and (3) Caspary's knowledge of firearms leaves much to be desired. But that plot twist is exquisite. Four stars for the novel.
The Horizontal Man by Helen Eustis (1946) - I just couldn't get into this campus mystery. Rather than give up on it, I skipped to the end to learn the identity of the murderer. OK, another multiple personality killer. Seems like the 40s and 50s were full of them. The least satisfying book in this collection. Two stars for the novel.
In a Lonely Place by Dorothy B. Hughes (1947) - A masterpiece! One of the best psychological crime thrillers ever published. This serial killer thriller essentially defined a subgenre, and it perfectly captures the Southern California setting. Dix Steele is the prototype for all future fictional sociopathic killers, including Lou Ford and Hannibal Lecter. Hughes's mastery of indirect discourse is a thing to behold. The Nicholas Ray movie starring Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Grahame is quite different from the novel, but it's also a classic. Five stars for the novel.
The Blank Wall by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding (1947) - I hadn't heard of author Sanxay Holding, whom Raymond Chandler called the country's best suspense novelist, and now I need to read everything by her that I can find. What a gripping psychological thriller! The book is told in the third person, but through the magic of indirect discourse it feels mostly told from the perspective of protagonist Lucia Holley, a Long Island housewife during World War II whose husband is a naval officer away on duty in the Pacific. One morning, she discovers that her 17-year-old daughter's sleazy 35-year-old boyfriend has been killed (intentionally or accidentally) by falling onto the anchor in their boat. Rather than alert the authorities and invite scandal, she decides to dispose of the body in the marshes. After that, two blackmailers threaten to expose her daughter's affair with the dead thug. And of course the police later discover the body in the water and begin to investigate the murder, interviewing witnesses. All the characters in this novel, including two teenage children and an African American maid, are well developed. Lots of great wartime atmosphere, particularly around wartime rationing. The pacing is swift, the plot is unpredictable, and the suspense escalates toward the conclusion. It's a perfect thriller. It's been adapted twice, once in 1949 as The Reckless Moment starring Joan Bennet and James Mason, and again in 2001 as The Deep End starring Tilda Swinton and Goran Visnjic. Five stars for the novel.
Here are the four novels:
Laura by Vera Caspary (1943) - A thriller with multiple narrators and one of the most beloved (and copied) plot twists in crime fiction. I have three problems with Laura: (1) The Otto Preminger movie is much better than the book, (2) Waldo Lydecker, the effete, obese, and vicious columnist and friend/mentor to Laura, is the only interesting character, and (3) Caspary's knowledge of firearms leaves much to be desired. But that plot twist is exquisite. Four stars for the novel.
The Horizontal Man by Helen Eustis (1946) - I just couldn't get into this campus mystery. Rather than give up on it, I skipped to the end to learn the identity of the murderer. OK, another multiple personality killer. Seems like the 40s and 50s were full of them. The least satisfying book in this collection. Two stars for the novel.
In a Lonely Place by Dorothy B. Hughes (1947) - A masterpiece! One of the best psychological crime thrillers ever published. This serial killer thriller essentially defined a subgenre, and it perfectly captures the Southern California setting. Dix Steele is the prototype for all future fictional sociopathic killers, including Lou Ford and Hannibal Lecter. Hughes's mastery of indirect discourse is a thing to behold. The Nicholas Ray movie starring Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Grahame is quite different from the novel, but it's also a classic. Five stars for the novel.
The Blank Wall by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding (1947) - I hadn't heard of author Sanxay Holding, whom Raymond Chandler called the country's best suspense novelist, and now I need to read everything by her that I can find. What a gripping psychological thriller! The book is told in the third person, but through the magic of indirect discourse it feels mostly told from the perspective of protagonist Lucia Holley, a Long Island housewife during World War II whose husband is a naval officer away on duty in the Pacific. One morning, she discovers that her 17-year-old daughter's sleazy 35-year-old boyfriend has been killed (intentionally or accidentally) by falling onto the anchor in their boat. Rather than alert the authorities and invite scandal, she decides to dispose of the body in the marshes. After that, two blackmailers threaten to expose her daughter's affair with the dead thug. And of course the police later discover the body in the water and begin to investigate the murder, interviewing witnesses. All the characters in this novel, including two teenage children and an African American maid, are well developed. Lots of great wartime atmosphere, particularly around wartime rationing. The pacing is swift, the plot is unpredictable, and the suspense escalates toward the conclusion. It's a perfect thriller. It's been adapted twice, once in 1949 as The Reckless Moment starring Joan Bennet and James Mason, and again in 2001 as The Deep End starring Tilda Swinton and Goran Visnjic. Five stars for the novel.
September 26, 2017
Four fantastic novels that are groundbreaking in various ways and entertaining in all ways. The two that surprised me the most were by writers I'd never even heard of.
The second novel, The Horizontal Man, by Helen Eustis manages to pre-date Robert Bloch's Psycho by something like 15 years and has nearly an identical resolution. It's so close a fit that if I were Eustis, I'd have felt an awful lot like I'd been ripped off. The novel is at turns a funny satire of campus life and mores while also featuring a detective story, a mystery, and a psychological novel. There's more going on in this one little book than you'd guess.
The fourth in the collection, The Blank Wall, by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding, likewise is a crime novel set against the backdrop of a wife and mother holding home together while her husband is off to war and her daughter falls in among some sharpies. We get blackmail, murder, threats, extortion, all while our protagonist is trying to not drive her car so as to conserve gas and tire rubber for the war effort, shopping with her ration book, and even a little bit of racial sympathy for the family maid and her backstory almost wholly absent from novels of the time written by white authors.
The first novel should be all too familiar for fans of noir novels and films both (Vera Caspary's Laura, which pulls a neat triple narration going on while the third novel, Dorothy B. Hughes In a Lonely Place is another noir classic made into a well-regarded film with Humphrey Bogart playing the tormented killer protagonist. These two are classics for a reason, but the two companion novel in the volume, and their authors, are deserving of your attention just as much.
I have a feeling I'll be doing some library stacks digging to find some more great stories like these.
The second novel, The Horizontal Man, by Helen Eustis manages to pre-date Robert Bloch's Psycho by something like 15 years and has nearly an identical resolution. It's so close a fit that if I were Eustis, I'd have felt an awful lot like I'd been ripped off. The novel is at turns a funny satire of campus life and mores while also featuring a detective story, a mystery, and a psychological novel. There's more going on in this one little book than you'd guess.
The fourth in the collection, The Blank Wall, by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding, likewise is a crime novel set against the backdrop of a wife and mother holding home together while her husband is off to war and her daughter falls in among some sharpies. We get blackmail, murder, threats, extortion, all while our protagonist is trying to not drive her car so as to conserve gas and tire rubber for the war effort, shopping with her ration book, and even a little bit of racial sympathy for the family maid and her backstory almost wholly absent from novels of the time written by white authors.
The first novel should be all too familiar for fans of noir novels and films both (Vera Caspary's Laura, which pulls a neat triple narration going on while the third novel, Dorothy B. Hughes In a Lonely Place is another noir classic made into a well-regarded film with Humphrey Bogart playing the tormented killer protagonist. These two are classics for a reason, but the two companion novel in the volume, and their authors, are deserving of your attention just as much.
I have a feeling I'll be doing some library stacks digging to find some more great stories like these.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 28, 2020
I read Dorothy Hughes's IN A LONELY PLACE (1947) in this collection, and this psychological thriller is intensely noir. The story twists through the mind of Dickson “Dix” Steele, a former pilot who misses the war and most of all the sensation of “flying wild.” When he finds himself in a fine Los Angeles apartment (of dubious acquisition), he runs into a wartime friend who has become an L.A. detective. Dix clings to this friendship as a form of normalcy while women Dix glimpses in the night are found dead in the morning. Dix, often in an internal rampage, tries to control what others think of him while convincing himself he's falling in love with a gorgeous neighbor. The writing is taut, the seaside fog atmospheric, and some women are smarter than they appear. This novel paves the way for Patricia Highsmith’s THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY.
Note: this novel underwent plot changes when it was turned into a film starring Gloria Grahame and Humphrey Bogart.
Note: this novel underwent plot changes when it was turned into a film starring Gloria Grahame and Humphrey Bogart.
February 15, 2022
3.5 Stars.
Very difficult to give this one a rating since it had four novels in it.
Laura by Vera Caspary
3.75 Stars
Admittedly, my love for the movie version of this book might be why this novel fell flat. Go see the movie. It’s brilliant.
The Horizontal Man by Helen Eustis
4.0 Stars
The story was great and the characters internal dialogue was superb, but the dialogue between characters was super hammy.
In a Lonely Place by Dorothy B. Hughes
5. 0 Stars
This novel was just great. All from the perspective of a charming serial killer. Just the right amount of creepy.
The Blank Wall by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding
1.0 Stars
Ugh! Well, three out of four ain’t bad. 🤷🏻♀️
I hated this one! If it had been on its own I would have DNF’d it after the first twenty pages. But I finished and didn’t like any of the characters except for the blackmailer. And I didn’t really like him that much either.
Very difficult to give this one a rating since it had four novels in it.
Laura by Vera Caspary
3.75 Stars
Admittedly, my love for the movie version of this book might be why this novel fell flat. Go see the movie. It’s brilliant.
The Horizontal Man by Helen Eustis
4.0 Stars
The story was great and the characters internal dialogue was superb, but the dialogue between characters was super hammy.
In a Lonely Place by Dorothy B. Hughes
5. 0 Stars
This novel was just great. All from the perspective of a charming serial killer. Just the right amount of creepy.
The Blank Wall by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding
1.0 Stars
Ugh! Well, three out of four ain’t bad. 🤷🏻♀️
I hated this one! If it had been on its own I would have DNF’d it after the first twenty pages. But I finished and didn’t like any of the characters except for the blackmailer. And I didn’t really like him that much either.
September 14, 2018
This book is one of a two-volume set, which I of course read out of order. The volume that I read first, of authors from the 50s, I liked much better than this one. For this one, I really enjoyed the first story, and then appreciated, but didn't always love, the remaining three stories. I will say this, though, all four of the authors successfully created very complicated characters, in a way that you don't always see. I think that maybe this is why I didn't enjoy this as much. I often felt sympathy for the characters, but at the same time was deeply frustrated by them, and was actually kinda hate-reading by the end of the last story.
That said, there was no way I was putting this book down, and I certainly recommend if vintage murder mysteries are your cup of tea.
That said, there was no way I was putting this book down, and I certainly recommend if vintage murder mysteries are your cup of tea.
November 2, 2019
As title says, four novels:
- Larua, Vera Caspary
- The Horizontal Man, Helen Eustas
- In a Lonely Place, Dorothy B. Hughes
- The Blank Wall, Elizsabeth Sanxay Holding
In Laura, a woman is found dead and the story is told from multiple perspectives. Interesting take on how people see things but, no surprise, a dated style.
The Horizontal Man is a murder at a women's college, again told from multiple perspectives. Tries for humor and maybe it was far funnier in it's time.
In a Lonely Place is told from the view of a serial killer. During it, I finally lost interest in the time and style, then returned the book to the library. The collection is a nice period piece, it just depends on if you care about the period and the topics. I didn't.
- Larua, Vera Caspary
- The Horizontal Man, Helen Eustas
- In a Lonely Place, Dorothy B. Hughes
- The Blank Wall, Elizsabeth Sanxay Holding
In Laura, a woman is found dead and the story is told from multiple perspectives. Interesting take on how people see things but, no surprise, a dated style.
The Horizontal Man is a murder at a women's college, again told from multiple perspectives. Tries for humor and maybe it was far funnier in it's time.
In a Lonely Place is told from the view of a serial killer. During it, I finally lost interest in the time and style, then returned the book to the library. The collection is a nice period piece, it just depends on if you care about the period and the topics. I didn't.
January 18, 2021
This is a great collection, even if I couldn't handle the first one by Vera Caspary, and I'd already read and admired In a Lonely Place. The Horizontal Man by Helen Eustis also felt like a discovery, though there's some fat-shaming, the plump girl wins, and there's an unusually open attitude towards homosexuality, even if it gets a bit weird at the end. I also really enjoyed The Blank Wall because it was so very much from a woman's perspective; cleaning up a murder in order to protect your family, worrying about what to serve for dinner, dealing with a slew of household chores. And whimsy, which was also good. Some of these writers seem to be out of print apart from collections.
March 28, 2023
WARNING--SPOILERS
These were very interesting books. Three were excellent. The Horizontal Man seemed a bit bloated. Laura is terrific. It's much like the movie. In A Lonely Place is great, but if you've seen the movie, you will be much surprised by the book. About the only two things that the film and the book have in common are the protagonist's name, Dix Steele, and the fact that he loves a woman who lives across the patio from his apartment. In the book, Dix Steele is a serial killer! The final book, The Blank Wall was most unusual dealing with a middle aged housewife who has the most intense experiences. I highly recommend Women Crime Writers.
These were very interesting books. Three were excellent. The Horizontal Man seemed a bit bloated. Laura is terrific. It's much like the movie. In A Lonely Place is great, but if you've seen the movie, you will be much surprised by the book. About the only two things that the film and the book have in common are the protagonist's name, Dix Steele, and the fact that he loves a woman who lives across the patio from his apartment. In the book, Dix Steele is a serial killer! The final book, The Blank Wall was most unusual dealing with a middle aged housewife who has the most intense experiences. I highly recommend Women Crime Writers.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 10, 2021
I read Laura, the first novel in the collection. I can see why it is a classic. The novel is in parts, and each part is written from a different character's perspective. The author does a good job of varying the writing style and voice. Makes me want to check out the film.
If you're interested in 1940s and film noir type stuff, I think you would like it.
I had to return the book to the library because someone else had it on hold, but I might check it out again and come back to the others when I am in the mood.
If you're interested in 1940s and film noir type stuff, I think you would like it.
I had to return the book to the library because someone else had it on hold, but I might check it out again and come back to the others when I am in the mood.
December 25, 2024
All four books in this collection are worth reading, some are totally excellent (I reviewed them individually).
The Horizontal Man is the only one that hasn't been made into a film though the central concept snuck into a very famous Hitchcock flick (but I can't say which one without spoiling the denouement).
Great stuff. I wish Sarah Weinman would do a sequel with another four book from the 40s.
The Horizontal Man is the only one that hasn't been made into a film though the central concept snuck into a very famous Hitchcock flick (but I can't say which one without spoiling the denouement).
Great stuff. I wish Sarah Weinman would do a sequel with another four book from the 40s.
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October 12, 2020
October 7, 2021
I loved in a lonely place, terrific California noir some fine writing. I was amused to read about not being able to find a parking place in Santa Monica – somethings never change!
I wanted to like the horizontal man but just didn't grab me I think I abandoned it after about 25%
The other novels look very intriguing I will undoubtedly read them at some point.
I wanted to like the horizontal man but just didn't grab me I think I abandoned it after about 25%
The other novels look very intriguing I will undoubtedly read them at some point.
January 14, 2022
A primer of excellent noir fiction. Required reading for anyone wanting to learn about the genre. Freudian psychology plays an important part in driving plots that involve killers with multiple personalities and obsessions. Laura is first, and helps one understand how the other novellas will develop.
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March 28, 2022Really excellent novels...loved the '40s angle and that all were women. Patricia Highsmith is one of my favorite writers and film sources, e.g. The Incredible Mr. Ripley, Carol. I usually one novel and then put the book down for later.
May 16, 2024
These are some of the best suspense novels I've read. Each one is very different from the others in style and point of view, and the writing is excellent. They are novels with crimes rather than mystery stories.
October 31, 2017
Wonderful mysteries from undeservedly forgotten authors. "In a Lonely Place" and "The Blank Wall" are especially good.
February 14, 2018
Enjoyed Laura and In a Lonely Place; was indifferent to The Blank Wall; and actively disliked The Horizontal Man.
April 23, 2018
Laura: 1/5 stars
The Horizontal Man: 5/5 stars
In a Lonely Place: 2/5 stars
The Blank Wall: 3/5 stars
The Horizontal Man: 5/5 stars
In a Lonely Place: 2/5 stars
The Blank Wall: 3/5 stars
Displaying 1 - 30 of 54 reviews