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The Blank Wall
A 1947 thriller about a mother who shields her daughter from a blackmailer.
231 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1947
28 people are currently reading
1611 people want to read
About the author
Elisabeth Sanxay Holding
92 books34 followersElisabeth Sanxay Holding (1889-1955) was born and brought up in New York and educated at Miss Whitcombe's and other schools for young ladies. In 1913 she married George Holding, a British diplomat. They had two daughters and lived in various South American countries, and then in Bermuda, where her husband was a government official. Elisabeth Sanxay Holding wrote six romantic novels in the 1920s but, after the stock market crash, turned to the more profitable genre of detective novels: from 1929-54 she wrote eighteen, as well as numerous short stories for magazines. In 1949 Raymond Chandler chose her as 'the best character and suspense writer (for consistent but not large production)', picking The Blank Wall (1947) as one of his favourites among her books; it was filmed as The Reckless Moment in 1949 (by Max Ophuls) and as The Deep End (with Tilda Swinton) in 2001. After her husband's retirement the Holdings lived in New York City. Her series character was Lieutenant Levy. Holding also wrote numerous short stories for popular magazines of the day.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 197 reviews
June 17, 2022
Who knew there were so many great women writers of noir in the 1940s? I just finished reading a couple of Dorothy Hughes's books which were phenomenal. This one by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding is just as good if not better, because it is less cerebral and more of a thriller.
The Blank Wall tells the story of a middle aged housewife whose husband is in the midst of fighting in World War Two. She lives with two bossy, teenage children, her gentle father, and her only friend, a smart, tough maid. Her seventeen year old daughter is running around with a criminal-looking thirty five year old. The thug shows up at their home to see the girl. All hell breaks loose when her dad decides to "do something". He does something that tests this poor woman to the breaking point and beyond. She shows her true worth and grit. She is much more than a wife, mother and housekeeper. She is wonderful.
The Blank Wall tells the story of a middle aged housewife whose husband is in the midst of fighting in World War Two. She lives with two bossy, teenage children, her gentle father, and her only friend, a smart, tough maid. Her seventeen year old daughter is running around with a criminal-looking thirty five year old. The thug shows up at their home to see the girl. All hell breaks loose when her dad decides to "do something". He does something that tests this poor woman to the breaking point and beyond. She shows her true worth and grit. She is much more than a wife, mother and housekeeper. She is wonderful.
April 16, 2025
4.5★
Chose to use this cover, because I love it - I'm such a retro gal!- but this is part of a four book set I picked up very cheaply, years ago.Women Crime Writers: Four Suspense Novels of the 1940s: Laura / The Horizontal Man / In a Lonely Place / The Blank Wall Last time I looked this set is very expensive now - but it may still be worth it, as this is the third title I have read from it & they have all been outstanding.
It is WW2. Lucia's husband is serving in the Navy & she is at home, feeling like a failure. Lucia married young, had children young & feels inadequate even managing her household. She relies heavily on her maid Sibyl. But then a blackmailer enters Lucia's life & sets off a chain of events...
This tale should seem ridiculous & improbable- & this reader certainly would have certainly made different choices. But the one apparent strength in Lucia's character was her devotion to her children & Lucia sets out to rescue Bee from her folly.
The whole tale is fast paced till near the end where I think even Sanxay Holding was having trouble getting Lucia out of this jam. But, until near the end this book was impossible to put down & parts had me literally on the edge of my seat.
I'm really looking forward to reading the fourth book, The Horizontal Man now!
Chose to use this cover, because I love it - I'm such a retro gal!- but this is part of a four book set I picked up very cheaply, years ago.Women Crime Writers: Four Suspense Novels of the 1940s: Laura / The Horizontal Man / In a Lonely Place / The Blank Wall Last time I looked this set is very expensive now - but it may still be worth it, as this is the third title I have read from it & they have all been outstanding.
It is WW2. Lucia's husband is serving in the Navy & she is at home, feeling like a failure. Lucia married young, had children young & feels inadequate even managing her household. She relies heavily on her maid Sibyl. But then a blackmailer enters Lucia's life & sets off a chain of events...
This tale should seem ridiculous & improbable- & this reader certainly would have certainly made different choices. But the one apparent strength in Lucia's character was her devotion to her children & Lucia sets out to rescue Bee from her folly.
The whole tale is fast paced till near the end where I think even Sanxay Holding was having trouble getting Lucia out of this jam. But, until near the end this book was impossible to put down & parts had me literally on the edge of my seat.
I'm really looking forward to reading the fourth book, The Horizontal Man now!
https://wordpress.com/view/carolshess...
January 16, 2025
4.5 STARS
A perfect gem of a noir suspense. Raymond Chandler chose this author as the “best character and suspense author”. Almost from the very beginning, there was a quiet anxiety that overtook me. We meet Lucia, a mother, daughter, wife who devotes her whole self to her family. Her daughter, Bee, has become embroiled with an unsavoury older man. Bee is 17 yrs old- does she listen or believe her mother? Of course not. Lucia must rise to the occasion and protect Bee and her family from this man. What with all the lies and subterfuge, how was Lucia going to get out of this ? Lucia’s husband, Tom, is in the navy fighting in WWII, so he is not there to lean on or assist her.
I seriously could not put this book down. I had to know how it would be resolved.
Who knew that Persephone books actually has a few suspense novels in their oeuvre? So glad I picked this one up!
Published: 1947
A perfect gem of a noir suspense. Raymond Chandler chose this author as the “best character and suspense author”. Almost from the very beginning, there was a quiet anxiety that overtook me. We meet Lucia, a mother, daughter, wife who devotes her whole self to her family. Her daughter, Bee, has become embroiled with an unsavoury older man. Bee is 17 yrs old- does she listen or believe her mother? Of course not. Lucia must rise to the occasion and protect Bee and her family from this man. What with all the lies and subterfuge, how was Lucia going to get out of this ? Lucia’s husband, Tom, is in the navy fighting in WWII, so he is not there to lean on or assist her.
I seriously could not put this book down. I had to know how it would be resolved.
Who knew that Persephone books actually has a few suspense novels in their oeuvre? So glad I picked this one up!
Published: 1947
February 19, 2014
“Her husband and her children did not consider her beyond criticism. She belonged to them; whatever she did affected them; their pride, their good name in the world lay in her hands. They would give her love, protection, even a sort of homage, but in return for that she must be what they wanted and needed her to be.”
Raymond Chandler once referred to Ms Sanxay Holding as the greatest suspense writer of them all and yet today she is largely forgotten, in fact outside of America she was hardly known at all. If not for Persephone Books and their reissues of classic female-centric work she might be completely forgotten.
It is the story of a tame American housewife during WWII, thrust in to action to protect her family from a blackmail and extortion ring, from the police and the newspapers and the gossip queens, from harm both psychological and physical. Lucia is a fascinating protagonist at once morally conflicted and certain of what she must achieve, strong and forceful yet confused and full of self doubt and self loathing. She is a wonderful mother but also weak and allows herself to be trampled under foot by the whims of her progeny. The way these facets are strung together leave a lasting impression of somebody who you can respect and want to hug.
At one point in The Blank Wall the character dismisses English mysteries where you are made not to care for the victims of crime or the perpetrators, their over reliance on the puzzle or the mechanics of the crime, and with one tightly written little book the author shows them how she thinks it should be done. You might call that a challenge to other authors writing in the genre, or say this is a blueprint for what was to come, a bold move that paid off as The Blank Wall is, as already noted elsewhere, a fine example of the psychological thriller, a forerunner to the works of Patricia Highsmith, Margaret Millar and Dorothy Hughes, writers who could write about women who find inner strength and prove that they are as resourceful and powerful as men, without criticising or belittling the other sex. In doing so the blend of the domestic with the incredible creates believable characters and scenarios, and novels with real humanity at their core.
Adapted by Hollywood twice, first as The Reckless Moment and more recently the subject of a smart and high class modernisation of the text as The Deep End. All three are different pieces of art worthy of exploration on their own merits.
Raymond Chandler once referred to Ms Sanxay Holding as the greatest suspense writer of them all and yet today she is largely forgotten, in fact outside of America she was hardly known at all. If not for Persephone Books and their reissues of classic female-centric work she might be completely forgotten.
It is the story of a tame American housewife during WWII, thrust in to action to protect her family from a blackmail and extortion ring, from the police and the newspapers and the gossip queens, from harm both psychological and physical. Lucia is a fascinating protagonist at once morally conflicted and certain of what she must achieve, strong and forceful yet confused and full of self doubt and self loathing. She is a wonderful mother but also weak and allows herself to be trampled under foot by the whims of her progeny. The way these facets are strung together leave a lasting impression of somebody who you can respect and want to hug.
At one point in The Blank Wall the character dismisses English mysteries where you are made not to care for the victims of crime or the perpetrators, their over reliance on the puzzle or the mechanics of the crime, and with one tightly written little book the author shows them how she thinks it should be done. You might call that a challenge to other authors writing in the genre, or say this is a blueprint for what was to come, a bold move that paid off as The Blank Wall is, as already noted elsewhere, a fine example of the psychological thriller, a forerunner to the works of Patricia Highsmith, Margaret Millar and Dorothy Hughes, writers who could write about women who find inner strength and prove that they are as resourceful and powerful as men, without criticising or belittling the other sex. In doing so the blend of the domestic with the incredible creates believable characters and scenarios, and novels with real humanity at their core.
Adapted by Hollywood twice, first as The Reckless Moment and more recently the subject of a smart and high class modernisation of the text as The Deep End. All three are different pieces of art worthy of exploration on their own merits.
October 29, 2021
"No puede ser así. ¡A la gente como a nosotros no le ocurren estas cosas!"
Elijo esta frase porque creo que describe muy bien el grado de tensión y de estrés en el que se ve envuelta Lucia Holley, ama de casa y madre de familia, a medida que avanza la novela. Lucia forma parte de esas miles de mujeres que en plena 2º Guerra Mundial, con su marido en el frente, se quedan solas, en este caso concreto con dos hijos adolescentes a su cargo (además de su padre que vive con ellos), enfrentada no solo a la tarea de criarlos sola sino de ajustar su vida a los tiempos de guerra, a las cartillas de racionamiento, una circunstancia en la que se incide mucho durante toda la novela. Cuando arranca la historia, Lucia tiene que lidiar con el romance de su hija Bee, que aún menor de edad, está saliendo con un hombre que le dobla la edad. Lucia se reúne con Ted Dalby para pedirle que que deje a su hija y a partir de ahí los acontecimientos se suceden casi sin pausa: Ted Dalby aparece muerto en el embarcadero de su casa al día siguiente de su conversación y Lucia consciente de la cantidad de problemas que este hecho le puede acarrear a su famlia, a su forma de vida y en definitiva a las consecuencias nefastas al relacionarlo con su hija Bee, se decide a esconder el cuerpo. Pocos días después el cadáver aparece y la vida tranquila y apacible de Lucia se dispara en un torbellino de acontecimientos sin freno.
"Lucia siempre se había sentido algo decepcionada consigo misma, decepcionada en el colegio porque nunca destacaba, decepcionada cuando se casó porque no se había convertido en la administradora perfecta y, sobre todo decepcionada como madre. Cuando iba al colegio de sus hijos se sentía inepta, no soy real, pensó".
Aunque esta novela también se podría encuadrar dentro del domestic noir, porque la linea argumental central es la obsesión de Lucia por esconder la muerte de Ted Dalby y mantener su status quo de familia feliz, la novela al estar contada desde el punto de vista de ella explora temas mucho más amplios que los meramene argumentales y a los que estamos acostumbrados a ver en cualquier novela negra. La vida de Lucia se había circunscrito hasta ahora solo a su mundo como ama de casa, casada apenas con dieciocho años, habiendo tenido hijos muy pronto, siempre había vivido una vida invisible dedicada a las labores domésticas, segura y protegida, pero cuando la novela empieza y evoluciona, su vida da un giro de 180 grados y tiene que empezar a tomar decisiones arriesgadas para mantener ese statuos quo. No solo toma decisiones donde le va la vida, sino que se atreve a hacer cosas, a correr riesgos hasta ahora impensables que la llevan al límite. Encuentra el valor, la determinación que nunca habría pensado tener, y consecuentemente comienza a su vez a conocerse más a si misma, a cuestionarse la situación en la que ha vivido, invisible y apenas sin motivaciones personales.
"¿Por qué se dice -ama de casa-? ¿Cómo me llamaría si viviéramos en un hotel? Nadie escribe nunca -esposa-, ni siquiera -madre-. Por lo visto, si no tienes un empleo o no tienes una casa, no eres nada. Ojalá fuera otra cosa. Además de ama de casa, quiero decir. Ojalá fuera modista, por ejemplo. Los niños me valorarían mucho más si fuera modista" .
(…)
Pero para su marido y sus hijos Lucia si era objeto de crítica. Ella les pertenecía, todo lo que hacía les afectaba; en sus manos estaba el honor de la familia, su buen nombre en el mundo. Ellos le daban amor, protección, incluso muestras de veneración, pero a cambio ella debía ser lo que ellos necesitaban y querían que fuera."
De esta forma, vemos como la ven sus hijos, su hijo David, que con 15 años, no quiere que su madre destaque de ninguna de las maneras y se mantenga con un perfil bajo.
“David quería que su madre fuera no solo convencional y del todo respetable, sino prácticamente invisible".
Y al verse Lucia envuelta en esa vida paralela, también se cuestiona por primera vez que no tiene intimidad ni o tiene tiempo para tener una simple conversación o tomarse una copa con alguien; su casa es una cárcel dónde apenas le dejan espacio para poder adentrarse en esa otra vida paralela y resolver el problema:
"-¡Mamá!
Esa palabra era como una ola, una marea que la golpeaba constantemente.
Mamá, ¿dónde has estado? ¿Qué estabas haciendo? Ábreme la puerta cuando llamo. Responde cuando te pregunte. Tienes que estar siempre disponible, en todo momento, cada vez que te necesito. Es inhumano, pensó"
Es una novela que explora tantos temas que la verdad me ha fascinado, porque el estilo de Elisabeth Sanxay Holding es impecable y no te deja respiro. La tensión y el estrés de la vida de Lucia casi que la puede tocar y sentir el lector. Y es de ese tipo de historias que disfruto muchisimo, gente normal y corriente que de repente y por azar del destino se ve obligada a combatir situaciones impensables hasta el momento. Los personajes, hasta el más secundario están perfectamente diseñados como por ejemplo el de Sybil, la asistenta de color de Lucia: un personaje lúcido y con una profunda sabiduria, que le sirve a la autora para explorar el racismo de la época, de los años 40 en Estados Unidos. Y por ejemplo, el personaje de Martin Connelly, el chantajista, sublime en todos los matices que aporta la autora.
"No tenía intimidad alguna. Nunca había tenido intimidad, pensó, sorprendida. Durante toda mi vida la gente ha estado al tanto de todo lo que hacía, de los lugares adonde iba. No estoy diciendo que la gente fuera fisgona o desconfiada, es solo que siempre he vivido de una manera pública, siempre a la vista de todos."
Es una historia donde continuamente están pasando cosas y creo que ese es el secreto en la construcción de la novela. Por una parte, están continuamente pasando cosas en el hogar de Lucia, situaciones domésticas que necesitan siempre de sus decisiones (ese egoismo familiar de tener a alguien siempre para arreglar los problemas) y están al mismo tiempo pasando cosas en esa nueva vida paralela secreta de Lucia: ella tiene que lidiar con ambas vidas en un momento de su vida en que apenas se ve con energía para solucionarlo. Lidiando con hijos adolescentes, con un padre con achaques, en un momento de la historia donde la crisis económica promovida por la guerra no hacia la vida precisamente fácil y sin espacio para ella misma...¿no se la podría considerar como una historia de ahora mismo??? Una novela que funciona con muchas capas, con muchos niveles, y cada capa profundiza más y más en la psicologia de sus personajes. En fin, una maravilla y a partir de ya una de mis novelas favoritas. "La pared vacía" es de 1947 y en 1949 Hollywood la adaptó al cine dirigida por Max Ophuls. Una pelicula que le hace justicia a la novela original.
"Soy una muñeca, pensó; no soy real. Cuando se sentó a cenar con su familia, su sensación de irrealidad adquirió una intensidad casi aterradora. Su padre y sus hijos hablaban de lo que habían hecho durante el día y todo sonaba real, claro como el cristal, fácil de entender. Su día, en cambio, parecía un sueño; si intentara describirlo, ¿quién lo iba a creer o entender?"
https://kansasbooks.blogspot.com/2020...
Elijo esta frase porque creo que describe muy bien el grado de tensión y de estrés en el que se ve envuelta Lucia Holley, ama de casa y madre de familia, a medida que avanza la novela. Lucia forma parte de esas miles de mujeres que en plena 2º Guerra Mundial, con su marido en el frente, se quedan solas, en este caso concreto con dos hijos adolescentes a su cargo (además de su padre que vive con ellos), enfrentada no solo a la tarea de criarlos sola sino de ajustar su vida a los tiempos de guerra, a las cartillas de racionamiento, una circunstancia en la que se incide mucho durante toda la novela. Cuando arranca la historia, Lucia tiene que lidiar con el romance de su hija Bee, que aún menor de edad, está saliendo con un hombre que le dobla la edad. Lucia se reúne con Ted Dalby para pedirle que que deje a su hija y a partir de ahí los acontecimientos se suceden casi sin pausa: Ted Dalby aparece muerto en el embarcadero de su casa al día siguiente de su conversación y Lucia consciente de la cantidad de problemas que este hecho le puede acarrear a su famlia, a su forma de vida y en definitiva a las consecuencias nefastas al relacionarlo con su hija Bee, se decide a esconder el cuerpo. Pocos días después el cadáver aparece y la vida tranquila y apacible de Lucia se dispara en un torbellino de acontecimientos sin freno.
"Lucia siempre se había sentido algo decepcionada consigo misma, decepcionada en el colegio porque nunca destacaba, decepcionada cuando se casó porque no se había convertido en la administradora perfecta y, sobre todo decepcionada como madre. Cuando iba al colegio de sus hijos se sentía inepta, no soy real, pensó".
Aunque esta novela también se podría encuadrar dentro del domestic noir, porque la linea argumental central es la obsesión de Lucia por esconder la muerte de Ted Dalby y mantener su status quo de familia feliz, la novela al estar contada desde el punto de vista de ella explora temas mucho más amplios que los meramene argumentales y a los que estamos acostumbrados a ver en cualquier novela negra. La vida de Lucia se había circunscrito hasta ahora solo a su mundo como ama de casa, casada apenas con dieciocho años, habiendo tenido hijos muy pronto, siempre había vivido una vida invisible dedicada a las labores domésticas, segura y protegida, pero cuando la novela empieza y evoluciona, su vida da un giro de 180 grados y tiene que empezar a tomar decisiones arriesgadas para mantener ese statuos quo. No solo toma decisiones donde le va la vida, sino que se atreve a hacer cosas, a correr riesgos hasta ahora impensables que la llevan al límite. Encuentra el valor, la determinación que nunca habría pensado tener, y consecuentemente comienza a su vez a conocerse más a si misma, a cuestionarse la situación en la que ha vivido, invisible y apenas sin motivaciones personales.
"¿Por qué se dice -ama de casa-? ¿Cómo me llamaría si viviéramos en un hotel? Nadie escribe nunca -esposa-, ni siquiera -madre-. Por lo visto, si no tienes un empleo o no tienes una casa, no eres nada. Ojalá fuera otra cosa. Además de ama de casa, quiero decir. Ojalá fuera modista, por ejemplo. Los niños me valorarían mucho más si fuera modista" .
(…)
Pero para su marido y sus hijos Lucia si era objeto de crítica. Ella les pertenecía, todo lo que hacía les afectaba; en sus manos estaba el honor de la familia, su buen nombre en el mundo. Ellos le daban amor, protección, incluso muestras de veneración, pero a cambio ella debía ser lo que ellos necesitaban y querían que fuera."
De esta forma, vemos como la ven sus hijos, su hijo David, que con 15 años, no quiere que su madre destaque de ninguna de las maneras y se mantenga con un perfil bajo.
“David quería que su madre fuera no solo convencional y del todo respetable, sino prácticamente invisible".
Y al verse Lucia envuelta en esa vida paralela, también se cuestiona por primera vez que no tiene intimidad ni o tiene tiempo para tener una simple conversación o tomarse una copa con alguien; su casa es una cárcel dónde apenas le dejan espacio para poder adentrarse en esa otra vida paralela y resolver el problema:
"-¡Mamá!
Esa palabra era como una ola, una marea que la golpeaba constantemente.
Mamá, ¿dónde has estado? ¿Qué estabas haciendo? Ábreme la puerta cuando llamo. Responde cuando te pregunte. Tienes que estar siempre disponible, en todo momento, cada vez que te necesito. Es inhumano, pensó"
Es una novela que explora tantos temas que la verdad me ha fascinado, porque el estilo de Elisabeth Sanxay Holding es impecable y no te deja respiro. La tensión y el estrés de la vida de Lucia casi que la puede tocar y sentir el lector. Y es de ese tipo de historias que disfruto muchisimo, gente normal y corriente que de repente y por azar del destino se ve obligada a combatir situaciones impensables hasta el momento. Los personajes, hasta el más secundario están perfectamente diseñados como por ejemplo el de Sybil, la asistenta de color de Lucia: un personaje lúcido y con una profunda sabiduria, que le sirve a la autora para explorar el racismo de la época, de los años 40 en Estados Unidos. Y por ejemplo, el personaje de Martin Connelly, el chantajista, sublime en todos los matices que aporta la autora.
"No tenía intimidad alguna. Nunca había tenido intimidad, pensó, sorprendida. Durante toda mi vida la gente ha estado al tanto de todo lo que hacía, de los lugares adonde iba. No estoy diciendo que la gente fuera fisgona o desconfiada, es solo que siempre he vivido de una manera pública, siempre a la vista de todos."
Es una historia donde continuamente están pasando cosas y creo que ese es el secreto en la construcción de la novela. Por una parte, están continuamente pasando cosas en el hogar de Lucia, situaciones domésticas que necesitan siempre de sus decisiones (ese egoismo familiar de tener a alguien siempre para arreglar los problemas) y están al mismo tiempo pasando cosas en esa nueva vida paralela secreta de Lucia: ella tiene que lidiar con ambas vidas en un momento de su vida en que apenas se ve con energía para solucionarlo. Lidiando con hijos adolescentes, con un padre con achaques, en un momento de la historia donde la crisis económica promovida por la guerra no hacia la vida precisamente fácil y sin espacio para ella misma...¿no se la podría considerar como una historia de ahora mismo??? Una novela que funciona con muchas capas, con muchos niveles, y cada capa profundiza más y más en la psicologia de sus personajes. En fin, una maravilla y a partir de ya una de mis novelas favoritas. "La pared vacía" es de 1947 y en 1949 Hollywood la adaptó al cine dirigida por Max Ophuls. Una pelicula que le hace justicia a la novela original.
"Soy una muñeca, pensó; no soy real. Cuando se sentó a cenar con su familia, su sensación de irrealidad adquirió una intensidad casi aterradora. Su padre y sus hijos hablaban de lo que habían hecho durante el día y todo sonaba real, claro como el cristal, fácil de entender. Su día, en cambio, parecía un sueño; si intentara describirlo, ¿quién lo iba a creer o entender?"
https://kansasbooks.blogspot.com/2020...
March 1, 2019
A very compelling tale of an ordinary housewife in extraordinary circumstances and the lengths she will go to, to protect her family.
Set during WW2. Lucia is an ordinary housewife with two teenage children. When her daughter starts seeing a very unsavoury man, Lucia tries, without the support of her husband who is in the Navy and overseas, to warn the young man off. Things go badly wrong and she finds herself mixed up with criminal gangs, murder and blackmail. We, and she learn what she is capable of in order to keep her family safe.
Set during WW2. Lucia is an ordinary housewife with two teenage children. When her daughter starts seeing a very unsavoury man, Lucia tries, without the support of her husband who is in the Navy and overseas, to warn the young man off. Things go badly wrong and she finds herself mixed up with criminal gangs, murder and blackmail. We, and she learn what she is capable of in order to keep her family safe.
January 10, 2021
Something about the very stylish but sombre-looking covers of the Persephone Books makes you think you're going to be reading A Very Serious Book. This wasn't that at all! It was a fast-paced suspense novel about a mother and housewife in the 1940s who finds herself implicated in the murder of her daughter's shady boyfriend. There are suspicious crooks and gangsters, there's blackmail, all that good old-school noir/suspense stuff. And while it never got super deep, they were also some interesting reflections on the societal position of women in the 1940s and I really liked the description of the protagonist's relationships with her family. If you enjoy books in the vein of Patricia Highsmith or 20th century noir/suspense in general, I'd definitely recommend this!
March 21, 2024
The Blank Wall In The Library Of America
Elisabeth Holding's "The Blank Wall" (1947) is the fourth novel published in a new Library of America volume, "Women Crime Writers: Four Suspense Novels of the 1940s" selected and edited by Sarah Wineman, a scholar of women's suspense writing. A companion LOA volume includes four additional crime novels of the 1950's written by women. The LOA has provided me with a review copy of both books, and I am enjoying working through the series, learning about writers I didn't know. "The Blank Wall" is available separately in a kindle edition and in some collections of suspense fiction. Still, it is a rare stand-alone title.
Holding's book is a suspense novel but it explores issues broader than who-done-it. The book is set in the suburbs of New York City during the WW II years and examines life on the domestic front. The primary character, Lucia Holley, has taken a home in a quiet, prosperous community on a lake while her husband is away at war. She lives with her two teenage children, Bee, 17, and David. 15, her elderly father, and an African American maid, Sybil. Lucia leads a seemingly dull life taking care of her family and writing commonplace letters to her husband. She has a yearn for more challenge and activity.
When a sleazy pornographer shows interest in her daughter, Lucia unwittingly becomes involved in covering-up the man's unintended death. Her act draws her into a web of blackmail, murder, and love. Lucia goes about her life as a housewife and mother during the days of WW II all the while becoming more involved in criminal activity which she tries to conceal from her family and neighbors. A man sent to blackmail Lucia falls in love with her, but his companions in crime are not nearly as sentimental. The suspense in the book derives from Lucia's efforts, skillful in spite of herself, to escape detection. But the other themes of the book, showing a woman torn between domesticity and the desire for adventure, the finding of unexpected passion, and the nature of civilian life during the war years are at least equally as fascinating as the suspense. The detective investigating the series of crimes in which Lucia becomes involved offers some insightful and still pertinent observations about the importance of the rule of law. The book also gives a subtle portrayal of racial relations in the interactions of Lucia and her family and Sybil. Lucia comes to a harsh understanding of herself during her ordeal. She reflects:
"This is my life ... The things I dreaded aren't going to happen, the shame, the disgrace. .... This is my life going on just the same. ... This is how I'll go on."
The LOA volume includes a biographical sketch of Elizabeth Holding (1889 -- 1955). She began as a writer of romance novels but turned to suspense writing after the Depression. She ultimately wrote 18 suspense novels, including "The Blank Wall" and many stories. Raymond Chandler highly praised her work. "The Blank Wall" has been filmed twice. The first movie version, dating from 1949 is "The Reckless Moment" directed by Max Ophuls and starring Joan Bennett and James Mason. In 2001, the book was filmed again as "The Deep End" directed by Scott McGehee and David Siegel and starring Tilda Swinton.
"The Blank Wall" deserves to be read and preserved. The LOA has done a service by including this book and its companions in its anthology of women's crime fiction.
Robin Friedman
Elisabeth Holding's "The Blank Wall" (1947) is the fourth novel published in a new Library of America volume, "Women Crime Writers: Four Suspense Novels of the 1940s" selected and edited by Sarah Wineman, a scholar of women's suspense writing. A companion LOA volume includes four additional crime novels of the 1950's written by women. The LOA has provided me with a review copy of both books, and I am enjoying working through the series, learning about writers I didn't know. "The Blank Wall" is available separately in a kindle edition and in some collections of suspense fiction. Still, it is a rare stand-alone title.
Holding's book is a suspense novel but it explores issues broader than who-done-it. The book is set in the suburbs of New York City during the WW II years and examines life on the domestic front. The primary character, Lucia Holley, has taken a home in a quiet, prosperous community on a lake while her husband is away at war. She lives with her two teenage children, Bee, 17, and David. 15, her elderly father, and an African American maid, Sybil. Lucia leads a seemingly dull life taking care of her family and writing commonplace letters to her husband. She has a yearn for more challenge and activity.
When a sleazy pornographer shows interest in her daughter, Lucia unwittingly becomes involved in covering-up the man's unintended death. Her act draws her into a web of blackmail, murder, and love. Lucia goes about her life as a housewife and mother during the days of WW II all the while becoming more involved in criminal activity which she tries to conceal from her family and neighbors. A man sent to blackmail Lucia falls in love with her, but his companions in crime are not nearly as sentimental. The suspense in the book derives from Lucia's efforts, skillful in spite of herself, to escape detection. But the other themes of the book, showing a woman torn between domesticity and the desire for adventure, the finding of unexpected passion, and the nature of civilian life during the war years are at least equally as fascinating as the suspense. The detective investigating the series of crimes in which Lucia becomes involved offers some insightful and still pertinent observations about the importance of the rule of law. The book also gives a subtle portrayal of racial relations in the interactions of Lucia and her family and Sybil. Lucia comes to a harsh understanding of herself during her ordeal. She reflects:
"This is my life ... The things I dreaded aren't going to happen, the shame, the disgrace. .... This is my life going on just the same. ... This is how I'll go on."
The LOA volume includes a biographical sketch of Elizabeth Holding (1889 -- 1955). She began as a writer of romance novels but turned to suspense writing after the Depression. She ultimately wrote 18 suspense novels, including "The Blank Wall" and many stories. Raymond Chandler highly praised her work. "The Blank Wall" has been filmed twice. The first movie version, dating from 1949 is "The Reckless Moment" directed by Max Ophuls and starring Joan Bennett and James Mason. In 2001, the book was filmed again as "The Deep End" directed by Scott McGehee and David Siegel and starring Tilda Swinton.
"The Blank Wall" deserves to be read and preserved. The LOA has done a service by including this book and its companions in its anthology of women's crime fiction.
Robin Friedman
March 19, 2014
I'm sure it was Tfitoby but I was wa-wa-ing about how no women write hard-boiled and/or noir and Tfitoby said "have you read Elizabeth Holding?"
No, I had never heard of her but she got Raymond Chandler's stamp of approval so told him I'll try her.
Great advice from a great guy (not Chandler but Tfitoby.)
Raymond Chandler said "For my money she's the top suspense writer of them all. She doesn't pour it on and make you feel irritated. Her characters are wonderful; and she has a sort of inner calm which I find very attractive. I recommend for your attention, if you have not read them..." He named this book and The Innocent Mrs. Duff.
If he doesn't know a great book when he reads one, than who does? That's Tfitoby, I'm talking about. And boy, he hit the mark on this one.
Thank you, friend.
No, I had never heard of her but she got Raymond Chandler's stamp of approval so told him I'll try her.
Great advice from a great guy (not Chandler but Tfitoby.)
Raymond Chandler said "For my money she's the top suspense writer of them all. She doesn't pour it on and make you feel irritated. Her characters are wonderful; and she has a sort of inner calm which I find very attractive. I recommend for your attention, if you have not read them..." He named this book and The Innocent Mrs. Duff.
If he doesn't know a great book when he reads one, than who does? That's Tfitoby, I'm talking about. And boy, he hit the mark on this one.
Thank you, friend.
January 26, 2016
What a mother will do to protect her family after her Daughters beau is killed.
Loved this mystery which had twists and turns .
The golden age of the detective novel.
Beautifully written .
Was made into a film in 1949 called The Reckless Moment.
So glad that Persephone have republished it.
Loved this mystery which had twists and turns .
The golden age of the detective novel.
Beautifully written .
Was made into a film in 1949 called The Reckless Moment.
So glad that Persephone have republished it.
April 14, 2017
Ah. This is a book I really liked. It's one of those well-written, intelligent books I crave, where yes, there is a crime, but the people in this book are the focus, rather than the crime. It is a slow-burning, thinking person's book that hit me like a ton of bricks at the end. And it's really, really good.
I consider myself quite lucky to have found this novel because it's so nicely done I couldn't stop reading it once I'd picked it up. It is not what I'd call a typical suspense/crime novel, so anyone who may be considering it might want to make note of that fact. In other words, the plot is not nearly as important as what's happening around it. Instead, it is the story about what lengths a woman will go to in order to prevent her world from crashing in on itself when threatened; as such, we are made privy to the thoughts in this character's mind as she tries to gather courage and strength to protect her family.
[if you want a very brief look at plot, no spoilers, click here for my reading journal. ]
Aside from the crimes here, this book takes a look at (among other things) motherhood, family expectations, the true meaning of friendship, race, class, and domestic disruption on the home front due to the war. At the same time, the focus on the criminal aspects here are very well done, and the suspense ratchets constantly through the novel. It is so very well done on both inner and outer fronts, and I was so impressed with it that I couldn't put it down. It is highly intelligent and as I said earlier, I feel fortunate in having discovered it completely by chance. I can seriously and highly recommend this novel to readers of vintage crime, and to readers who enjoy crime fiction written by women. I promise - it's a story that will not be forgotten.
I consider myself quite lucky to have found this novel because it's so nicely done I couldn't stop reading it once I'd picked it up. It is not what I'd call a typical suspense/crime novel, so anyone who may be considering it might want to make note of that fact. In other words, the plot is not nearly as important as what's happening around it. Instead, it is the story about what lengths a woman will go to in order to prevent her world from crashing in on itself when threatened; as such, we are made privy to the thoughts in this character's mind as she tries to gather courage and strength to protect her family.
[if you want a very brief look at plot, no spoilers, click here for my reading journal. ]
Aside from the crimes here, this book takes a look at (among other things) motherhood, family expectations, the true meaning of friendship, race, class, and domestic disruption on the home front due to the war. At the same time, the focus on the criminal aspects here are very well done, and the suspense ratchets constantly through the novel. It is so very well done on both inner and outer fronts, and I was so impressed with it that I couldn't put it down. It is highly intelligent and as I said earlier, I feel fortunate in having discovered it completely by chance. I can seriously and highly recommend this novel to readers of vintage crime, and to readers who enjoy crime fiction written by women. I promise - it's a story that will not be forgotten.
March 11, 2018
This is one of those crime books in which the focus of the story is, in many ways, not actually the crime itself. Instead, Elisabeth Sanxay Holding uses the structure of a crime story, and the pressure-pot situation of trying to cover up said crime, to examine the mental capacity of her central character. It's not about 'whodunnit'; it's about the ripple effect and the emotional strain of getting yourself tangled up in a web of lies.
Don't get me wrong, the plot itself is well thought-out; concise, intelligent and compulsively readable. It has all the elements of classic noir fiction from the golden era of crime, including murder, blackmail, fear over who to trust, and a few good twists along the way.
Hidden beneath the surface, however, there is some great commentary on societal norms present at the time, explored largely through our heroine's behaviour, attitude, and relationships with other characters. This most prominently includes the position of women; the expectation for mothers to always put their families first, and the importance of keeping up appearances within certain class circles.
I also really liked the subtle though clever look at race relations in 40s America. The family's black maid, Sybil, is easily the most sympathetic character in the book. Kind, calm and considered, she proves to be Lucia's greatest confidant and advisor, and is so often the one keeping the household together, regardless of outward appearances implying that it's Lucia herself running the show. The brief glimpse Sanxay Holding gives us of Sybil's past also does much to criticise the treatment of black people at the time.
An altogether classy, well written, and tightly plotted read.
Don't get me wrong, the plot itself is well thought-out; concise, intelligent and compulsively readable. It has all the elements of classic noir fiction from the golden era of crime, including murder, blackmail, fear over who to trust, and a few good twists along the way.
Hidden beneath the surface, however, there is some great commentary on societal norms present at the time, explored largely through our heroine's behaviour, attitude, and relationships with other characters. This most prominently includes the position of women; the expectation for mothers to always put their families first, and the importance of keeping up appearances within certain class circles.
I also really liked the subtle though clever look at race relations in 40s America. The family's black maid, Sybil, is easily the most sympathetic character in the book. Kind, calm and considered, she proves to be Lucia's greatest confidant and advisor, and is so often the one keeping the household together, regardless of outward appearances implying that it's Lucia herself running the show. The brief glimpse Sanxay Holding gives us of Sybil's past also does much to criticise the treatment of black people at the time.
An altogether classy, well written, and tightly plotted read.
April 4, 2014
She did not look flustered and frightened now. It was true that she was pale, her hair a little disordered, but there was something in her face she had not seen in it before, a sorrowful and quiet beauty. That's how I look to him, she thought.
There was a film version made of this called The Deep End. I didn't make the connection until later. I'd seen it when it came out, thought it kabuki hysteria, really. In We Need to Talk About Kevin Tilda Swinton coffin nails being in another person's this isn't happening. Dragged to the depths of the sea because you can't say you didn't give birth to this. Turn your back and the fun house mirrors laugh the end of your life. The cold shoulders entombing some Stonehenge nightmare. The watery grave is all in The Blank Wall, the umbilical strangling and toneless eyelids shut guilty, guilty, guilty. From some place else, perhaps the looming knees in dress-up. Beatrice is her son and the mother says this isn't happening when her little boy brings home a man. It's been a long time so if they are related past this change, I don't remember. Swinton was real for me in 'Kevin' and I never felt anything like the answers for yourself, the willed shut, in The Deep End. Could be me, though. I likewise lost interest in Lucia's show before I was done reading The Blank Wall. I didn't care if it all works out for her, and cared even less when it appeared her stupid fantasies were true (Holding, what were you thinking making the blackmailing thief into a lovesick helper? Seriously?). I didn't have much more than a vague idea that I wanted out of her something to say for herself. If I fell into one of her letters to her husband (Lucia wanted nothing more than to be interesting in a letter to her officer husband. Living it is neither there nor here) and was doomed to eternity wandering around her domestic shoe box embryo I could have done better than the fantasy one she lords over herself. How she looks as the damsel in distress on the arm of the stupid criminal who fancied her. I felt like a pretty good book became much, much less around this time. The filmmakers must've thought a lot of the scene of the crime, the boat house, and its watery deep since that's what they kept. Pebble surfaces and skipping and drowning in dreams. For me it was all fun house. There's no fun house in The Blank Wall but still. Lucia would stop to check what she looked like. If she were in a Harry Potter book and found the mirror Erised she might be like young Ronald Weasely as the best in everything, complete with people to be better than... nothing that means much, maybe what a small child repeats of an adult's conversation, skimming the context off the top. Only Lucia's people would see her as the competent housewife and mother. It would all be true. I don't know if they thought about her much at all. She's there to make them feel worldly. The daughter who runs around with the married good for nothing has lots to say about where Lucia is lacking. Holding was a natural in balancing her wish to belong in her own family. I did like that a lot. Her memories of eavesdropping on the moment when her two kids found each other in play. Her husband couldn't be bothered to understand how lonely she felt, how she also petted herself. Lucia is like a little girl assuring herself they'd do without her if she died and wanting to be needed. It's too bad the crime part slipped. This idiot trying to covering up a crime and her motivations for doing so (no one must think she wasn't a good mother!). The desire to be caught, end it all now. No, how much better off her family would be without her. I wonder how this would have been filmed in its time. Probably like that Hitchcock film starring Joseph Cotten as the handsome uncle with the lethal weapon reflection. In the end I didn't give anything if the dumb girl married her boring cop hero. Someone must've gotten scared and couldn't follow through with the real story (Cotten was great, not pinned under the glass. Somewhere in his gut he's cooking for something out of the world where eyes ask why, don't, be that). Maybe that's what happened here. Lucia has to turn back into the boring letter and tell him, herself, who are THEY anyway, some thing. The boring letter to herself had some guy who would die for her.She's still cow eyed in her kitchen, afraid her family will see past her domestic tricks. Still would rather sound good in a letter. The sleepwalker had a nightmare but never woke up. Sometimes I hoped Holding was going to follow the Lucia that was afraid she was wrong, the world wasn't good, no one needed her and she was caught. It felt a chosen insanity that way than if she wasn't good at housewife chores. More than what you could hold onto reality it hurt more that she could have never been there at all, let go of it all.
There was a film version made of this called The Deep End. I didn't make the connection until later. I'd seen it when it came out, thought it kabuki hysteria, really. In We Need to Talk About Kevin Tilda Swinton coffin nails being in another person's this isn't happening. Dragged to the depths of the sea because you can't say you didn't give birth to this. Turn your back and the fun house mirrors laugh the end of your life. The cold shoulders entombing some Stonehenge nightmare. The watery grave is all in The Blank Wall, the umbilical strangling and toneless eyelids shut guilty, guilty, guilty. From some place else, perhaps the looming knees in dress-up. Beatrice is her son and the mother says this isn't happening when her little boy brings home a man. It's been a long time so if they are related past this change, I don't remember. Swinton was real for me in 'Kevin' and I never felt anything like the answers for yourself, the willed shut, in The Deep End. Could be me, though. I likewise lost interest in Lucia's show before I was done reading The Blank Wall. I didn't care if it all works out for her, and cared even less when it appeared her stupid fantasies were true (Holding, what were you thinking making the blackmailing thief into a lovesick helper? Seriously?). I didn't have much more than a vague idea that I wanted out of her something to say for herself. If I fell into one of her letters to her husband (Lucia wanted nothing more than to be interesting in a letter to her officer husband. Living it is neither there nor here) and was doomed to eternity wandering around her domestic shoe box embryo I could have done better than the fantasy one she lords over herself. How she looks as the damsel in distress on the arm of the stupid criminal who fancied her. I felt like a pretty good book became much, much less around this time. The filmmakers must've thought a lot of the scene of the crime, the boat house, and its watery deep since that's what they kept. Pebble surfaces and skipping and drowning in dreams. For me it was all fun house. There's no fun house in The Blank Wall but still. Lucia would stop to check what she looked like. If she were in a Harry Potter book and found the mirror Erised she might be like young Ronald Weasely as the best in everything, complete with people to be better than... nothing that means much, maybe what a small child repeats of an adult's conversation, skimming the context off the top. Only Lucia's people would see her as the competent housewife and mother. It would all be true. I don't know if they thought about her much at all. She's there to make them feel worldly. The daughter who runs around with the married good for nothing has lots to say about where Lucia is lacking. Holding was a natural in balancing her wish to belong in her own family. I did like that a lot. Her memories of eavesdropping on the moment when her two kids found each other in play. Her husband couldn't be bothered to understand how lonely she felt, how she also petted herself. Lucia is like a little girl assuring herself they'd do without her if she died and wanting to be needed. It's too bad the crime part slipped. This idiot trying to covering up a crime and her motivations for doing so (no one must think she wasn't a good mother!). The desire to be caught, end it all now. No, how much better off her family would be without her. I wonder how this would have been filmed in its time. Probably like that Hitchcock film starring Joseph Cotten as the handsome uncle with the lethal weapon reflection. In the end I didn't give anything if the dumb girl married her boring cop hero. Someone must've gotten scared and couldn't follow through with the real story (Cotten was great, not pinned under the glass. Somewhere in his gut he's cooking for something out of the world where eyes ask why, don't, be that). Maybe that's what happened here. Lucia has to turn back into the boring letter and tell him, herself, who are THEY anyway, some thing. The boring letter to herself had some guy who would die for her.She's still cow eyed in her kitchen, afraid her family will see past her domestic tricks. Still would rather sound good in a letter. The sleepwalker had a nightmare but never woke up. Sometimes I hoped Holding was going to follow the Lucia that was afraid she was wrong, the world wasn't good, no one needed her and she was caught. It felt a chosen insanity that way than if she wasn't good at housewife chores. More than what you could hold onto reality it hurt more that she could have never been there at all, let go of it all.
November 22, 2020
Basically: mothers don't get nearly enough credit.
Persephone #2 (for me - for Persephone it's actually #42).
Persephone #2 (for me - for Persephone it's actually #42).
April 26, 2011
A suspense novel written by a now-nearly-forgotten writer who was greatly admired by both Alfred Hitchcock and Raymond Chandler. I look over the Goodreads reviews and find that most people were interested by the same thing I was--the "dated" quality of the main character's preoccupations and motives. As a thriller it is only average, if that; but as a window on how a real upper-middle-class housewife during WWII might handle the sudden disruption of her carefully maintained world, it is extremely interesting. Present writers producing novels set before the mid-20th century all seem to project their own interests onto the characters. This one is the real thing, actually written at the time it represents. We have a housewife who, to keep up appearances and maintain her family's reputation, gets involved in moving and hiding a corpse, and then in dealing with blackmailers on the one hand, and a polite but persistent police detective on the other. Would any current writer think of producing something like this to explain the protagonist's actions?--"But her husband and her children did not consider her beyond criticism. She belonged to them; whatever she did affected them; their pride, their good name in the world lay at her hands. They would give her love, protection, even a sort of homage, but in return for that she must be what they wanted and needed her to be."
Read
July 16, 2008This novel is not mystery but suspense, somewhat like those by Patricia Highsmith and her ilk; within the first dozen pages, a corpse is accidentally produced, and so the ball gets rolling. Unlike Highsmith’s books, however, in which the typical protagonist is an anxiety-ridden, marginally employed man, The Blank Wall stars an otherwise respectable housewife, Lucia, who’s running the house while her husband serves in World War II. Lucia applies her well-honed problem-solving skills to each intractable obstacle, meanwhile feeling beleaguered by her family--she’s always cleaning up after them without an iota of recognition, the corpse is only the latest--as well as generally invisible. And who’s more invisible than a capable, middle-class white suburban housewife? Her even more capable African American housekeeper (of course), who after eons of service remains a cipher to her employers (of course). The plotting is brisk, but sixty-plus years later I think the social observation provides the greatest intrigue.
November 7, 2022
What was that? I am trying to match a genre. Obviously mystery/crime, but putting a period here would be like naming champagne just alcohol or coconut cake with chocolate sauce just something sweet.
So it was a charming mix of mystery/crime, love story, British wit, psychological study of human and society - all with a rather original style of writing/storytelling. Perhaps it doesn't sound much original but it really was. I don't know how to explain it. I was simply charmed. If I had known only such kind of crime stories I would have been a fan of the genre. Those twist and turns, hilarious consequences of them, Lucia's struggles. And the humor. It wasn't an obvious comedy like P.G. Wodehouse or even Angela Thirkell, but still, you can't miss it.
Besides the wit, I love the more serious topics Elisabeth Sanxay Holding smartly put in here, like:
--> the generation misunderstandings between a mother and a daughter
--> how the role of a woman changed through time and how those roles impacted on women
--> the question what the law is, the issue of the law vs morality/ethics
--> the wars (IWW and IIWW) and its consequences.
I recommend for more Jane's review.
I am definitely going to try another novel by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding.
Some more quotes:
So it was a charming mix of mystery/crime, love story, British wit, psychological study of human and society - all with a rather original style of writing/storytelling. Perhaps it doesn't sound much original but it really was. I don't know how to explain it. I was simply charmed. If I had known only such kind of crime stories I would have been a fan of the genre. Those twist and turns, hilarious consequences of them, Lucia's struggles. And the humor. It wasn't an obvious comedy like P.G. Wodehouse or even Angela Thirkell, but still, you can't miss it.
Besides the wit, I love the more serious topics Elisabeth Sanxay Holding smartly put in here, like:
--> the generation misunderstandings between a mother and a daughter
"...Getting married at eighteen, right from school. Never really seeing anything or doing anything. No adventure, no color. I suppose you like feeling safe. Well, I don't want to be safe."
--> how the role of a woman changed through time and how those roles impacted on women
Someone would come and see her. Someone always came. There was always a knock at the door. Everyone had a right to come to her; that was what she was for, that was her function, her reason for being. There was never an hour that belonged to her.
--> the question what the law is, the issue of the law vs morality/ethics
--> the wars (IWW and IIWW) and its consequences.
I recommend for more Jane's review.
I am definitely going to try another novel by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding.
Some more quotes:
Why is it 'housewife'? What would I call myself if we lived in a hotel? Nobody ever puts down just 'wife,' or even just 'mother.' If you haven't got a job, and you don't keep house, then you aren't anything. apparently. I wish I was something else. I mean, besides keeping house, I wish I was a designer, for instance. The children would think a lot more of me, if I was a designer. Maybe Tom would, too.
But her husband and her children did not consider her beyond criticism. She belonged to them; whatever she did affected them; their pride, their good name in the world lay in her hands. They would give her love, protection, even a sort of homage, but in return for that she must be what they wanted and needed her to be.
She had always been faintly disappointed in herself, disappointed in school because she had not been remarkable, disappointed when she married because she had not become the perfect housekeeper, most of all disappointed in herself as a mother.
I'm like a doll, she thought. I'm not real. As she sat at dinner with her family, this sense of unreality became almost frightening.
January 25, 2009
This Persephone book no. 42 was first published in 1942 – and is set just outside of New York. A middle aged women – Lucia gets herself horribly mixed up with the concealment of a death while trying to protect her 17 year old daughter’s reputation. I enjoyed this little suspense novel, although there were elements of the plot that I was unconvinced were realistic – of course the novel was written in a different time, and people may have acted in ways which to our modern thinking seems bizarre. For some reason the whole novel had the feel of a black and white film for me, as I read I could so easily see the action played out in my head by 1940’s movie stars – maybe it just reminded of an old movie I saw a long time ago but couldn’t quite bring to mind. Anyway despite being unconvinced by some of the plot – the novel remains a taut suspenseful read: quite unputdownable and, I should imagine a great example of suspense type novels of this period.
October 15, 2017
Another in my new quest to read all things crime noir, set in the 40's and 50's. However this one was kind of a clunking dud.
A woman is witness to something awful, then through a series of very-contrived maneuvers, done in the attempt to 'protect her family,' she makes the awful even more awful.
And btw, her family is horrible. Hideous. (I'd run away, have a mad affair and start a new family if I was her).
As for her relationship with certain 'mob-like' characters? They seem like a series of scenes from the Drew Carey Show. (Remember that? Hilarity seen through a group of hilarious characters with the usually hapless Drew in the middle of it all?) However, this book doesn't play it for laughs - everyone is deadly, dully serious about it all.
Anyhow, it just cannot stand up to the other superb crime noir novels I've been reading.
I shall not put Ms. Holding on my list for further reads...
Two deadly dull stars.
A woman is witness to something awful, then through a series of very-contrived maneuvers, done in the attempt to 'protect her family,' she makes the awful even more awful.
And btw, her family is horrible. Hideous. (I'd run away, have a mad affair and start a new family if I was her).
As for her relationship with certain 'mob-like' characters? They seem like a series of scenes from the Drew Carey Show. (Remember that? Hilarity seen through a group of hilarious characters with the usually hapless Drew in the middle of it all?) However, this book doesn't play it for laughs - everyone is deadly, dully serious about it all.
Anyhow, it just cannot stand up to the other superb crime noir novels I've been reading.
I shall not put Ms. Holding on my list for further reads...
Two deadly dull stars.
March 6, 2018
I read this in one single sitting. It was a wonderful read, and after researching it more I have discovered it was made into a film in the 1940s called 'The Reckless Moment' with James Mason that I have seen numerous times and never twigged!!
Lucia is a plain, unexciting housewife with 2 children (Beatrice and David) and a husband at the other side of the world who she can only contact by letter.
After unearthing an affair between her daughter and a married man named Ted, Lucia is placed in a terrifying situation involving blackmail, death and deceit. I really enjoyed the story, but found towards the end that Lucia came across as rather weak and pathetic and I wasn't as impressed with her as I had been at the start.
Not a bad debut for my reading of Elisabeth Sanxay Holding.
Lucia is a plain, unexciting housewife with 2 children (Beatrice and David) and a husband at the other side of the world who she can only contact by letter.
After unearthing an affair between her daughter and a married man named Ted, Lucia is placed in a terrifying situation involving blackmail, death and deceit. I really enjoyed the story, but found towards the end that Lucia came across as rather weak and pathetic and I wasn't as impressed with her as I had been at the start.
Not a bad debut for my reading of Elisabeth Sanxay Holding.
August 9, 2025
Closer to 4.5 stars. Lucia Holley's husband is away fighting the war and she is left to keep the home fires burning. Lucia becomes implicated in a murder and there isn't anything that she won't do to protect her home and family.
Strongly delivered mystery/suspense with some wonderful characterisation. Enjoyed the setting and the time period.
Strongly delivered mystery/suspense with some wonderful characterisation. Enjoyed the setting and the time period.
February 7, 2023
Set during the Second World War, with her husband serving overseas, Lucia Holley's mundane existence takes a dramatic turn, and she is catapulted into the world of blackmail and murder.
The scenario is the epitome of the housewife being forced into action, and having to take charge.
Amusingly, a number of incompetent men crop up, the criminals she is forced to deal with, the police, and even within her own family and friends.
Unsurprisingly therefore, she finds herself pretty much alone in having to deal with a corpse whose presence could destroy her family. The only ally she has, is her African American housekeeper, Sibyl, who, on several occasions, comes to the rescue.
Published in 1947, this novel is ahead of its time in several ways; despite the racial and social divide is made clear Sibyl is treated as an equal and even looked up to by Lucia, they have a deep friendship, and Lucia herself, striving to keep her family together in whatever way she can.
The scenario is the epitome of the housewife being forced into action, and having to take charge.
Amusingly, a number of incompetent men crop up, the criminals she is forced to deal with, the police, and even within her own family and friends.
Unsurprisingly therefore, she finds herself pretty much alone in having to deal with a corpse whose presence could destroy her family. The only ally she has, is her African American housekeeper, Sibyl, who, on several occasions, comes to the rescue.
Published in 1947, this novel is ahead of its time in several ways; despite the racial and social divide is made clear Sibyl is treated as an equal and even looked up to by Lucia, they have a deep friendship, and Lucia herself, striving to keep her family together in whatever way she can.
June 7, 2015
As part of my quest this year to read forgotten classics, one list put me on to Elisabeth Sanxay Holding, whom Raymond Chandler said was the top suspense writer in America in the 30s and 40s.
The Blank Wall is one of her most famous books and has been made into two movies, the most recent with Tilda Swinton. It is not so much a whodunit as a psychological exploration of how one woman's domestically tranquil life is shattered by the impulsive actions of her 17-year-old daughter, and all the decisions she makes (with the vital assistance of her African American maid Sybil) to try to deal with that crisis.
The plot begins with Lucia Holley discovering that her daughter Bee has been associating with an obvious cad on the make named Tom Darby who is twice her age. One night, Darby shows up at their beachfront home and she refuses to let her daughter see him. Her aging father then tells her he confronted the young man and shoved him off the end of a dock. The next morning, Lucia discovers Darby's body impaled on a boat anchor. Fearing the scandal that would come to her daughter and father from a criminal investigation, she decides to dispose of the body herself.
From then on, Lucia's life seems to careen from one inevitable crisis to another. A strange man shows up at the property with letters Bee has written to Darby, wanting blackmail money. Her husband Tom is in the Pacific with the Navy, and she will not tell her grandfather or her children what is going on as she tries to shoulder the burden of this cataclysm herself.
I won't give away what happens next in this concise, fast paced novel, but suffice to say that in trying to deal with the blackmail and then the police investigation of Darby's death, Lucia is thrown back and forth between calm-eyed courage and absolute mental paralysis, and that struggle in her mind about what to do, whom to trust, and what the right choice is dominates the rest of the book, right down to the gripping conclusion.
This is indeed a psychological thriller that is of its time and place, but it is so well written that it absolutely pulled me through to the end.
The Blank Wall is one of her most famous books and has been made into two movies, the most recent with Tilda Swinton. It is not so much a whodunit as a psychological exploration of how one woman's domestically tranquil life is shattered by the impulsive actions of her 17-year-old daughter, and all the decisions she makes (with the vital assistance of her African American maid Sybil) to try to deal with that crisis.
The plot begins with Lucia Holley discovering that her daughter Bee has been associating with an obvious cad on the make named Tom Darby who is twice her age. One night, Darby shows up at their beachfront home and she refuses to let her daughter see him. Her aging father then tells her he confronted the young man and shoved him off the end of a dock. The next morning, Lucia discovers Darby's body impaled on a boat anchor. Fearing the scandal that would come to her daughter and father from a criminal investigation, she decides to dispose of the body herself.
From then on, Lucia's life seems to careen from one inevitable crisis to another. A strange man shows up at the property with letters Bee has written to Darby, wanting blackmail money. Her husband Tom is in the Pacific with the Navy, and she will not tell her grandfather or her children what is going on as she tries to shoulder the burden of this cataclysm herself.
I won't give away what happens next in this concise, fast paced novel, but suffice to say that in trying to deal with the blackmail and then the police investigation of Darby's death, Lucia is thrown back and forth between calm-eyed courage and absolute mental paralysis, and that struggle in her mind about what to do, whom to trust, and what the right choice is dominates the rest of the book, right down to the gripping conclusion.
This is indeed a psychological thriller that is of its time and place, but it is so well written that it absolutely pulled me through to the end.
August 19, 2018
Parts were good, but I for one can't say that I loved this. Just not the right time for it I suppose. Definitely a woman's thriller, a mother is the main character. It just seemed to me that so much effort in the book is made by an innocent person to cover a crime. I mean, I know it was the late 1940s, but still. Maybe just call the police.
December 9, 2013
I read this as part of a double volume (ISBN 9780897333665) with the same author's The Innocent Mrs. Duff. I made notes here on the latter novel a couple of weeks ago; I've now read The Blank Wall.
As I wrote on GoodReads, I enjoyed The Innocent Mrs. Duff a lot, but had a few small reservations. No such reservations about The Blank Wall. I'd expected I might have to work a little at this novel because I've seen both of the movie adaptations -- The Reckless Moment (1949) and The Deep End (2001) -- and therefore had a notion of the plot. Not a bit of it. I was riveted from the first paragraph and had great difficulty putting the book down for such activities as working and sleeping.
I saw The Deep End (2001) far more recently than the earlier movie adaptation, which I can remember only dimly but which I know is a more faithful rendition of the book. Part of my experience of reading the novel was thus noting the differences between Holding's original and the Tilda Swinton movie. Again, while I'd expected this to be a distraction, it wasn't: if anything, it enriched my enjoyment.
And so to the plot: WWII is still raging, and Lucia Holley's husband has been stationed in the Pacific for the past couple of years, leaving her to manage the household -- her elderly father, Mr Harper, and her teenaged children David and Beatrice -- with the help of the family's long-term housekeeper and staunch friend Sybil. Beatrice -- "Bee" -- has been seeing a man far older than herself, Ted Darby, who's obviously a snake; naturally, she reacts with hostility when mom warns her to end the relationship. In a bizarre mishap, Harper accidentally kills the sleazebag without realizing he's done so. Lucia comes across the dead Darby, realizes what's happened and, to spare her father, takes the corpse by boat to dump on a deserted nearby island. Of course, that's where her troubles begin, because the next she knows a surprisingly civilized, deferential blackmailer, Martin Donnelly, is on her doorstop, demanding $5000 as the price for returning some compromising letters Bee sent Darby, $5000 which Lucia hasn't got . . .
There's more, much more, including murder, as Lucia tries to cope with the fact that Donnelly has apparently fallen in love with her even as she has to meet the expectations and demands of her family while, she hopes, staying under the radar of the astute cop who's investigating Darby's death. Worse still, Donnelly's partner-in-crime, Carlie Nagle, a truly sinister figure, recognizing Donnelly's soft spot where Lucia's concerned, moves ruthlessly in on the situation. Lucia's sole ally is Sybil, but Sybil, being black, can do only so much in the US of the 1940s.
An extra fascination -- for me at any rate -- is that all of this drama is being playing out against a backdrop of rationing and shortages, both of which Lucia and Sybil have to deal with while struggling to avert disaster. I found the curious love story at the tale's core gripping as well. By the time I finished the book I felt I'd been on a hectic rollercoaster ride.
As an aside: When we come across racism in 1940s Hollywood movies and the like, we tend to dismiss it as being just the way things were in those days -- we don't blame the participants for their complicity, but excuse them on the grounds that they were part of the society in which they lived. Reading The Blank Wall, my opinion on that changed. Holding was writing for a pulp market -- for an audience not that dissimilar from the one queuing up outside 1940s cinemas. She was as vulnerable as any pulp author to the disapproval of her audience, yet in this novel she went out of her way to make very plain her contempt for racists and their racism, and for the appalling double standard applied by the judicial system. No wonder Holding was Raymond Chandler's favorite thriller writer.
As I wrote on GoodReads, I enjoyed The Innocent Mrs. Duff a lot, but had a few small reservations. No such reservations about The Blank Wall. I'd expected I might have to work a little at this novel because I've seen both of the movie adaptations -- The Reckless Moment (1949) and The Deep End (2001) -- and therefore had a notion of the plot. Not a bit of it. I was riveted from the first paragraph and had great difficulty putting the book down for such activities as working and sleeping.
I saw The Deep End (2001) far more recently than the earlier movie adaptation, which I can remember only dimly but which I know is a more faithful rendition of the book. Part of my experience of reading the novel was thus noting the differences between Holding's original and the Tilda Swinton movie. Again, while I'd expected this to be a distraction, it wasn't: if anything, it enriched my enjoyment.
And so to the plot: WWII is still raging, and Lucia Holley's husband has been stationed in the Pacific for the past couple of years, leaving her to manage the household -- her elderly father, Mr Harper, and her teenaged children David and Beatrice -- with the help of the family's long-term housekeeper and staunch friend Sybil. Beatrice -- "Bee" -- has been seeing a man far older than herself, Ted Darby, who's obviously a snake; naturally, she reacts with hostility when mom warns her to end the relationship. In a bizarre mishap, Harper accidentally kills the sleazebag without realizing he's done so. Lucia comes across the dead Darby, realizes what's happened and, to spare her father, takes the corpse by boat to dump on a deserted nearby island. Of course, that's where her troubles begin, because the next she knows a surprisingly civilized, deferential blackmailer, Martin Donnelly, is on her doorstop, demanding $5000 as the price for returning some compromising letters Bee sent Darby, $5000 which Lucia hasn't got . . .
There's more, much more, including murder, as Lucia tries to cope with the fact that Donnelly has apparently fallen in love with her even as she has to meet the expectations and demands of her family while, she hopes, staying under the radar of the astute cop who's investigating Darby's death. Worse still, Donnelly's partner-in-crime, Carlie Nagle, a truly sinister figure, recognizing Donnelly's soft spot where Lucia's concerned, moves ruthlessly in on the situation. Lucia's sole ally is Sybil, but Sybil, being black, can do only so much in the US of the 1940s.
An extra fascination -- for me at any rate -- is that all of this drama is being playing out against a backdrop of rationing and shortages, both of which Lucia and Sybil have to deal with while struggling to avert disaster. I found the curious love story at the tale's core gripping as well. By the time I finished the book I felt I'd been on a hectic rollercoaster ride.
As an aside: When we come across racism in 1940s Hollywood movies and the like, we tend to dismiss it as being just the way things were in those days -- we don't blame the participants for their complicity, but excuse them on the grounds that they were part of the society in which they lived. Reading The Blank Wall, my opinion on that changed. Holding was writing for a pulp market -- for an audience not that dissimilar from the one queuing up outside 1940s cinemas. She was as vulnerable as any pulp author to the disapproval of her audience, yet in this novel she went out of her way to make very plain her contempt for racists and their racism, and for the appalling double standard applied by the judicial system. No wonder Holding was Raymond Chandler's favorite thriller writer.
October 11, 2016
4.5
Another complete discovery! And oh my!!!!
From the very first page, I was hooked on Lucia’s voice, her thoughts and character. Here is a typical wife and mother during WWII, dealing with shortages and the many aspects of domestic life while her husband is away fighting in the Pacific. But is she really? Faced again and again with extreme situations, Lucia, whose only aim is to protect her family, finally lets her individuality come to the surface. Society and indeed her family have corseted her in these roles, full of limitations, and it is only now, confronted with dangerous events, that she realises exactly what this means. Everyone treats her like a child, from her father to her children (15 and 17!); she has little to no privacy, and yet they all expect her to hold the home ties together. The complex web of relationships in her household was fascinating to see, even if I felt like screaming at some of the behaviours around her, from the rebellious Bee, to the enigmatic Donnelly and the ever reliable Sybil. Lucia, who starts with such low esteem of herself, grows into a fully rounded woman, full of resourcefulness and resolve.
While being the most unlikely setting for a thriller, the suspense grows, slowly, surreptitiously, psychologically even, and doesn’t relent until the end. And this is what Holding excels in. Raymond Chandler was right when he said “she is the top suspense writer of them all. She doesn’t pour it on and make you feel irritated. Her characters are wonderful; and she had a sort of inner calm which I find very attractive" (Persephone Publisher’s Note). Holding doesn’t just focus on the crime and whether the culprit will be arrested, but rather on the characters. Here is Lucia dealing with blackmail and worrying about doing the dishes and the beds. It sounds silly but also much more realistic, and it is this reality that grabs you. Parallels abound too, on culpability and loyalty, and without divulging anything, Holding is also commenting indirectly on all people that find themselves outside of the “norm”.
Tiny word about the writing style. From the first chapter, I was in awe at Holding’s mastery. In a few pages, she not only sets the scene and the players, but gives you so much information and exposition while seemingly not doing so! A letter, some flashbacks, and dialogue are all she uses to paint a full picture.
I may not have heard of Elisabeth Sanxay Holding before opening this book but I’m definitely going to hunt her novels down in whatever format available. Any publisher out there, please please print more of her writings.
Another complete discovery! And oh my!!!!
From the very first page, I was hooked on Lucia’s voice, her thoughts and character. Here is a typical wife and mother during WWII, dealing with shortages and the many aspects of domestic life while her husband is away fighting in the Pacific. But is she really? Faced again and again with extreme situations, Lucia, whose only aim is to protect her family, finally lets her individuality come to the surface. Society and indeed her family have corseted her in these roles, full of limitations, and it is only now, confronted with dangerous events, that she realises exactly what this means. Everyone treats her like a child, from her father to her children (15 and 17!); she has little to no privacy, and yet they all expect her to hold the home ties together. The complex web of relationships in her household was fascinating to see, even if I felt like screaming at some of the behaviours around her, from the rebellious Bee, to the enigmatic Donnelly and the ever reliable Sybil. Lucia, who starts with such low esteem of herself, grows into a fully rounded woman, full of resourcefulness and resolve.
While being the most unlikely setting for a thriller, the suspense grows, slowly, surreptitiously, psychologically even, and doesn’t relent until the end. And this is what Holding excels in. Raymond Chandler was right when he said “she is the top suspense writer of them all. She doesn’t pour it on and make you feel irritated. Her characters are wonderful; and she had a sort of inner calm which I find very attractive" (Persephone Publisher’s Note). Holding doesn’t just focus on the crime and whether the culprit will be arrested, but rather on the characters. Here is Lucia dealing with blackmail and worrying about doing the dishes and the beds. It sounds silly but also much more realistic, and it is this reality that grabs you. Parallels abound too, on culpability and loyalty, and without divulging anything, Holding is also commenting indirectly on all people that find themselves outside of the “norm”.
Tiny word about the writing style. From the first chapter, I was in awe at Holding’s mastery. In a few pages, she not only sets the scene and the players, but gives you so much information and exposition while seemingly not doing so! A letter, some flashbacks, and dialogue are all she uses to paint a full picture.
I may not have heard of Elisabeth Sanxay Holding before opening this book but I’m definitely going to hunt her novels down in whatever format available. Any publisher out there, please please print more of her writings.
June 19, 2017
I adored Sanxay Holding's The Innocent Mrs. Duff, and was very much looking forward to The Blank Wall, her more famous novel. It demonstrates the length that one woman is willing to go to in order to protect her family. To anyone familiar with Sanxay Holding's work, it will come as no surprise that the whole is incredibly well written, and excellently paced. I didn't quite enjoy it as much as the former due to the slightly predictable ending, but it is still a wonderful novel, which I would very much recommend.
November 13, 2024
An enjoyable mystery novel with a housewife ("what would they call her if she lived in a hotel?") and blackmail and hiding a body. I had lots of unanswered questions, and found the mystery very predictable, but I enjoyed the setting and the characters (even though I found the protagonist unlikeable). A light yet noir-ish look at the home front (USA) during WWII.
August 11, 2025
My first Persephone book and didn’t disappoint! A housewife gets tangled up in criminals, blackmail and extortion in the aftermath of an accidental death. She felt like a realistic character and her determination to find a solution and protect her family was really admirable(even though her family really did not treat her well- couldn’t believe how awful her son was!!). Lots of suspense but also scattered humour. Reminded me of Patricia Highsmith.
March 24, 2025
I enjoyed this <3
bit of a twisted thriller following an interesting main character - I found her fustrating at times which I don't tend to like, prefer books where I am more drawn the main character.
I would really recommend buying a persephone book its sooo lovely to read the quality is amazing. Expensive but nice to have one on bookshelf.
bit of a twisted thriller following an interesting main character - I found her fustrating at times which I don't tend to like, prefer books where I am more drawn the main character.
I would really recommend buying a persephone book its sooo lovely to read the quality is amazing. Expensive but nice to have one on bookshelf.
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