Stranger Than Truth

by Vera Caspary

Vera Caspary, the famed author of Laura , gives us another gripping crime drama, told through shifting points of view.
 
John Ansell, young and idealistic editor of Truth and Crime magazine, wants to breathe new life into the stale and formulaic publication. Instead of rehashing a story that’s already been proven popular elsewhere, he finds a fresh the murder of Warren G. Wilson, famed figurehead of a correspondence course. The murder itself isn’t too remarkable—just a bullet in the back—but the victim is another case, as it becomes apparent that despite having a household name, nothing is known about him. Perhaps even more peculiar is how Ansell’s boss absolutely refuses to run the story and, soon thereafter, Ansell is poisoned.
 
Caspary masterfully allows the truth to slowly untangle in this incredibly woven mystery, finally available as an ebook.

Genres: Noir, Mystery, American, Fiction, 20th Century

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1946

About the author

Vera Caspary, an acclaimed American writer of novels, plays, short stories and screenplays, was born in Chicago in 1899. Her writing talent shone from a young age and, following the death of her father, her work became the primary source of income for Caspary and her mother. A young woman when the Great Depression hit America, Caspary soon developed a keen interest in Socialist causes, and joined the Communist Party under a pseudonym. Although she soon left the party after becoming disillusioned, Caspary's leftist leanings would later come back to haunt her when she was greylisted from Hollywood in the 1950s for Communist sympathies. Caspary spent this period of self-described 'purgatory' alternately in Europe and America with her husband, Igee Goldsmith, in order to find work. After Igee's death in 1964, Caspary returned permanently to New York, where she wrote a further eight titles. Vera Caspary died in 1987 and is survived by a literary legacy of strong independent female characters.

Reviews

[Jeanette (Ms. Feisty)]

Abandoned at 30%.
I wanted to read this because I enjoyed Laura, as well as Caspary's autobio, The Secrets of Grownups. I had to abandon this one because it spends too much time on the publishing business and the young narrator's attempts at flirting and romance. The murder mystery, which seems promising, gets buried and sometimes all but forgotten.

[Carla Remy]

From 1946
I couldn't read this now, probably ever.
The structure, the subject, the always popular true crime magazines, is cool. It starts with journalists fighting editors, then switches to a long magazine piece describing the crime. There just isn't an actual main character. I might have given up too soon.
Vera Caspary should be more known as the author of Laura, The Otto Preminger film of it is of course more known than the author of the novel. I also adored her book Bedelia.

[Jim Dooley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Score another success for one of the classiest of mystery writers. I will admit that I was a bit disappointed early on. It seemed as if the solution was so incredibly obvious…and, of course, none of the characters were aware of it. However, as the story unfolded, the writer took me with her along a number of logical twists and turns. The characters were involving and, even though I did guess the ending, the style of writing was just beautiful and a great deal of fun.

Naturally, that was to be expected from the writer of LAURA…although I’m much more a fan of EVVIE. The obvious is very seldom the answer, and the solution is hidden within multiple layers of understandable complexity. Even though this is a “period” piece, I’ve met a number of these characters. Yet, it’s still fun being transported back to another time that didn’t know the meaning of “politically correct” and that was awash with its own sense of self-satisfied justification.

If you like your mysteries hard-boiled, I can recommend this one.

[tortoise dreams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Is this Caspary's avant-garde experiment? Caspary gets creative (for 1946) with the book's seven chapters told in multi-narrative fashion: the main character, an investigative reporter, tells three of the novel's chapters in first person, with his account supplemented by a witness statement, a memoir, two letters, and another character's viewpoint. All laid out upfront by Caspary on the Contents page. Part of Caspary's creativity here is that the ending isn't fully resolved, except perhaps in the reader's mind. Full warning. We get hints of what's to come (or what we think is to come) as a tease early on, but the murder mystery is actually secondary to what Caspary wants to write about here. The story continues well after the mystery is solved with the dilemma then being what to do about it in a world without ethics and morals. Apart from the semi-experimental elements, this is (in part) one of Caspary's "working girl" books, which are her best. The story includes a Sinclair Lewis-level portrait of a 1940's Self-Help Guru, who may be the villain of the book. Apparently he's based on Bernarr Macfadden (of which see Wiki), for whom Caspary worked at one time. There are other memorable characters lurking in his publishing empire -- a scheming spider's web of deceit and a cover-up in which some employee may be the murderer, as the deaths and attempted murders pile up. One of the characters is a fantasy of Caspary herself -- I couldn't help but love the perfectly imperfect Lola as I think Vera did also in a loving sketch of her avatar. One of my few caveats about the excellent Stranger Than Truth is that the main character (Mr. Ansell) is just a trifle awkwardly written, which I was coping with reasonably well till I read the chapter first personed by the lead female character, which just flew off the page, putting into sharp relief the inadequacies in sculpting the male lead. For the life of me I can't understand why Caspary had trouble writing that character. There's also a bumpy romance (always the best kind). My fifth Caspary novel, all of which have been so consistently good even with the oddities here; I can see many readers each choosing a different favorite even with Laura ... .

[Trish · Rating 4 out of 5]

"What a Gorgonzola!" -- Lola Manfred, to her reflection.

"We are surrounded by hordes of people who can believe in anything sincerely as long as it brings them a good living. Fascists believe in Fascism, don't they, especially the big ones whose attitudes pay a profit? There's nothing in the world, my friend, so sincere as self-interest."

"In the name of Truth, fact is distorted, rumor spread, crackpots glorified, authority given charlatans and crooks."

[Trilby O'Farrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant! Hilarious! Even better than Laura! A scathing social commentary complete with delightful caricatures. As fresh now as it must have been in 1946. Unfortunately this edition could have used an extra round of proofreading, but it hardly reduced my enjoyment.

[Sophie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book should have been better than it was. The idea is sound and the author is clearly talented (Laura, Bedelia), but the book was not a success for me. There was a bloodless quality to the narrative that made it hard to feel invested, and the characterizations seemed to be all over the place. For instance, sometimes Ansell seems like the wisest guy in the magazine racket who can never be played by anyone, and the next minute, he's letting himself be suckered by an obvious con man and his two-bit henchman. It was odd and made for an unsatisfactory read. Not to mention that the character of Noble Barclay never seemed plausible to me. A man who writes an "immortal work" with "seventy-six editions in sixteen languages," has worldwide fame and senators at his beck and call, and he leverages all this influence into publishing sleazy magazines like Truth and Crime and Truth and Love? That's odd too. Maybe the character of Noble Barclay is supposed to remind us of someone (à la Lonesome Rhodes in A Face in the Crowd), but if so, the reference escaped me. Overall, not a book I'd recommend.

[María Santana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Me tardé una semana en terminar un libro de 270 páginas, pero es que, ¡qué aburrido es! Me era imposible leer más de 5 páginas, sin verme envuelta en un terrible sopor. Finalmente hoy me obligué a terminarlo.
Vera Caspary escribía muy bien, lo demostró en sus otros libros, pero ni siquiera eso pudo salvar a este libro de su aburridísima e inconexa trama, todo transcurre lento, nada es creíble, no me sorprendió ni poquito.

[Epar3 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love vs lies

Caspari’s appealing flawed heiress and her ambitious admirer come up against the ugly truth about her father, a magazine king, in a media world eerily like today’s.

[Alexandra Serna · Rating 3 out of 5]

La primera mitad fue aburrida, el verdadero jugo de la obra se encuentra a la mitad y para el final vuelve a desinflarse