Lightning Strikes Twice / The Trash Stealer

by Jean Potts, Curtis Evans (Introduction)

LIGHTNING STRIKES TWICE

When Evan returns to his Midwestern home from life in the city, he finds that nothing much has changed. Everyone’s a little bit older, and they still talk about the weather. But though no one wants to be the first to bring it up, he discovers that his Uncle Win has tried to kill himself. Little Harriet, his daughter, thinks Mr. Stanley is involved. After all, he is supposedly having an affair with her mother. Then Win is found dead from what looks like a self-inflicted gunshot, and Aunt Nell, Win’s overly-dramatic ex-wife, was the last person to see him. This all looks too suspicious to Evan to be suicide. So with Little Harriet crying murder, he decides to find out just what did happen to his Uncle Win.

THE TRASH STEALER

It all begins with a holdup at the bar where Joe works. A man is killed, and it’s Joe’s fault. The man’s daughter shows up. Cynthia is spoiled, selfish and completely contrary—and Joe finds himself strangely attracted to her. He follows her back to her family in New York City, where he finds an equally contrary group of characters. They all seem to be bickering over a missing diamond necklace that is all that’s left of Gran’s inheritance. Cynthia’s cousin Ned is convinced that she and Joe have been conspiring together to steal the necklace. Ned’s parents are convinced that Cynthia is hiding it disguised as a gift for her boyfriend. And all Joe wants to do is assuage his guilt while trying to protect the infuriating Cynthia from herself.

262 pages, Paperback

Published November 2, 2022

About the author

Jean Potts was born on November 17, 1910, in St. Paul, Nebraska. After she graduated from Nebraska Wesleyan University, Potts became first a teacher and then a journalist, later moving to New York, which she fell in love with during a brief visit. It was there that Potts started her writing career, beginning with a mainstream novel Someone to Remember in 1943 and stories for magazines like Collier s, McCall s, Cosmopolitan and Redbook. After the success of her first mystery novel, Go, Lovely Rose (which won the Edgar Award in 1954), Potts concentrated on crime fiction, eventually writing fourteen mystery novels, translated into over seven languages. Though never made, The Evil Wish (an Edgar runner-up in 1963) was optioned for a film with Barbara Stanwyck and Sir Ralph Richardson. Potts died in New York City on November 10, 1999.