Women Crime Writers: Four Suspense Novels of the 1940s: Laura / The Horizontal Man / In a Lonely Place / The Blank Wall by Sarah Weinman

Women Crime Writers: Four Suspense Novels of the 1940s: Laura / The Horizontal Man / In a Lonely Place / The Blank Wall Reviews

• 
  robin friedman

  Women Crime Writers in The Library Of America -- The 1940s
  
  The Library of America has published many volumes of American noir and crime writing. It has recently published a two-volume anthology, "Women Crime Writers", consisting of four suspense novels from the 1940s and four from the 1950s by eight different women authors. I am reviewing the first volume, which consists of the four 1940s novels here. Sarah Weinman, a scholar of crime fiction selected the contents and edited the volume. Weinman has edited an earlier volume of suspense stories by women authors, "Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives: Stories from the Trailblazers of Domestic Suspense".
  
  This collection is entertaining, absorbing, and a pleasure to read. Even those readers familiar with suspense fiction are unlikely to know all of the novels included here. The themes and settings of the works resist easy generalization. As with most good suspense writing, the themes and character development in these books go beyond genre. The works are written by women authors, but it would be a mistake to reduce their content to what today is described as women's issues. Of the four books, two, Vera Caspary's "Laura" and Elisabeth Holding's "The Blank Wall" are set in New York City or its environs. Helen Eustis' "The Horizontal Man" is set in an exclusive northeast women's college. "In a Lonely Place" by Dorothy Hughes is set in Los Angeles and its suburbs.
  
  The impact of WW II on American life is an important theme in two of the novels. Hughes' "In a Lonely Place" is a story of a serial killer who served as a fighter pilot during the war. His wartime friend has become a Los Angeles detective and eventually brings down his former friend for the murders he committed. The novel masterfully develops from the inside the mind and heart of the serial killer. Holdings' "The Blank Wall" has more domestic themes. A middle-aged woman whose husband is overseas in the navy becomes involved in a series of crimes and in a romantic affair which bring excitement to while shaking the foundations of an outwardly routine life. In a quieter way than Hughes' novel, Holding develops the complexities of the life and dreams of its main character.
  
  The remaining two novels also show a great deal about American life in the 1940s without the emphasis on WW II. Caspary's "Laura" shows the fast-paced world of middle and upper class New York City. The book became the basis for a famous movie directed by Otto Preminger and an even more famous song. The title character is a successful advertising executive who has risen in her profession by determination and talent. Although she has many friends and suitors in a busy life, she is also lonely and looking for love. Caspary's book describes the complexities of her character in a book narrated by three participants in the story.
  
  Eustis' novel, "The Horizontal Man" portrays university life in the 1940s with observations about character and love that are at least as important to the book as the murder of a young English professor which drives the story. The characters of the novel include a young student with a crush on the victim who, under emotional stress, confesses to the killing, an ambitious reporter who befriends an intellectual, apparently no-nonsense student, and two professors who were friends and colleagues of the victim. The tenor of the book is psychological and Freudian with many literary allusions.
  
  The four novels also see women in different ways which resist reduction or contemporary stereotyping. Laura is a successful woman in a field and time when this was uncommon who seeks love. Lucia Holley in "The Blank Wall" is a housewife outwardly contented in her role but in search of meaning, risk and adventure. "In a Lonely Place" focuses on the serial killer, but two highly intelligent women, the detective's wife, Sylvia, and the killer's lady friend, Laura, are pivotal in bringing him down. "The Horizontal Man" develops several different women characters, including Molly, the student enamored of the victim, the sensual femme fatale Mrs. Cramm, an intellectual young woman who becomes involved in the investigation of the crime, and more. In short, although each book is written by a different woman, no clear women's theme emerges from the anthology.
  
  Each of these books is important and well-written in its own right. Together they make an outstanding collection of little-known suspense novels by women from the 1940s. Each individual title is separately available, but it is valuable to have the books preserved, accessible and honored by the LOA. The volume includes short biographies of each of the four authors together with Weinman's notes on the text which center on allusions to 1940's America that many readers will find unfamiliar. The LOA has an extensive website on the two-volume anthology which includes further information about the set, the books, and the authors, including rare cover art. The LOA kindly provided me with this box set for review. I am looking forward to reading the 1950s volume.
  
  Robin Friedman
• 
  Jessica

  5 stars for 2 of the four novels: In a Lonely Place by Dorothy B. Hughes is a noir masterpiece --an extraordinary rendering of tension and suspense in L.A. , and Elisabeth's Sanxay Holding's The Blank Wall offers a continually surprising turn of events for a wartime housewife and mother.
  
  The other two are good reads as well but less plausible and less masterful in the use of tension and suspense, more social dramas.
• 
  Peter

  Perhaps not quite as good as the companion volume of 1950s stories, but all in all a satisfying read. The Horizontal Man is, to my mind, the weakest of the four stories here and the reason I give this volume three stars instead of four.
• 
  Zoë Dean

  I read the two-volume
  Women Crime Writers: Eight Suspense Novels of the 1940s & 50s: A Library of America Boxed Set set continuously over about two weeks, which means everyone around me probably got tired of hearing me explain the virtues of the set: that nearly all of the authors had fallen out of print over the years, that it was an important task for canon-formation to bring these books to everyone's attention once more, that Weinman had previously edited a collection of similar-era domestic suspense short fiction by some of the same authors that was also great (
  Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives: Stories from the Trailblazers of Domestic Suspense). Also that, more importantly, the books are terrific.
  
  Weinman eases you in with Vera Caspary's Laura, which noir buffs are probably already acquainted with from the film. The book is sleek, smart, and playful, its story revealed and its characters masked and unmasked through a revolving door of narrators with their own motivations, biases, and outright lies. It centers around a successful and vibrant woman, Laura Hunt, whose body, face ruined by a shotgun blast, has been found in her apartment. She has a clever, petty mentor with excellent taste; a good-looking fool of a fiancé; one or two checkered rivals; and an investigating detective who is falling under the spell of her history. The liveliness of Caspary's writing, plus the glossy sheen she uses to disguise her discussion of some very sordid topics (for more discussion of this, I recommend the Out of the Past noir podcast and its discussion of the film), make this a great introduction to the collection.
  
  Next is Helen Eustis's The Horizontal Man, a nervous and jittery concoction of Freud and unsatisfied longing set on a college campus and revolving around a handsome murdered poet. Where Laura is smooth, Eustis is jagged, and consequently the damage of her characters shows through more clearly and is the focus of the story. More than anything else, this novel offers the pleasure of the well-constructed and busy community, with a huge cast of vivid characters bobbing in and out of the action and colliding in unexpected ways and wanting very different things. Some of the psychology has not held true and some of the twists of it have been over-used, but that doesn't matter much, because the people are still real and recognizable: snarky, heroic, pathetic, and erotic, and working their way towards the truth of the mystery and of themselves.
  
  Dorothy B. Hughes's In a Lonely Place: if this were the only worthwhile novel in the whole collection, the collection would still be worth buying. This, like
  The Talented Mr. Ripley and
  The Killer Inside Me, is a bravura look at a killer from the inside-out. Dix Steele is compulsive, lonely, unhappy, and vindictive. He seethes with resentment that can turn on a dime towards either melancholy or outright violence. It's Hughes's great achievement that he's both sympathetic and horrifying, and it's a further achievement that she doesn't forget to populate her story with people with goodness, perception, and strength that's equally well-realized: sometimes dark novels are just as unrealistic as chipper ones, but Hughes understands the world in full. The ending, too, is a kicker, with considerable staying power.
  
  Finally, in this first volume, there's Elisabeth Sanxay Holding's The Blank Wall, about a woman holding together her family while her husband is away in the war. At first, she's just dealing with her son's polite condescension and her daughter's more combative contempt, but soon there's a dead body, blackmail, and gangsters. It could be the stuff of satire, but the novel never abandons nuance, and instead, it's deeply involving and even moving to watch Lucia gain strength and insight even as her situation tightens in around her like a noose. It's also about the struggle to make good choices in bad times, and whether the truth is worth the risk of consequences, and mother-daughter relationships, and reformation and romance. In a Lonely Place is more perfect, but this ended up being my favorite novel of the collection.
  
  This is a terrific novel collection, and the empathy, intelligence, and power of all the writing is striking. Highly recommended. (On to the 1950s volume.)
• 
  Maureen M

  Given that most of the famous crime writers of the 1940s are men, it was fun to see what women crime writers were doing then. The American Library Association made that possible with the publication of four novellas. My favorite turned out to be the best known, "Laura," by Vera Caspary, which became a movie. All of the stories have something to offer, and the back gives a brief biography of each that shows how accomplished they were, if no well known.
• 
  Agnes DiPietrantonio

  Excellent collection. Laura is just as good as the classic film. The Horizontal Man starts out well enough but ends up feeling like a Mickey Rooney/Judy Garland romp. In a Lonely Place was downright creepy. The Blank Wall was probably the best of the lot. Well done collection
• 
  Mary

  Fantastic collection!
• 
  Lyvia T.

  I read this collection over 2 years ago after my friend recommended the movie Laura (1944). Seeing that I could get 4 classic suspense novels written by WOMEN for the price of one book, I went ahead and bought all 4. I remember after reading each one, I thought I had a new favorite. Now I'm re-reading each novel and finding that they hold up as much as the first time, if not better.
  
  Laura, I discovered, I liked much better after a second read. What I love about the novel is that each character is in their own way unlikeable and unreliable. The different perspectives definitely enhance the storyline and provide a unique voice; my favorite bit is how in Laura's perspective, we never see her think to herself that she didn't commit murder--only that she wonders who thinks her guilty. Waldo's perspective is a humorously annoying one and on a second reading, it seems very obvious that he is the killer. Mark's perspective is a nice breath of fresh air once we've spent so long with Waldo, who keeps making footnotes to his own works that we can't read, since they don't exist in our real world. One interesting thing is that I can't figure out why Mark and Laura are writing their sections; Waldo is clearly writing it as a story to be left for after he is gone, but Mark expressly says this is not his police report. Are he and Laura writing this for their own kicks? Either way, it makes for an engaging narrative throughout the novel. I could write a whole separate review on the book-to-movie pipeline, but in short it is the best movie adaptation of a novel, hands down.
  
  The second book, The Horizontal Man, is unfortunately the weakest in this lineup. Not to say it's not good, it's definitely interesting, but it came across as a stronger story on my first readthrough. If you read it as the second novel, it is a fine, engaging story; if you read it as the last novel, it does not hold up to the following stories. This book starts out with the murder victim and murderer, unknown at this point, and then somehow, becomes very boring. Each character seems to be on a wild goose chase that really… goes nowhere. No one actually solves Kevin Boyle’s murder and no one seems to care. The afterward barely reflects on the events of the story, instead choosing to end with drunk college students who really aren’t affected by the fallout of the murder. We get snippets of the college rumor mill, but nothing more. On my first read through, I remember getting giddy about Kate and Jack’s snide back and forth, but disliked the fat comments made towards Kate, as well as Jack forcefully grabbing her face until they both agree that they’re in love, and my opinions haven’t changed on this second read. Not much was gained this time around, except some slight foreshadowing by mention of Jekyll and Hyde and the eventual reveal of Hungerford’s split personality that a returning reader can pick up on.
  
  In a Lonely Place is the top story of this collection. I read it the first time thinking that the narrator was not the killer, even though the jacket cover tells you that Dix is the killer, and truly expected a last page plot twist of Brub being the killer. I truly might be the dumbest, most passive reader alive. On my second readthrough, I nearly threw myself into the ocean at the thought of past me thinking that and I really enjoyed the story just as much this time around. What I love about this book is the unreliable narration from Dix: he's a guy who views himself as imperfect and proud of everything he's done, and yet we never actually have him recount any of his murders. His recollections of Brucie are always short and cryptic; the reader can never truly trust what he says about Brucie, except that she's dead. Did she ever actually love him or did Dix form a one sided attachment to her? We see the same cycle start again with Laurel, his red-headed neighbor; he pursues her, she does start to date him, he becomes increasingly jealous, possessive, and paranoid, and comes close to killing her until Brub and Sylvia stop him. His jealousy clouds his perspective so strongly that the reader can tell that Brub is closing in on him from within *Dix's own narrative* and Dix is still ignorant until the last moment. On my first readthrough, I thought it was a bit out of character for Dix to give up and confess, but on the second I saw how he had reached the end and became aware of just how much of a lonely place he was in.
  
  And finally, The Blank Wall is one of the few narratives that makes me want to throw the book against the wall. The futility of Lucia's actions still hit hard on each readthrough. It's almost comical that this story has the least murder-y murder plot and yet is the most infuriating. Halfway though, I forgot that the story was based in the U.S. because she has such a British, stiff upper lip attitude towards everything. Lucia could have easily told the police about Ted's accidental death, but stopped herself to prevent her father from any embarrassment and it spirals from there. Her entire sense of purpose revolves around protecting her family, even though her father is the only person who treats her like an adult. Her kids are truly awful. It's not often that I root for abandoning your family, but the relationship between her and Donnelly, who truly respects her and views her as a person, not just a mother or a wife, had me rooting for Lucia to run away with him to Montreal. The hardest part of this novel is the final moments where Lucia and Sybil only know the truth and Lucia admits to herself that she may eventually forget all that has happened. Nothing that she did really mattered; her family never knew anything, she faced no repercussions, and she has no one to share the story with. She'll grow old having tasted one true experience of freedom as herself and never sharing it with anyone. Donnelly turned himself in for, once again, no reason other than to save another person from embarrassment, and confessed to an additional crime rather than escaping to Montreal. It is implied that he will get the death penalty, further adding to the reader's dismay at how unnecessary every event was. It is a perfect narrative of futility, family, and fear that leaves the reader screaming for Lucia to run, to live a life for herself, and knowing that she never will.
• 
  Michele

  The subtitle of this collection is more accurate than its main title, because the stories are all much more about suspense than about crime (although there are crimes in them). I can't say much without spoiling the stories, all of which have their surprises, but I will say that they are all excellent -- "In a Lonely Place" is one of the creepiest things I have ever read, right up there with JCO's
  Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?, and "The Blank Wall" is downright gut-wrenching. Highly recommended.
  
  
• 
  J

  Four fantastic novels that are groundbreaking in various ways and entertaining in all ways. The two that surprised me the most were by writers I'd never even heard of.
  
  The second novel, The Horizontal Man, by Helen Eustis manages to pre-date Robert Bloch's Psycho by something like 15 years and has nearly an identical resolution. It's so close a fit that if I were Eustis, I'd have felt an awful lot like I'd been ripped off. The novel is at turns a funny satire of campus life and mores while also featuring a detective story, a mystery, and a psychological novel. There's more going on in this one little book than you'd guess.
  
  The fourth in the collection, The Blank Wall, by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding, likewise is a crime novel set against the backdrop of a wife and mother holding home together while her husband is off to war and her daughter falls in among some sharpies. We get blackmail, murder, threats, extortion, all while our protagonist is trying to not drive her car so as to conserve gas and tire rubber for the war effort, shopping with her ration book, and even a little bit of racial sympathy for the family maid and her backstory almost wholly absent from novels of the time written by white authors.
  
  The first novel should be all too familiar for fans of noir novels and films both (Vera Caspary's Laura, which pulls a neat triple narration going on while the third novel, Dorothy B. Hughes In a Lonely Place is another noir classic made into a well-regarded film with Humphrey Bogart playing the tormented killer protagonist. These two are classics for a reason, but the two companion novel in the volume, and their authors, are deserving of your attention just as much.
  
  I have a feeling I'll be doing some library stacks digging to find some more great stories like these.
• 
  Priscilla Paton

  I read Dorothy Hughes's IN A LONELY PLACE (1947) in this collection, and this psychological thriller is intensely noir. The story twists through the mind of Dickson “Dix” Steele, a former pilot who misses the war and most of all the sensation of “flying wild.” When he finds himself in a fine Los Angeles apartment (of dubious acquisition), he runs into a wartime friend who has become an L.A. detective. Dix clings to this friendship as a form of normalcy while women Dix glimpses in the night are found dead in the morning. Dix, often in an internal rampage, tries to control what others think of him while convincing himself he's falling in love with a gorgeous neighbor. The writing is taut, the seaside fog atmospheric, and some women are smarter than they appear. This novel paves the way for Patricia Highsmith’s THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY.
  Note: this novel underwent plot changes when it was turned into a film starring Gloria Grahame and Humphrey Bogart.
  
  
• 
  Jenny

  3.5 Stars.
  Very difficult to give this one a rating since it had four novels in it.
  
  Laura by Vera Caspary
  3.75 Stars
  Admittedly, my love for the movie version of this book might be why this novel fell flat. Go see the movie. It’s brilliant.
  
  The Horizontal Man by Helen Eustis
  4.0 Stars
  The story was great and the characters internal dialogue was superb, but the dialogue between characters was super hammy.
  
  In a Lonely Place by Dorothy B. Hughes
  5. 0 Stars
  This novel was just great. All from the perspective of a charming serial killer. Just the right amount of creepy.
  
  The Blank Wall by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding
  1.0 Stars
  Ugh! Well, three out of four ain’t bad. 🤷🏻‍♀️
  I hated this one! If it had been on its own I would have DNF’d it after the first twenty pages. But I finished and didn’t like any of the characters except for the blackmailer. And I didn’t really like him that much either.
• 
  Megan

  This book is one of a two-volume set, which I of course read out of order. The volume that I read first, of authors from the 50s, I liked much better than this one. For this one, I really enjoyed the first story, and then appreciated, but didn't always love, the remaining three stories. I will say this, though, all four of the authors successfully created very complicated characters, in a way that you don't always see. I think that maybe this is why I didn't enjoy this as much. I often felt sympathy for the characters, but at the same time was deeply frustrated by them, and was actually kinda hate-reading by the end of the last story.
  
  That said, there was no way I was putting this book down, and I certainly recommend if vintage murder mysteries are your cup of tea.
• 
  Banuta

  This is a great collection, even if I couldn't handle the first one by Vera Caspary, and I'd already read and admired In a Lonely Place. The Horizontal Man by Helen Eustis also felt like a discovery, though there's some fat-shaming, the plump girl wins, and there's an unusually open attitude towards homosexuality, even if it gets a bit weird at the end. I also really enjoyed The Blank Wall because it was so very much from a woman's perspective; cleaning up a murder in order to protect your family, worrying about what to serve for dinner, dealing with a slew of household chores. And whimsy, which was also good. Some of these writers seem to be out of print apart from collections.
• 
  Bonnie

  I read Laura, the first novel in the collection. I can see why it is a classic. The novel is in parts, and each part is written from a different character's perspective. The author does a good job of varying the writing style and voice. Makes me want to check out the film.
  
  If you're interested in 1940s and film noir type stuff, I think you would like it.
  
  I had to return the book to the library because someone else had it on hold, but I might check it out again and come back to the others when I am in the mood.
• 
  Diana

  1)
  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
  
  2)
  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
  
  3)
  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
  
  4)
  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
• 
  Scott Avery

  I loved in a lonely place, terrific California noir some fine writing. I was amused to read about not being able to find a parking place in Santa Monica – somethings never change!
  
  I wanted to like the horizontal man but just didn't grab me I think I abandoned it after about 25%
  
  The other novels look very intriguing I will undoubtedly read them at some point.
• 
  Riodelmartians

  A primer of excellent noir fiction. Required reading for anyone wanting to learn about the genre. Freudian psychology plays an important part in driving plots that involve killers with multiple personalities and obsessions. Laura is first, and helps one understand how the other novellas will develop.
• 
  Cokie

  Wonderful mysteries from undeservedly forgotten authors. "In a Lonely Place" and "The Blank Wall" are especially good.
• 
  Zoë

  Laura: 1/5 stars
  The Horizontal Man: 5/5 stars
  In a Lonely Place: 2/5 stars
  The Blank Wall: 3/5 stars
• 
  Lori

  I only read The Blank Wall - and it was great! I hope to read the other 3 stories in this set.
• 
  Mary Jo

  A fun way to be exposed to several famous noir novels that were made into classic movies.
• 
  Rebecca Stratosphere

  Four excellent novels!
• 
  Nikki

  Such a great collection of books - enjoyed reading them all. In A Lonely Place is the best of the four.
• 
  Lynn

  The Blank Wall - 5 stars
  Laura - 5 stars
  The Horizontal Man - 4 stars
  In a Lonely Place - 4 stars