Since my
Pink Carnation nomination somehow precipitated a groundswell of support for
The Scarlet Pimpernel, we'll see what this one morphs into:
Bedelia by Vera Caspary (1945, 240 pp.)
Vera Caspary is probably most well-known for
Laura; I figured that might be too familiar from the movie version, so chose this novel instead, recently reissued as part of the Feminist Press's Femme Fatales series ("Femmes Fatales restores to print the best of women’s writing in the classic pulp genres of the mid-20th century. From mystery to hard-boiled noir to taboo lesbian romance, these rediscovered queens of pulp offer subversive perspectives on a turbulent era.").
Quote:
Long before Desperate Housewives, there was Bedelia: pretty, ultra femme, and "adoring as a kitten." A perfect housekeeper and lover, she wants nothing more than to please her insecure new husband, who can't believe his luck. But is Bedelia too good to be true?
A mysterious new neighbor turns out to be a detective on the trail of a "kitten with claws of steel"—a picture-perfect wife with a string of dead husbands in her wake. Caspary builds this tale to a peak of psychological suspense as her characters are trapped together by a blizzard. The true Bedelia, the woman who chose murder over a life on the street, reveals how she turns male fantasies of superiority into a deadly con.
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Quote:
"Vera Caspary's gift was perhaps more subtle, and deadly [than Jim Thompson, David Goodis, and Charles Willeford]." --Robert Polito, author of Savage Art: A Biography of Jim Thompson
"You must read Bedelia to see just how slick Miss Caspary's techique of soft-shoe terror can be--how frightening she can make the chatter at an innocent dinner party, the lure of a lady's deshabille, the glimpse of a black pearl in a dresser drawer." --The New York Times
"A sinister entertainment 'especially for admirers of the psychological horror story.'" --The New Yorker
"A tour de force of psychological suspense, Desperate Housewives meets Double Indemnity in Caspary's Bedelia." --Liahna Armstrong, President Emerita, Popular Culture Association
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Amazon U.S., $9.99
Amazon Canada, CA $8.99
Amazon UK, £8.63
Amazon Australia, AU $15.44
Kobo U.S., $11.19
Kobo Canada, CA $15.19
Kobo UK, £8.63
Kobo Australia, AU $16.71
Sadly, the prices are high, but it's not from one of the Big Five, so should be couponable. E-book can be borrowed through Overdrive and Hoopla. Also available as an audiobook.