Simon at Stuck In A Book has an interesting challenge where he picks a year and then readers are encouraged to read a book published during that year. This year Simon chose 1940 and so I decided to go with The Bride Wore Black by Cornell Woolrich which has been gathering dust in my kindle for some time now.
The Bride Wore Black begins in the 1930's and in the prologue we meet a young woman named Julie who has suffered a tragedy of some kind that we are not told about. Julie lets her family know that she needs to get away and sort things out and so she boards a train to Chicago. But Julie gets off the train at the next stop and remains in NYC. Her family is unaware of this.
The novel then switches to a different scene in which a wealthy young man named Bliss is celebrating at his engagement party. A beautiful mysterious woman shows up at the party and is able to get Bliss alone on the balcony of the high rise where the party is taking place. She pushes him off the balcony to his death. The young woman leaves the party before any of the guests find out what has happened.
It's the beginning of a killing spree that will span over two years in which four men turn up dead in NYC and always a young woman is reported as having been around the scene at the time. But who is this woman and who are these men since they don't appear to have known each other and have led very different lives? There is Bliss, the wealthy young man who is engaged. There is Mitchell who is down on his luck and living in a dingy apartment. Moran a businessman with a wife and young son and Ferguson a successful artist.
A detective named Wagner is assigned to the case and he is pretty sure that the same woman is responsible for all of these killings. His supervisors are not so sure since witnesses describe the woman at each crime scene in different ways but Wagner knows its not hard to change one's appearance after each killing. Wagner is sure that somehow these four men must have been connected in the past. Some event must have happened involving all four and once he finds out what that event was it will lead him to the killer.
The Bride Wore Black is a gripping novel but disturbing and I had a problem with the ending which I can't go into without revealing too much. But now having read a prior short story by Cornell Woolrich and The Bride Wore Black I plan to continue with this writer.
Crime noir novelists like Cornell Woolrich, David Goodis, Dorothy Hughes, Chester Himes etc were popular in their day. They wrote in a similar vein about betrayal, bad breaks, alienation, guilt and settling scores. And though a steady diet of their books is probably a mistake, I do plan to read more by these authors. They are talented and had important things to say about life and I am glad to see that their novels are having a revival.
Later - I did it! I finally figured out how to paste the cover of the book I am reviewing onto my blog! Now the trick is to remember how I did this when I post my next review.
As usual, your reviews rival any that are posted by professional book reviewers. Thank you for another enticing review
ReplyDeleteThank you so much. I really appreciate it. Cornell Woolrich is a very interesting writer. He had a sad life and it's reflected in his novels.
ReplyDeleteThis is another author I'm not familiar with, but this mystery sounds interesting, if a little dark. My library has two of Woolrich's others books: Deadline at Dawn and Waltz Into Darkness. They both look like they could be good. I'll have to give him a try.
ReplyDeleteHi Lark, he is a dark writer and the titles sort of show that. Many of his books were made into films the most famous of which was Rear Window. As with Edgar Allen Poe there is something fascinating about a writer who wrote such dark stories but he is talented.
ReplyDeleteThe cover looks good on the post, way to go! I have not heard of this author or title. But I like going back in my reading to the earlier years of the 20th century. I didn't realize he wrote Rear Window. How interesting. I did read a bit now about him on IMDB and indeed things in his life didn't seem to work out.
ReplyDeleteI heard about him only because I follow a number of the mid 20th century crime novelists and the noir films too and Cornell Woolrich wrote alot for the movies. I also like Lawrence Block, a contemporary crime writer but he writes in the same vein
DeleteKathy, I really thought I had already commented on this post. And I am glad that you have figured out how to get the cover of a book in the post. I know how irritating things like that can be.
ReplyDeleteI have read nothing by Cornell Woolrich, possibly because I had read that his books were dark and depressing. Maybe I have read a couple of short stories in anthologies. But I have always planned to read some of his novels. I have one of his novels in a paperback edition, I Married a Dead Man, I will have to try to unearth it.
Thanks Tracy. I wouldn't start with The Bride Black because though it is gripping it is dark and I wasn't thrilled with the ending but what got me interested in Woolrich is that he is one of the significant writers of mid 20th century crime noir novels and he is talented. I came to him through a short story of his that knocked me out and I wish I could remember the title.
DeleteI’m definitely intrigued after reading your review but I’m a little concerned that it could be very disturbing, as you warned. I think I have to be in the right mood to read this but I am intrigued. Great premise actually.
ReplyDeleteHi Jane, This isn't the book of his I would start with. But I am not familiar enough with his work to recommend anything yet. But I am intrigued by Cornell Woolrich so I will read another of his novels and let you know if he is a writer worth following.
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