The Unsuspected (An American Mystery Classic) - Hardcover

Armstrong, Charlotte

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1613161220 ISBN 13: 9781613161227

Publisher: American Mystery Classics, 2019

Synopsis

To catch a murderous theater impresario, a young woman takes a deadly new role

The note discovered beside Rosaleen Wright’s hanged body is full of reasons justifying her suicide―but it lacks her trademark vitality and wit, and, most importantly, her signature. So the note alone is far from enough to convince her best friend Jane that Rosaleen was her own murderer, even if the police quickly accept the possibility as fact. Instead, Jane suspects Rosaleen’s boss, New York theater impresario Luther Grandison. To the world at large, he’s powerful and charismatic, but Rosaleen’s letters to Jane described a duplicitous, greedy man who would no doubt kill to protect his secrets. If Rosaleen stumbled upon one such secret, it could have led to an untimely demise―and Jane risks a similar end when she takes a job with Grandison’s company, tangling with one of Broadway’s deadliest actors in a desperate play for the truth.

A playwright before she turned to crime fiction, Charlotte Armstrong drew from her experience in the theater for her fourth novel, The Unsuspected. The book inspired the 1947 film of the same name.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

The note discovered beside Rosaleen Wright’s hanged body is full of reasons justifying her suicide―but it lacks her trademark vitality and wit, and, most importantly, her signature. So the note alone is far from enough to convince her best friend Jane that Rosaleen took her own life. Instead, Jane suspects Rosaleen’s boss, Luther Grandison, a man famous for his work for stage and screen. To the world at large, he’s powerful and charismatic, but Rosaleen’s letters to Jane described a duplicitous, greedy man who would no doubt kill to protect his secrets. Intent to uncover evidence against him, Jane takes a job as Grandison’s secretary; her friend Francis soon joins her in the endeavor, gaslighting, manipulating, and impersonating his way into Grandison’s inner circle. But as the duo draw closer to the truth, they come nearer still to their own grisly ends, tangling with a man whose disregard for human life is matched only by his skillful ability to continually avoid suspicion.

About the Author:

Charlotte Armstrong (1905-1969) was an Edgar Award-winning American author of mystery short stories and novels. Born and raised in the mining region of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, she moved to New York and received a B.A. degree from Barnard in 1925. She had two plays produced on Broadway but neither was successful, so she turned to writing mystery fiction, beginning with Lay On, MacDuff (1942), the first of three detective novels featuring Professor MacDougal Duff. Several of her novels were adapted for film, including The Unsuspected, The Chocolate Cobweb, and Mischief.

Otto Penzler, the creator of American Mystery Classics, is also the founder of the Mysterious Press (1975), a literary crime imprint now associated with Grove/Atlantic; Mysterious Press.com (2011), an electronic-book publishing company; and New York City’s Mysterious Bookshop (1979). He has won a Raven, the Ellery Queen Award, two Edgars (for the Encyclopedia of Mystery and Detection, 1977, and The Lineup, 2010), and lifetime achievement awards from Noircon and The Strand Magazine. He has edited more than 70 anthologies and written extensively about mystery fiction.

About this edition

• Publisher: American Mystery Classics
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 1613161220
• ISBN 13: 9781613161227
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 240