In the two decades between 1940 and 1960 Cornell Woolrich published 16 crime or weird novels, with the quality great tapering off, by common consensus, in the second decade. These are:
The Bride Wore Black 1940
The Black Curtain 1941
Black Alibi 1942
Phantom Lady 1942 as William Irish
The Black Angel 1943
The Black Path of Fear 1944
Deadline at Dawn 1944 as William Irish
Night Has a Thousand Eyes 1945 as George Hopley
Waltz into Darkness 1947 as William Irish
I Married a Dead Man 1948 as William Irish
Savage Bride 1950
Fright 1950 as George Hopley
Strangler's Serenade 1951
Death Is My Dancing Partner 1959
The Doom Stone 1960 (episodic novel)
I need to reread it, but I think the fantastical, fatalistic Night Has a Thousand Eyes runs it close. For tensity I've always loved the "vanished woman" case Phantom Lady and the serial killer novel Black Alibi, which is, I think, the scariest novel he ever wrote. I think I'll round my personal list out with Deadline at Dawn, though Waltz into Darkness is quite interesting. I'm one of those people whom the ending of I Married a Dead Man really bugged the hell out of!
Let me know yours, I'd like to collect some data on this.
I'll place a vote for Deadline at Dawn. It has the trademark desperation but also offers hope.
ReplyDeleteI know it's so nice to get a ray of hope.
DeleteWhether it's my favorite or not (it might be?), I'll nevertheless always have a special place in my heart for I Married a Dead Man, as it was the first Woolrich novel I read. Regarding the ending, well, I wrote a whole blog post essentially about my interpretation/analysis of it, so I think it's safe to say I've come around on that part of the story, lol.
ReplyDeleteThere's an inner rationalist in me that has trouble with some of Cornell's more surrealist works. I got my start in highly rationalistic English detective fiction. As part of this bio I have to read it again. It and Rendezvous. Also some of the Mexico works. It's great you've taken the time to look in depth even at works like Black Cargo. Like you I'd like to read Holocaust.
DeleteThe ending of Dead Man no longer strikes me as surreal, so much as meta (it's all in the blog post, so I won't rehash myself, heh). But then, I don't have that background in realistic detective fiction, so maybe that helps.
DeleteIt's been a while since I tried to hunt down a copy of "Holocaust"--might be worth giving it another go, at this point!
I'll check it out. Yeah, I'm interested in much of the stuff that Nevins pronounced trash, naturally enough. He hated when Cornell wrote anything but noir.
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