THE ROOM UPSTAIRS
There were three sisters ... But wherever there was brilliance and
excitement, there one would find Kitten, the youngest and most
beautiful of the Corwith girls. Then came the accident ...
Now Kitten remains in a locked room on the top floor of the
Corwith mansion. And through the rest of the house there is a silence
so tense that it screams.
The Room Upstairs. New York, Simon and Shuster, 1948.
Awarded an Edgar for Best First Mystery Novel of the year
by the Mystery Writers of America.
THEY BURIED A MAN
"They buried a man a year ago. A man
we knew and loved for nearly fifty years. A man who would mend your
fences or give you free medicine or hop out of bed in the middle of
the night to take you to a hospital. They buried a man but they
couldn't bury all the threads with which he was tied to the people
he left behind." So writes the reporter who begins to follow the
threads. And he finds they include not only community activities,
welfare work, charitable contributions, election to mayor, but also
... murder.
They Buried a Man. New York, Simon and Shuster, 1953.
SUICIDE HOUR
"I knew the hands of the clock would be in a familiar position.
I always awakened at the same time. When the longer hand pointed
straight up and the smaller one at an angle, down. Four o'clock.
The suicide hour!" Memory wrestles with suffocating terror as a
troubled young woman tries to uncover and face the reality of what
her father has done.
Suicide Hour. Novella in Cosmopolitan (New York),
January 1954.
THE DARK PLACE
A careless nurse forgets to lock the door and Laura escapes.
"They won't let you stay here; remember what you did", pleads her
brother. But Laura has a plan. Her brother will buy her a little
house where they won't find her. Laura's brother loves her, and
has always given in to her. And anyway, she isn't really dangerous!
And there will be a nurse -- nothing can possibly happen! And so the
small community gets new neighbours, the kind and obliging Beverly
Urey, a practical nurse, and the reclusive Augusta King. Life goes
on at an orderly pace, with no hint of the terror lurking across the
street. Until the night of the storm ...
The Dark Place. New York, Simon and Shuster, 1955.
THE VOICE ON THE TELEPHONE
He makes his first phone call the day after the tragic plane crash -
- a man with a drooling moron's voice, accusing, threatening,
demanding. Forty-one people died in the crash, but he calls
relatives of only three victims -- and he knows every hidden secret
of their private lives ...
The Voice on the Telephone. New York, Random House, 1964.
THE SOUND OF INSECTS
Trapping the unwary, preying on the weak -- life in the insect world,
and biology teacher Stacy Hubert knows it well, But she never knew how
much it could resemble her own. Suddenly, a suicide and a murder
trigger an explosion of emotions in the quiet suburb of Highlands. And
almost overnight, the residents of the town become
self-protective and ruthless. With a mounting sense of horror and
danger, Stacy faces an ominous fact: she and her family have become
the the objects of pointed fingers, whispered accusations, and
finally ... deadly threats.
The Sound of Insects. New York, Doubleday, 1966.
London, Hodder and Stoughton, 1967.
STRANGE CORNER
Is it paranoia or is she really being followed by a strange figure
in ragged pants? Rosemary Leech is too sophisticated to believe
in the tales of witchcraft and reincarnation that are part
of life in Hawaii. Yet somebody -- or something -- is
stalking her, watching her every move. And there are other
chilling events: the mysterious disappearance of her father,
the odd letters from the man named Harry, the horrible dreams that
wake her screaming in the night ... But why? Is she going insane,
or is she the victim of a carefully plotted plan of revenge?
Strange Corner. New York, Doubleday, 1967.
London, Hodder and Stoughton, 1968.
WALK INTO YESTERDAY
She is in some kind of institution -- she can't remember her
own face -- there are strange scars on her arms and legs. The
doctor has told her she's been in a serious accident. She has many
memories, but no way to distinguish reality from fantastic dreams.
Then a stranger appears, and advises her that, for her own safety,
some things are better left forgotten!
Walk Into Yesterday. New York, Doubleday, 1967.
London, Hale, 1969 (published as Nightmare of Murder).
THE THIRD HALF
Three strangers vanish from distant parts of the world. Three
unrelated mysteries, three incomprehensible occurrences spark an
electric shock of terror: in the physicist who wonders whether he will
see his wife again ... in the frantic wife of the missing
engineer, who struggles with a nameless menace that closes in on her
and her children ... in the alarmed residents of Dunboyne Castle,
threatened by a series of bizarre happenings ... until there gradually
unfolds a brilliant master plot of stunning evil, wherein all the parts
are equal to the whole!
The Third Half. New York, Doubleday, 1969.
London, Hale, 1970.
THREE MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT
Yesterday she was a lovely, unspoiled girl of twenty-one, with a
future as unclouded as her past. That was before she sees her
mother killed and her father mentally destroyed in a weird,
inexplicable accident. That was before she has to become guardian
to her three younger sisters. Before she begins to receive looks of
pity from the neighbours, and unwelcome attentions from a brutal
yet fascinating young man. That was before she realizes that
someone in this cheerful, comfortable community wants her and her
sisters dead.
Three Minutes to Midnight. New York, Random House, 1971.
London, Hale, 1973.
THE INVISIBLE BOARDER
When Norma returned to the village, she came for one purpose: to
unmask and bring to justice the kidnapper and killer of her small
son four years before. Now she is a boarder in a house that was
once hers. Now she is a hunter among the friendly, pleasant people
who had been her neighbours. Now she is a woman torn between a
growing love for a man who is making her forget the horror of the
past -- and a savagely mounting danger that is forcing her to
remember.
The Invisible Boarder. New York, Random House, 1974.
London, Hale, 1975.
TELL THEM WHAT'S-HER-NAME CALLED
When her mother plunges off a cliff, Finley doesn't suspect murder,
nor does anyone else. Then there is a hit-and-run -- an unfortunate
accident? When a third victim is poisoned, Finley is sure a murderer
is at work in the peaceful college town. Each victim has received
the same message: "Tell them what's-her-name called." Whose was the
muffled voice on the telephone? Who put the letter in Finley's
bag? The terror and suspense mount steadily as Finley searches to
find the killer's identity before she herself becomes the next
victim.
Tell Them What's-Her-Name Called. New York, Random House,
1975.
London, Hale, 1976.
SCORPION
Holly had been warned by her mother never to return to the islands.
But after her mother's death, she went back for a reunion with her
grandparents. Now strange intrusive sensations have overtaken her.
Threats, unexplained accidents, vanishing homeowners, natives in
ritualistic worship of witches cast ominous shadows over the
defenceless island dwellers. Why is she so suddenly isolated in
the stillness of the island? Will the sacrificial rite of
Beltane bring her freedom ... or death?
Scorpion. New York, Random House, 1977.
London, Hale, 1978.
THE AVENGING OF NEVAH WRIGHT ("Murder in Maine" Series)
On a warm summer evening, on an island off the coast of Maine, five
teenagers jump off a dock to go scuba diving. Four come out alive.
In the guilt-ridden years that follow, each one of the survivors pays
for the thoughtless moment ...
The Avenging of Nevah Wright. Greenwich NY, HARK Publishing, 2006.
THE FLY MAN MURDERS ("Murder in Maine" Series)
The story begins with the residents of a Maine community searching an ocean-side
campground for a missing mother and her small son. A tale of unimaginable horror
is told by three people: Faith, a homeless vagrant with no memory of her past;
Dilly, a three-year-old who wakes up one day completely abandoned; and Skip,
an enigma.
The Fly Man Murders. Greenwich NY, HARK Publishing, 2007.
THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT ("Murder in Maine" Series) (Sequel to The Avenging of Nevah Wright). On a lovely summer
afternoon Lisa Walden's birthday party ends in tragedy after 7-year-old Zeke
Freilich finds a gun in his father's boathouse. Twenty years later, that same
father is invited to a holiday party along with his worst enemies. Will
anyone be able prevent a second tragedy ....?
The Butterfly Effect. Greenwich NY, HARK Publishing, 2008.
