Stranger At Home - Leigh Brackett

Stranger at Home, (1946, George Sanders, Simon & Schuster, 228pp, hc)

60000 words.

A man comes back home to his wealth and his wife and a big old hound or two after a few years of hard labor. A result of amnesia after an assault on a fishing trip with some friends.

His return starts a cycle of violence and murder among the group of friends on his original trip'

“Aha!” said the M.E. “Enter the femme fatale.”

...

'By this time the reporters had arrived. Somehow the rumor had got around that Vickers had turned up silently out of the night, and that, coupled with the honey-sweet smell of murder, had brought them swarming.'

...

Vickers said, “You wanted my wife.”

“Yes.”

“You tried to kill me.”

“Yes.”

“Twice.”

“Yes.”

Vick himself an the police have to try and work out the twists in this case before he or anyone else gets hurt, if they can.

A little California noir.


4 out of 5