I Married a Dead Man (The Best Mysteries of All Time)

Cornell Woolrich, along with Raymond Chandler and James M. Cain, was a key innovator in the development of the noir genre of crime fiction in the 1930s and 1940s. I Married a Dead Man is considered a classic of this uniquely American genre. I am fairly new to Cornell Woolrich as I have only previously read one of his novels, the suspenseful The Bride Wore Black. Woolrich wrote a large number of suspense novels, apparently of uneven quality. His best stories are very good and include The Phantom Lady, I Married A Dead Man, and his 'Black' series (so-named from their titles). The plot for I Married a Dead Man twists and turns in an unpredictable manner. The layered, complex ending is quite good. I was completely unfamiliar with the plot and was continually surprised. If you are new to this book, avoid reading the summary on the dust jacket or elsewhere. Ignorance may not be bliss, but too much knowledge may spoil some of the surprise. But it won't hurt to think about the seemingly incongruous title. In my limited experience Cornell Woolrich selects his titles carefully. In retrospect, a simple title may suddenly have multiple meanings. I Married a Dead Man may be best compared to an Alfred Hitchcock movie. And, as matter of interest, Woolrich was the author of Rear Window. (Amazon customer)