“The Stranger in the Car” is the fourth story that I have selected from Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives for Short Story Wednesday. The anthology was edited by Sarah Weinman and its subtitle is "Stories from the Trailblazers of Domestic Suspense."
This story focuses on Carrol Charleroy, husband of Susan, father of two boys and two girls, now all grown up. The youngest daughter, Julia, is the only child living at home. Susan is in the hospital with the flu, Julia is out dancing with friends, and Charleroy is feeling lonely. Miss Ewing, a music teacher who sometimes comes to stay and take care of the household, is staying with them while Helen is in the hospital, but she has gone off to bed. When Julia comes home in the middle of the night, she has trouble getting upstairs to her room and this awakens her father. He can see that she has been injured; the next morning she has a black eye. She says she remembers leaving with a man but little of what happened after that. The man brought her home in a taxi. After more discussion, Miss Ewing suggests that she and Julia go to the Charleroy's home in the country, Meadowsweet, and Helen won't have to be bothered with what is going on.
More mishaps happen and Charleroy ends up at Meadowsweet with a dead body. He is trying to get everything under control, but in truth it is the women of the family who are able to handle the situation and straighten it out.
The story is longer than most stories in the book, at 69 pages.
In the introduction to this story, Sarah Weinman says...
The famously prickly Raymond Chandler said of ELISABETH SANXAY HOLDING:
"For my money she's the top suspense writer of them all. She doesn't pour it on and make you feel irritated. Her characters are wonderful; and she has a sort of inner calm which I find very attractive."
I was intrigued by this story and I want to read some of Elisabeth Sanxay Holding's suspense novels.
Here are some links for the author:
- The Godmother of Noir: Elisabeth Sanxay Holding at Criminal Element
- Two reviews of The Blank Wall at the crime segments and Reactions to Reading
- Net of Cobwebs at crossexaminingcrime
- Death Wish at Pretty Sinister Books
- The Obstinate Murderer at The Passing Tramp
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