Sunday, August 6, 2023

Helen McCloy - The Long Body



Unusual crime novel featuring investigator Dr Basil Willing, about a woman who suspects her husband's death from falling over a cliff was not an accident as she uncovers empty envelope with a foreign woman's name on it. After some investigation she finds old man suffering from stroke and is unable to tell her anything about it, before long she is struck by an automobile and is sent to hospital. Under heavy drugs she contemplates about killing that woman, and as she often suffers from sleepwalking, decides to murder that mexican woman. But she realizes that all the time she was in a hospital some other person killed the woman. After meeting with Dr Basil Willing, psychiatrist and some investigation she finds out that her husband and his friend while they were in the army fighting against mexicans, encountered mexican whore. They wanted to play with her but suddenly her husband came with a gun and mexican whore shot him with american friend's pistol. During military investigation mexican woman didn't want to accuse both of them, but instead asked them to take away their then 4 year old daughter to America where she eventually found work caring after sick person who was suffering from stroke. They found out that she was blackmailing her husband and after some argue she pushed him over the cliff, and then turned to his friend from army and began blackmailing her too, who eventually had to kill her, convincing poor woman that she was only sleepwalking. Novel itself is somewhat influenced by the works of Ouspensky.

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