The Bride Wore Black

Raymond Chandler (The Big Sleep), James M. Cain (The Postman Always Rings Twice), and Cornell Woolrich were among the creators of the noir genre of crime fiction in the 1930s and 1940s. This uniquely American literary genre had its roots in the terse, violent, and often poorly written pulp fiction. More talented, innovative writers evolved a dark, modern mythology that exploited themes of crime, guilt, deception, obsession, and murder. I am familiar with other classics of noir genre, but The Bride Wore Black was my first introduction to Woolrich. The innocuous beginning, a young woman leaving home with no particular destination in mind, transitioned rapidly into an audacious, calculated, carefully planned murder without any apparent motive. Woolrich shifts the perspective back and forth from character to character, adeptly disguising the inner thoughts of the killer. Unlike the police who are uncertain whether the deaths are accidental or deliberate, we readers know it is murder, but not how the victims are chosen. I was unprepared for the ending. The Bride Wore Black has been often republished and you should not have difficulty finding a copy. Many novels and short stories by Cornell Woolrich have been adapted to the screen (the most notable was Rear Window), radio, and TV. I Married a Dead Man, Phantom Lady, and his `Black' series of suspense novels were among his best works.

Cornell Woolrich is one of those 1940s writers who pumped out loads of pulp fiction that have by now largely gone out of print. He was a very good storyteller but only an average writer - that is, his prose and characterizations are not particularly good. 'The Bride Wore Black' fits this rule completely. In 'The Bride Wore Black' we have essentially five different murder stories with one seemingly common element: the same murderess. In the end we understand a bit more about her motive and why these victims were chosen. Woolrich also delivers a delicious surprise ending. Don't expect any subplots or side romances. This is pure, simple reading enjoyment that doesn't tax the brain but keeps your eyes glued to the pages.Bottom line: certainly among Woolrich's better books. Highly recommended.

If anyone ever wanted to cite a story that would best illustrate the observation that revenge is a dish best served cold, then I think this one would fill the bill. As a story of revenge, it's a classic with the big mystery being, what on earth could have happened to prompt such violence.The person who is seeking revenge is Julie Killeen. She is a beautiful woman, but she's also a careful, cold-blooded killer. She is on an unstoppable mission of painstakingly tracking down, stalking and then murdering men before casually walking away, unconcerned about whether or not she leaves any witnesses. She gives little away as she carries out the murders, although she does feed us with snippets of information which merely serves to add to the mystery surrounding her actions and drives us on to find out more. None of her victims seem to recognise her, nor do they seem to have anything in common with one another, which also adds greater interest to the event that started her off.Attempting to track Julie down is Lew Wanger, the detective who, while not exactly hot on her trail, is the only one who believes the murders are related. It's through him that the pieces are put together forming a coherent chain of events helping us understand what went on in the past to cause the events of the present. This is a captivating story told in the typically brutal fashion of the hardboiled genre. The unexpected ending caps off this highly entertaining book very nicely indeed and I found myself well and truly put in my place, just as I was congratulating myself for having figured everything out.

you may not have heard of woolrich, but he travelled the same dark streets as noir's best.

She was a mystery dame if ever there was one. Julie Butler was what she called herself, or sometimes Josephine Bailey, or Mrs. Baker. But to the men she met her real name spelt D-e-a-t-h. The author introduces the heroine of this quintessential noir novel, looking out of her hotel window one night: "She seemed to lean toward the city visible outside, like something imminent, about to happen to it." Although Woolrich was one of the founders of the noir genre, his name is not so famous as that of Chandler or Hammett. This is to be the first reprint in a laudable series, repositioning Woolrich as "America's Master of Suspense", with "Phantom Lady" coming out in august. The cover is magnificent, even better than it looks on this page. The only thing the editors have forgotten is to put in the original year of publication, but then again, this femme fatale in black ("Where have I seen her before", one of the characters wonders, "those ice-cold eyes, that kissable mouth?") is of course timeless.