Charlotte Armstrong: 25 books

Nine stories of revenge, compassion, love, and loathing in a collection “to be cherished” from an Edgar Award–winning author (Dorothy B. Hughes). A child is unwittingly introduced to the very meaning of terror. A teenage girl eyes her mother’s lover with curiosity and caution. A nasty...

A disaster in a Michigan mining town throws a close-knit community into chaos in this novel from an Edgar Award–winning author. The small mining town of Thor is nestled in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, near the Wisconsin border. Its only source of income is the two ore mines—one to the...

Edgar Award Finalist: The explosive politics of the Middle East shatter a California family in this “wonderful thriller” (The New York Times). Among the Tylers of Santa Clara are a matriarch lauded as the first lady of American theater, a judicial appointee of the president, a noted fundraiser...

A New York City drama teacher risks her life to expose a potentially deadly public hoax in this “most uncommon thriller” (New York Herald Tribune)****. Olivia Hudson, a drama teacher at a Manhattan girl’s school, refuses to let her uncle John Paul Marcus play the role of dupe in a real-life...

Making amends for a tragic accident, a couple fears their good deed is about to be punished in this suspense novel from the “mistress of day-lit terror” (The New York Times). In a roadside Santa Clara motel, Esther Gardner wakes up to an intruder lurching toward her. No one blames her husband,...

A government secret about the end of the world will change what’s left of a man’s suburban life in this thriller by an Edgar Award–winning author. California businessman J. Middleton Little is on company assignment in Chicago when he’s caught eavesdropping on a top-secret confab between...

To catch a murderous theater impresario, a young woman takes a deadly new role in this mystery with “suspense enough to spare” (The New York Times). Why did Rosaleen Wright hang herself in a soundproof room? She left an unsigned note, peppered with stiff religious references and no trace...

A child is left in the care of a disturbed babysitter in “surely one of the finest pure terror-suspense stories ever written” (The New York Times). Bunny’s parents shouldn’t have brought her to New York City, but her father has an important speech to make, and her mother couldn’t...

In a villa on the California coast, a murderer stalks a young heiress Laila Breen is a strangely naïve girl. Her father Jonas is an adventurer, a robber baron who made his fortune traveling exotic climes. Laila speaks French and knows how to order fine food, but she cannot read a newspaper...

MacDougal Duff falls in with a strange family—and senses murder A sudden cloudburst forces MacDougal Duff to stop his car in front of the home of Mary Moriarty. The history professor turned detective is reclining in his seat, waiting out the torrential rainstorm, when Mary knocks on the car...

Investigating her mysterious birth leads a bright young artist into peril For a few hours after her birth, Amanda Garth had two fathers. One was John, the kind, forthright man who would raise her. The other was Tobias Garrison, a well-known California artist who, because of a mix-up in the...

In this “chilling” novel by an Edgar Award–winning author, a former mental patient seeks revenge against the powerful family that framed him (The New York Times). After years in a mental hospital, Harold Page has just been released. Now, he’s looking for closure, hoping to confront...

A professor becomes enchanted with a girl who carries a dangerous jinx History student Sarah Shepherd does not look like a killer. She is shy, but her writing so impresses Professor David Wakeley that he asks her to become his research assistant. Terrified, she begs him to stay away. For Sarah...

Edgar Award winner: A longtime bachelor finally marries—only to learn the corrosive power of jealousy For fifty-five years, Kenneth Gibson has lived in backwaters. A former army clerk, he makes a quiet living teaching poetry to indifferent undergrads. His life is happily dull until the day...