The So Blue Marble
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3.6 • 7 Ratings
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
A "delightful . . . nonstop action" thriller from the author of In a Lonely Place—"readers new to this forgotten classic are in for a treat" (Publishers Weekly).
At the age of twenty-four, Griselda Satterlee has already lived two lifetimes. A star of the silver screen, she gives up Hollywood after a year, and moves to New York to become a designer. While her ex-husband, Con, is out of town, she is staying in his apartment. Walking back one night, she meets two cheerful young men who want to go home with her—and won't take no for an answer.
David and Danny are twins, and they are the most beautiful men Griselda has ever seen. They are also the most dangerous. They want something from her: a lustrous blue marble, which they insist is in Con's apartment. Though they leave without hurting her, Griselda knows that next time, they won't be so amiable. To save herself, she must discover the secret of the marble—a secret with death at its core.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
First published in 1940, this delightful entry in Otto Penzler's new American Mystery Classics series was the debut of MWA Grand Master Hughes (1904 1993), best known today for In a Lonely Place, which became a film starring Humphrey Bogart. After a brief stint as an actress in Hollywood, Griselda Satterlee has returned to Manhattan to pursue a career as a fashion designer. One night, while returning to her ex-husband's East Side apartment, where she is staying, she is accosted by two frightening young men who demand that she give them the "blue marble." What follows is nonstop action, with menace and daring exploits bursting through the smooth veneer of upper-class life. Students of cultural history will enjoy stepping back into a New York where gentlemen wear top hats when going out on the town, and ladies, when hastily packing to escape from psychopaths, remember to include in their suitcases "hats with tissue paper crumpled in their hollows." That Hughes was a poet is clear from the jangling rhythm of her prose. Readers new to this forgotten classic are in for a treat.
