Stairway to an Empty Room / Terror Lurks in Darkness - Softcover

Hitchens, Dolores

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1944520791 ISBN 13: 9781944520793

Publisher: Stark House Press, 2019

Synopsis

STAIRWAY TO AN EMPTY ROOMMonica Marshall’s sister Biddy has been murdered by her husband. Biddy has a daughter, Winifred, and with the husband on death row, Monica agrees to take charge of her. Winifred is anxious to leave the house where she has been living with Biddy. The house and the woman who runs it seem so unpleasant to Monica. But nothing prepares her for Stevens. He is managing a mountain retreat where Monica takes her new charge for a getaway--she hates him immediately. Strangely enough, Winifred recognizes the couple in another cabin. Soon Monica realizes that there is something very strange going on here. Her brakes fail ... later she almost drowns in the lake. And Stevens is becoming very protective of young Winifred. What do all these people have to do with Biddy’s death, and what is really going on here?... TERROR LURKS IN DARKNESSKitty has the fright of her life one night when she takes what she is told is a short cut and ends up on a dead end street in the rain. And to make matters worse, there is a savage dog outside her car, causing her to wreck the front end trying to avoid it. Fortunately, the owner of the dog appears and calms the dog, then drives her home. But imagine Kitty’s shock when she finds out that Sunny, the woman who told her about the short cut, is found dead later that night on the same road, her throat savaged. Of course, everyone hated Sunny, but that doesn’t explain her strange death. And now Kitty’s roommate, Ardis, has gone missing ... and two of her friends are asking her to lie about what she knows. No wonder inspector Doyle doesn’t believe her story—she has no idea what to believe herself!

About this title

About the Author

Julia Clara Catherine Maria Dolores Robins Norton Birk Olsen Hitchens, better known to mystery fans as Dolores Hitchens, was born December 25, 1907 in San Antonio, Texas. She married Beverley S. Olsen, a radio operator on a merchant vessel, around 1934. Beginning in 1938, Dolores wrote a series of mysteries as D. B. Olsen. After a second marriage in the early 1940s to Hubert Bert Hitchens who was a railway detective they collaborated on a series of five railroad mysteries from 1957 to 1964. Dolores also wrote an excellent group of standalone mysteries, including Fool s Gold which was filmed by Jean-Luc Godard as Band of Outsiders in 1964, as well as the critically applauded Sleep With Strangers and Sleep With Slander. She passed away on August 1, 1973 in Orange County, California.

Review

Hitchens had a good ear and a dead-on eye for the various charades played by the human animals. --Ed Gorman, Deadly Women

"Long Beach writer Dolores Hitchens weaves a smooth, skein of events from there that demonstrates once again she's an old and able hand at writing mysteries." --Independent Press-Telegram

Unpredictable and unnerving, this stunning excursion into terror, enlivened by forbidding landscapes and killer hounds, never runs out of steam or takes a wrong turn. --Nicholas Litchfield, from his introduction

Edition details

• Publisher: Stark House Press
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 1944520791
• ISBN 13: 9781944520793
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 278