Sudden Fear

SUDDEN FEAR

Myra Hudson is the last in the long line of the Hudsons, and her fame, wealth and power are legendary. She has written seven plays in the last fifteen years, all of them successful. Now she watches the rehearsal for her latest, “Immoral Courage,” and notices that one of the male leads, Lester Blaine, is too handsome for the part. So she has him removed. But there he is on opening night, charming his way past her defenses—and into her life.

Their subsequent marriage seems perfect. Lester is the ideal husband, devoted and attentive. Then one day while listening back to last night’s Dictaphone recordings Myra discovers a horrible secret. The machine had been activated when Lester and Irma Neves, Myra’s protégé, had entered the room later that night—and secretly made plans to kill her.

Edna Solomon Sherry was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on November 28, 1885. She graduated from Hunter College in 1906 and taught English there before becoming a professional writer. She began writing short stories for the pulp magazines, collaborating with Milton Gropper on two early novels. Sherry’s first crime novel―and best known work―was Sudden Fear, published in 1948. It was filmed in1952 with Joan Crawford, Jack Palance and Gloria Grahame, and is considered a film noir classic. Sherry married dentist Ernest Sherry in 1909, and remained so until his death. Sherry herself passed away on February 4, 1967, in New York City.