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| Deadly Climate - Ursula Curtiss |
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| The House on Plymouth Street - Urusla Curtiss |
I’m a huge fan of vintage mystery books! So a few months ago, a friend who had just returned from shopping at a local flea market loaned me a book he had purchased entitled The Deadly Climate. The book had a wonderful dust jacket with a graphic style reminiscent of covers on pulp fiction magazines. It proved to be a fine introduction to the work of Ursula Curtiss. Her type of crime writing falls in the category called domestic malice. Some loosely define this genre as mysteries that contain no explicit sex, or violence.
In The Deadly Climate the main
character Caroline Emmett takes a trip to a small New England town to
escape from a romantic disappointment and to recuperate from a bout
of pneumonia. Here she is a witness to murder, while taking a walk on
a lonely country road at dusk. All the action takes place in the course
of a single night; Caroline pursued by the murder, seeks refuge in
the first house she finds. Her character is smart and resourceful, not a victim. She manages to survive several attempts on her life and
get through the long night. The book has plenty of suspense and great
1950’s small town atmosphere.
I liked it enough to seek out other mysteries by Ursula Curtiss and ordered a copy of The House on
Plymouth Street. The title story grabbed my attention right away with well-drawn characters and creepy atmosphere. This book is a collection of short stories with a
wonderful introduction written by the authors' sister, mystery
writer Mary McMullen.
In the introduction her sister Mary writes about their childhood in Westport, CT and presents an affectionate and humorous portrait of Ursula’s life as writer, mother of 5, and wife. She and Ursula came from a long line of writers; their mother Helen Reilly wrote over 40 mysteries and 3 of her uncles were staff writers employed by The New York Times.
Ursula Curtiss did not start writing books until after her marriage, but less than a year later her 1st book ''Voice out of Darkness'' won the Red Badge Award for the best new mystery of 1948.
In her lifetime she had 29 books published and two of her novels become the basis for American motion pictures (What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice? and I Saw What You Did). Sadly, Ursula Curtiss passed away at the age of 61 in 1984. Still, to quote her sister "no one who has written down valuable and enjoyable words ever really say good-bye, to anyone".
In the introduction her sister Mary writes about their childhood in Westport, CT and presents an affectionate and humorous portrait of Ursula’s life as writer, mother of 5, and wife. She and Ursula came from a long line of writers; their mother Helen Reilly wrote over 40 mysteries and 3 of her uncles were staff writers employed by The New York Times.
Ursula Curtiss did not start writing books until after her marriage, but less than a year later her 1st book ''Voice out of Darkness'' won the Red Badge Award for the best new mystery of 1948.
In her lifetime she had 29 books published and two of her novels become the basis for American motion pictures (What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice? and I Saw What You Did). Sadly, Ursula Curtiss passed away at the age of 61 in 1984. Still, to quote her sister "no one who has written down valuable and enjoyable words ever really say good-bye, to anyone".
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