Really loved this noir. I had never heard of Cornell Woolrich before I picked this book up at a used book store for fifty cents. Best money I've spent this month. The ending is a little neat and simultaneously convoluted, but that's the genre I think. The writing is so sharp and the characters (except for one dated stereotype) are great. An endlessly readable knockout.

A bit formulaic.

Spoiler

(is it just me, or did anyone else think that the opening narration was from the POV of the Hazzard adults lol? I spent 50% of the book just thinking that was the case, then the next 20% thinking it'd be a twist, and the last 30% resigning myself to the fact that this was not the case)

I Married a Dead Man is a tight, well-written, and only occasionally clumsy psychological thriller. At its best, it is highly effective and oppressive, with just an absolutely claustrophobic sense of inescapable dread for our main character. At its worst, it's very on-the-nose with too-short chapters and an unwillingness to capitalize on that claustrophobic sense from earlier, with conflict falling away as soon as it's convenient for it to do so.

3/5 stars

I really enjoyed this. this was written in 1948 so of course there are a few things that are little outdated, but what a fun and beautiful story.. I was bored last month and saw that they had a movie from 1992 called ''Mrs. Winterbourne.'' and I thought it was adorable.. I have read the book now and watched the 1950 movie as well.

Melodradramatic as hell, but I could hardly put it down.

One of the more pointless reissues of old noir fiction (as part of LoA's American Noir of the 40's). As so often in this genre, the execution doesn't live up to the promise of the idea. The interesting premiss (a pregnant girl impersonating the recent wife of rich family's son who died in a train crash, together with his actual wife) is marred by fluffy, old maidenish prose and cringe-inducing melodramatic dialogue. It reads like a 40s film without any of the big stars to redeem its datedness.