Friday, May 02, 2008

Happy birthday, Charlotte Armstrong.

Suspense master Charlotte Armstrong was born today in Michigan in 1905. An Edgar winner for Best Novel for A Dram of Poison (1956)---a particular favorite of Anthony Boucher---Armstrong wrote a number of fine novels, including the Macdougal Duff series (Lay on, MacDuff!, 1942; The Case of the Weird Sisters, 1943; The Innocent Flower, 1945), The Chocolate Cobweb (1948), The Balloon Man (1968), and The Unsuspected (1946; an entry on the Haycraft-Queen Cornerstone list). She died in 1969.

Author Jan Burke, in an appreciation for Clues, dubbed Armstrong's work "suburban noir."

Photo: Charlotte Armstrong, courtesy of Jerry Lewi, Charlotte Armstrong Lewi Family Trust

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