The Albatross

Charlotte Armstrong

Feb 2017 · Open Road Media

About this ebook

Making amends for a tragic accident, a couple fears their good deed is about to be punished in this suspense novel from the “mistress of day-lit terror” (The New York Times).
 
In a roadside Santa Clara motel, Esther Gardner wakes up to an intruder lurching toward her. No one blames her husband, Tom, for taking him down with a single blow to the head—least of all the stranger himself, an embarrassed real estate broker from Arcadia, who had drunkenly stumbled into the wrong room.
 
Three days later, the poor man dies of a neglected head injury, leaving his wife, Audrey, and her invalid sister penniless, desperate, and in need of a new home. Overcome with guilt, Tom and Esther invite the women to stay with them. But as the temporary stay stretches into months, Esther can’t shake the disquieting suspicion that their grieving, freeloading guests are up to something.
 
The sisters’ whispers are starting to sound conspiratorial. Their stories aren’t adding up. And their smiles are beginning to curl with menace. If it’s all in Esther’s over-burdened imagination, that would be understandable. If it isn’t, that could be terrifying.
 
With eight novels and nearly two dozen short stories adapted for film and television, The Albatross demonstrates once again why Edgar Award–winning Charlotte Armstrong is considered “the American queen of suspense novelists” (New York Telegraph).
 

Ratings and reviews

Tom and Esther are staying in a motel the night before they return home. Esther naps while Tom runs back out to get something out of their car. Esther awakes to see a strange man in her room. Tom walks in and immediately takes down the stranger with a blow to the head. The stranger turns out to be drunk and somehow wandered into the wrong room. Exchanging business cards and apologies, all is forgiven. Several days later, Esther is reading the paper and see where the poor man has dropped dead of an apparent head injury. Left behind is his wife, Audrey, and her disabled sister, Joan. Overcome with guilt, Tom and Esther decide to visit them and seeing how poorly off they are immediately ask them to move in with them until they can find a better place to live. The temporary stay becomes permanent as Audrey never seems to be able to find anything suitable. Esther is relegated to cook and maid, while it is Esther who greets Tom after his day of work, discusses the day with Tom. And Joan is just a hateful spiteful house guest. Esther is becoming more suspicious of them as each day goes by. There are whispers ... seemingly small accidents ... and Audrey seems to have designs on Tom. All in Esther's mind ... jealousy, perhaps? Tom can't see anything beyond his guilt over killing Audrey's husband. But should he be feeling guilty? Esther is seeking the truth ... but will it cost her or Tom their lives? Excellent suspenseful mystery! It's a short, easy read (100 pages) packed with multi-layered characters. Many thanks to Open Road Integrated Media / Netgalley for the digital copy of this engaging book. Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

About the author

Edgar Award–winning Charlotte Armstrong (1905–1969) was one of the finest American authors of classic mystery and suspense. The daughter of an inventor, Armstrong was born in Vulcan, Michigan, and attended Barnard College, in New York City. After college she worked at the New York Times and the magazine Breath of the Avenue, before marrying and turning to literature in 1928. For a decade she wrote plays and poetry, with work produced on Broadway and published in the New Yorker. In the early 1940s, she began writing suspense.
 
Success came quickly. Her first novel, Lay On, MacDuff! (1942) was well received, spawning a three-book series. Over the next two decades, she wrote more than two dozen novels, winning critical acclaim and a dedicated fan base. The Unsuspected (1945) and Mischief (1950) were both made into films, and A Dram of Poison (1956) won the Edgar Award for best novel. She died in California in 1969.