The Jealous One

Synopsis

A classic psychological thriller from author of Waterstones Thriller of the Month, Uncle Paul: ‘Britain’s Patricia Highsmith’ and the ‘grandmother of psycho-domestic noir’ (Sunday Times)

Lindy had a lovely voice. It rose into the summer darkness clear and true as a nightingale; or was it, rather, like a bird of prey?

Rosamund wakes up from her mid-morning nap to find, to her delight, that she is running a temperature. Surely that explains her blinding headache, and the weird, delirious dream in which she had murdered her overly seductive neighbour – the Other Woman – in a vengeful act of jealousy? A great relief, then, to find this was merely the nightmarish work of a fevered imagination. Until her husband exclaims, ‘Rosamund! Have you any idea what’s happened to Lindy? She’s disappeared!…’

Author

Celia Fremlin (1914–2009) was born in Kent and spent her childhood in Hertfordshire, before studying at Oxford (whilst working as a charwoman). During World War Two, she served as an air-raid warden before becoming involved with the Mass Observation Project, collaborating on a study of women workers, War Factory. In 1942 she married Elia Goller, moved to Hampstead and had three children. In 1968, their youngest daughter committed suicide aged 19; a month later, her husband also killed himself. In the wake of these tragedies, Fremlin briefly relocated to Geneva. In 1985, she married Leslie Minchin, with whom she lived until his death in 1999. Over four decades, Fremlin wrote sixteen celebrated novels – including the classic summer holiday mystery Uncle Paul (1959) – one book of poetry and three story collections. Her debut The Hours Before Dawn won the Edgar Award in 1960.