Garden City, NY: A Crime Club Selection / Doubleday, 1952. dj. Hardcover first edition - Vintage crime novel set in Southern California. "A Cinderella slopement turns into ashes when widowed Connie, to protect her son's future, marries wealthy, dipsomaniac Merrill -- and discovers the dead body of the caretaker of the Malibu beach house after her lonely wedding night. Merrill is suspect, threatened by his brother; Connie hires a private detective to learn the truth of her first husband's death; the roadside dinner where she had worked yields another victim before Merrill's death, from a heart attack, starts the puzzle unravelling. An innocent heroine who learns courage turns a rather distasteful story into a forceful one." (Kirkus Reviews) 190 pp.