THE HOURS BEFORE DAWN

by Celia Fremlin ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 22, 1959

Louise Henderson has two little girls, a seven months' baby who cries all night, and a husband, Mark, who complains- as do the neighbors in their middle class (London, or thereabouts) flat. When Miss Brandon, a schoolteacher with an authoritative air of competence, applies for the room they now have to let, Louise has an uneasy sense of precognition about her. Already dispirited and sagging with exhaustion, Louise's fatigue gives way to real fears; over and above the broken nights with little Michael, there are the bad dreams; the feeling that Vera Brandon is spying on them; the alarming corroboration that she has taken the room with some deliberate design; and her own increasingly irrational behavior as for the second time Michael is mislaid. Unsure of herself, unconvincing to Mark, she finally secures the proof she needs but is almost the victim of the violence she fears..... The feminine gender of the suspense genre, the domestic frame- the distraught confusion and clutter of small children- is exceptionally well handled and authenticates the aberrational episodes here. For a double market, and, for the reader, a pleasurably wakeful experience.

Pub Date: April 22, 1959

ISBN: 089733101X

Page Count: -

Publisher: Lippincott

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1959

Categories: FICTION