AN AFTERNOON TO KILL

by Shelley Smith ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 20, 1953

A Victorian nosegay- of nightshade- conceals a genteel hoax and returns to the youth of Blanche Rose, her unnatural love for her widowed father, her natural hatred of the young and elegant Sophia whom he was to marry. In order to escape her stepmother's household, Blanche Rose- plain and graceless- accepts the prearranged marriage to Oliver whom she discovers to be Sophia's lover- only after Sophia is pregnant (by Oliver) while she too is to bear his child. Sophia's murder reveals the ugly intimacies within the household to her father, a broken man, and it is Blanche who turns in the proof which is to hang her husband by the neck. For the Joseph Shearing audience, prim and petticoated and poisonous.

Pub Date: Jan. 20, 1953

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harper

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1953

Categories: FICTION