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STARS IN THE WATER by John Appleby

STARS IN THE WATER

By

Pub Date: Jan. 21st, 1952
Publisher: Coward-McCann

Alan Seton, engineer, on leave from roadbuilding in Africa, senses that his wife, Linda, enmeshed in her London job with Woodruff, a theatrical producer, has changed towards him after his two years absence. His security is further undermined when he decides she has a lover and when he loses his job. Bickering over money, over a holiday, his suspicions growing stronger, he succumbs to murdering the man he believes has cuckolded him and knows an upsurge of confidence. This is taken from him when Woodruff proves he has witnessed Seton's crime and Seton is forced to kill again. The final knowledge that it was Woodruff who had replaced him shows there is no escape- only the necessity to give himself up. An unpretentious development of the idea of murder as an everyday world crashes and personal weaknesses take over.