Although “The Drugstore Cowboy” (published in 1927 and unrelateld to the movie of the same name) has some crime elements, including a stolen car and a high-speed police chase, it is primarily a Jazz Age tale. Filmed, it would have made a terrific screwball comedy in the right director’s hands—imagine young actors Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn in the starring roles as you read. If you are a fan of Woolrich's mysteries, this is a worthy addition to his oeuvre, showcases elements he would ...

What if you woke up to discover everyone thought you were somebody else?Pregnant and abandoned, all Helen Georgesson has is five dollars and a one-way ticket to San Francisco. Then she is involved in a train crash, and regains consciousness only to discover that she has given birth – and, in a bizarre twist of fate, has been mistaken for somebody else. Helen decides to claim this opportunity to make a new life for herself and her son. But eventually her past will c...

He stepped out of the warm sunlight into a dark, empty room; he groped in terror, and his hands met only the constricting black void. And no one would believe what he said—about the little girl who wasn't there

A dark tale of the destructive power of love and obsession from 'The supreme master of suspense' NEW YORK TIMES'The father of the modern suspense story' LA TIMESWhen Louis Durand first meets his bride-to-be after a months-long courtship by mail, he's shocked that she doesn't match the photographs sent with her correspondence. But Durand has not exactly been truthful, either, concealing the details of his wealth. Mostly, he feels fortunate s...

“Bricky”, a hardened ten-cents-a-dance-girl who is disillusioned with life in New York City but is too scared to admit failure and return to her small-town home in Iowa. One night she meets Quinn, a troubled young patron who Bricky lets walk her home. They discover that they both come from the same town and the two quickly bond. He then admits he also secretly longs to return, but can’t until his conscience is clear from some money he stole from the safe of a former client. They make a pac...

A man is first accused, and then convicted, of murdering his wife. As his execution date approaches, his friends and a sympathetic detective frantically search for his alibi, a woman with whom he’d gone to a Broadway show the night of the murder. None of the people who saw them together recall the woman.

Inspector Lively walked slowly and talked slowly—but he thought fast, and that's what pays dividends on a fiend's murder-trail! Originally published in Detective Fiction Weekly (1936).

Explosive and devious is the course of Latin-American politics—but not without fascination. Today's lesson includes a general with a failing for wristwatches; another general who added one and one to get approximately five; a non-com who preferred Marx to local history; and a girl who should have been labeled TNT!

In Woolrich's iconic tale, Detective Tom Shawn saves a lovely young woman from a suicide attempt one night and later hears her story. She is in despair because the death of her wealthy father has been predicted by a confidence man seemingly gifted with the power of clairvoyance, a man whose predictions have unerringly aided her father in his business many times before. Shawn and a squad of detectives investigate this dire prediction and try to avert the millionaire businessman from meeting...

A film star with a predilection for gambling incognito south of the border gives her private-eye bodyguard more than a handful of trouble when she takes an unscheduled trip to a Mexican Casino. Originally published in Argosy Weekly, December 28, 1935.

The Instant Babe Sherman became desperate, he began to make mistakes—just two mistakes, but either could cost his life! Originally published in Detective Fiction Weekly (1936).

Crime, mystery, and just a touch of the supernatural -- they're all on display in Radio's Outstanding Theatre Of Thrills! Join your host, The Man in Black, for twenty gripping installments of Suspense (including the first ever broadcast of "Sorry, Wrong Number").Legends like Cary Grant, Agnes Moorehead, Peter Lorre, Vincent Price, Orson Welles, and Gene Kelly star in stories by thriller greats like Agatha Christie, Lucille Fletcher, John Dickson Carr, and Cornell Woolrich. Enjoy these tale...