Do Not Disturb by Helen McCloy
“Engaging heroine—who does most of sleuthing—many shivery and exciting sequences, continuous action, and extra good writing.”—Saturday Review of Literature
“One of [McCloy’s] most startling efforts.”—Hartford Courant
Original hardcover jacket:
Helen McCloy has won wide acclaim as author of the Basil Willing mysteries. This time she has written an entirely different kind of mystery novel—one of escape and threat and terror that will chill the marrow of your bones.
The sign read DO NOT DISTURB and at first Edith Talbot ignored the pitiful whimpering that came through the door. The hotel clerk assured her that the room was occupied by a sick boy under the care of a physician. Later in the night, when the cries were resumed, she felt that something must be done—and she made the fatal mistake of knocking on the door...
From then on things begin to happen—strange things that at first seem innocuous coincidence but crescendo into a series of hair-raising events.
From the paperback cover:
The viciously mutilated body of a stranger lying on the rug in a hotel room…A Do Not Disturb really means Danger! Keep Out!...The dry, choking sobs of a man—regular as breathing, hopeless as hell…A heart-stopping scream of terror…A pair of badly torn silk stockings...A small lump of lead embedded in a tree trunk…A mysterious, frantically sought object so dangerous nobody dares describe it...A pair of astigmatic eyes...A lonely house on a mountaintop. A friendly, growling watchdog…manicure scissors used as a defense weapon…A badly typed letter which affords a brief respite from terror…A nursing home with iron bars behind the gay chintz.
• Why the hotel clerk was so reluctant to rent Room 1404?
• What was going on in Room 1404?
• Why the innocent Edith fled for her life instead of calling the police?
• Who tries so persistently to kill Edith? And why?
• Why Lucien decides to come to America?
• Why the white-faced little man appears with such regularity?
Learn the answers to these questions in this swiftly unfolding tale of murder and suspense in which pretty Edith Talbot attempts to help a stranger in distress, and thereby finds it necessary to flee for her life.