Celia Fremlin

Ghostly Stories

This novel, one of the Virago Crime Classics , combines humour with a look at the danger and suspense in the tyranny of motherhood. It also explores the redeeming power of love.

The Hours Before Dawn

Fifteen years ago Uncle Paul's wife, Mildred, exposed him as a murderer. Now Mildred's seaside holiday forms the scene for a tense drama of suspicion, betrayal, and revenge.

Uncle Paul

Short Stories

Don't Go to Sleep in the Dark

Rosamund dreams that she killed her neighbor, Lindy, and then is shocked to discover that Lindy has actually disappeared

The Jealous One

Discover the original psychological thriller... Winner of the 1960 Edgar Award for best mystery novel 'A lost masterpiece.' PETER SWANSON 'A flawless masterclass in tension from the talented Ms Fremlin.' SARAH HILARY Louise would give anything - anything - for a good night's sleep. Forget the girls running errant in the garden and bothering the neighbours. Forget her husband who seems oblivious to it all. If the baby would just stop crying, everything would be fine. Or would it? What if Louise's growing fears about the family's new lodger, who seems to share all of her husband's interests, are real? What could she do, and would anyone even believe her? Maybe, if she could get just get some rest, she'd be able to think straight. In a new edition of this lost classic, The Hours Before Dawn proves - scarily - as relevant to readers today as it was when Celia Fremlin first wrote it in the 1950s.

Don't Tell Cissie

In this 1960 Edgar Award-winning thriller, a young housewife with two lively daughters and an endlessly crying baby battles domestic chaos as well as growing suspicions of the household's new lodger.

When her young daughter becomes engaged to an over-thirty accountant, Clare Erskine is determined to ascertain the truth about his clouded past

Possession

A housewife dreams of murdering her romantic rival only to discover that the woman has inexplicably disappeared. "Even more memorable than the suspense story is the witty and acute comedy." — The New York Times.

A Novel

The Long Shadow

Seven Lean Years (1961) was Celia Fremlin's third novel of suspense. Its protagonist is Ellen Fortescue, engaged to be married, but oddly uneasy about her approaching wedding. Her fiance Leonard is a man of varying moods, most combustibly where the subject of his stepmother Laura is concerned. Ellen is inclined to a kinder view; but then the woman Ellen calls 'Cousin Laura' does have a complicated history with the Fortescue family... 'Fremlin wraps up her little mystery cunningly in this accomplished thriller-chiller of a book.' Sunday Times 'Fremlin has a quite extraordinary ability for imbuing the normal with intimations of doom-to-come. And when she begins to develop her elegantly horrible climax, the shivers chase each other down one's spine.' Birmingham Post 'Celia Fremlin is about our best hope to compete with the American intelligent superior suspense school.' Observer

Seven Lean Years

'Britain's equivalent to Patricia Highsmith, Celia Fremlin wrote psychological thrillers that changed the landscape of crime fiction for ever: her novels are domestic, subtle, penetrating - and quite horribly chilling.' Andrew Taylor Listening in the Dusk (1990), Celia Fremlin's thirteenth novel, concerns Alice Saunders, a woman striking out on her own following a traumatic marital breakup. But when she rents a drafty attic room in a ramshackle London boarding house she meets the mysterious Mary - a young woman clearly terrified of something, or someone. 'Tart and chilling piece of superior Fremlin Gothic, with some wonderful characterization and great comic passages.' Sunday Times 'Suspense and mystery at its elegant best.' Birmingham Post 'Celia Fremlin is an astonishing writer, who explores that nightmare country where brain, mind and self battle to establish the truth. She illuminates her dark world with acute perception and great wit.' Natasha Cooper

Listening in the Dusk

'Britain's equivalent to Patricia Highsmith, Celia Fremlin wrote psychological thrillers that changed the landscape of crime fiction for ever: her novels are domestic, subtle, penetrating - and quite horribly chilling.' Andrew TaylorKing of the World (1994), Celia Fremlin's sixteenth and final novel, is the story of flat-mates Bridget and Diane. Despite ten years in age between them they get on well - aside from the constant presence of Alistair, Diane's self-impressed boyfriend, in the flat. The women decide to look for a third tenant, and find Norah, who claims to be a battered wife seeking refuge. But Norah is telling lies that will put all of them in mortal danger.'Celia Fremlin is an astonishing writer, who explores that nightmare country where brain, mind and self battle to establish the truth. She illuminates her dark world with acute perception and great wit.' Natasha Cooper

King of the World

'Britain's equivalent to Patricia Highsmith, Celia Fremlin wrote psychological thrillers that changed the landscape of crime fiction for ever: her novels are domestic, subtle, penetrating - and quite horribly chilling.' Andrew TaylorClare Wakefield - protagonist of Celia Fremlin's 1991 novel, her fourteenth - is more dismayed than elated when she learns of her journalist husband's escape from Middle Eastern kidnappers. Edwin is a difficult man, and home life had been so much more relaxed without him. But dismay turns to fear once Clare begins to suspect that Edwin has practiced an extraordinary deception - and for the purpose of murder. 'A thoughtful, entertaining thriller.' Booklist'I cannot recommend [it] too highly.' Time Out'Celia Fremlin is an astonishing writer, who explores that nightmare country where brain, mind and self battle to establish the truth. She illuminates her dark world with acute perception and great wit.' Natasha Cooper

Dangerous Thoughts

'Britain's equivalent to Patricia Highsmith, Celia Fremlin wrote psychological thrillers that changed the landscape of crime fiction for ever: her novels are domestic, subtle, penetrating - and quite horribly chilling.' Andrew TaylorThe Echoing Stones (1993) was Celia Fremlin's fifteenth novel. Arnold Walker's decision to take early retirement and become caretaker and tourist guide at a Tudor mansion changes his life dramatically. His wife Mildred leaves him, and his wayward daughter Flora arrives unexpectedly and agrees to help out. Together, they must reckon with Emmerton Hall's former curator, Sir Humphrey Penrose, a sufferer from senile dementia given to spontaneous acting out of bizarre historical events, whose antics will lead to sheer bloody murder. 'Celia Fremlin is an astonishing writer, who explores that nightmare country where brain, mind and self battle to establish the truth. She illuminates her dark world with acute perception and great wit.' Natasha Cooper

The Echoing Stones

'A truly funny, sharp comedy that is packaged inside a psychological thriller.' Spectator 'A delightful and masterly achievement.' Financial Times Celia Fremlin's twelfth novel, originally published in 1982, tells the tale of Martin Lockwood, a man stuck between a wife and a mistress and frustrated by his faltering doctoral thesis on depression. Then he encounters Ruth Ledbetter, a smart, unbalanced, potentially dangerous young woman who soon insinuates herself into Martin's life, his home - and his PhD. 'Britain's equivalent to Patricia Highsmith, Celia Fremlin wrote psychological thrillers that changed the landscape of crime fiction for ever: her novels are domestic, subtle, penetrating - and quite horribly chilling.' Andrew Taylor 'Celia Fremlin is an astonishing writer, who explores that nightmare country where brain, mind and self battle to establish the truth. She illuminates her dark world with acute perception and great wit.' Natasha Cooper

The Parasite Person

'Britain's equivalent to Patricia Highsmith, Celia Fremlin wrote psychological thrillers that changed the landscape of crime fiction for ever: her novels are domestic, subtle, penetrating - and quite horribly chilling.' Andrew Taylor Appointment with Yesterday (1972), Celia Fremlin's eighth novel, concerns a woman who calls herself Milly Barnes. But this is not her real name - for 'Milly' is on the run, driven by her terrible panic that at any moment the remorseless arm of the law will catch up with her. 'Not less horrible than illicit deaths are the horrors that lurk in female domesticity, and Celia Fremlin has long been the mistress of their fictional presentation. Here, in the best so far of her always good books, she has fused both, in an excellent terror novel.' TLS

Appointment with Yesterday

Erzählungen

Ein schöner Tag zum Sterben

The Jealous One (1964), Celia Fremlin's fifth novel, opens on its protagonist Rosamund as she wakes from a mid-morning nap to find, to her delight, that she is running a temperature. Surely that explains her blinding headache, and even the weird, delirious dream in which she had murdered her overly seductive neighbour, Lindy? A great relief, then, to find this was merely the work of a fevered imagination. Until her husband exclaims, 'Rosamund! Have you any idea what's happened to Lindy? She's disappeared!...' 'A tense situation, ultimately resolved by a beautifully fitting plot-twist. Even more memorable than the suspense story is the witty and acute comedy.' New York Times 'A brilliant example of the psychological thriller. The little worm of jealousy devours its way into the mind, gradually, page by page.' Hampstead & Highgate Express

Celia Fremlin

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