The Innocent Mrs. Duff by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding

This somewhat forgotten crime novel is considered a gem, but reading a mystery about a paranoid alcoholic is rather dour.

Jacob Duff finds fault in everyone, including himself for putting on weight. His new wife Regina, a photography model half his age, cannot measure up to his deceased wife, and he is constantly dissatisfied, thinking her common and stupid. Even the way she greets him at breakfast sets him off. He dislikes the men he carpools to New York with and starts drinking during the day, but cannot stop. Soon, the bottle hiding and shot taking upends his life. He fantasies Reggie is sleeping with his chauffeur Nolan and attempts to catch them together. When that fails, Nolan calls his ruse a frame-up and is fired. Pathologically paranoid that Nolan will tell everyone, Duff hires a detective to follow him. Then he imagines Reggie with a different man and sets a deadly trap for the couple, which backfires. He thinks the innocent Mrs. Duff cares nothing for him, and in a state of mental degradation, he simply can't stand it anymore.

Duff's self-pitying is hard to enjoy when Reggie is caring and loving in every way. She cannot figure him out, and when she asks for the separation he desires, he can't handle the rejection. As he loses control, the only thing that helps is more alcohol.

Women writers, such as Mignon Eberhart and Mary Roberts Rinehart, do psychological suspense well, and Holding is firmly in their company. Her more famous novel The Blank Wall (1947), was filmed as The Reckless Moment (1949) and again with Tilda Swinton as The Deep End in 2001.

The Innocent Mrs. Duff is harder to find, but free to read on Internet Archive.

1946 / Tradeback / 240 pages