Laura. Vera Caspary
Femmes Fatales Series
Femmes Fatales restores to print the best of women’s writing in the classic pulp genres of the mid-twentieth century. From mysteries to hard-boiled noir to taboo lesbian romance, these rediscovered queens of pulp offer subversive perspectives on a turbulent era.
Faith Baldwin
SKYSCRAPER
Vera Caspary
BEDELIA
LAURA
THE MAN WHO LOVED HIS WIFE
Gypsy Rose Lee
THE G-STRING MURDERS
MOTHER FINDS A BODY
Evelyn Piper
BUNNY LAKE IS MISSING
Olive Higgins Prouty
NOW, VOYAGER
Valerie Taylor
THE GIRLS IN 3-B
STRANGER ON LESBOS
RETURN TO LESBOS
Tereska Torrès
WOMEN’S BARRACKS
BY CECILE
Laura
Vera Caspary
Afterword by A. B. Emrys
Published by the Feminist Press
at the City University of New York
The Graduate Center
365 Fifth Avenue, Suite 5406
New York, NY 10016
feministpress.org
First Feminist Press Edition, 2005
Copyright © 1942, 1943 by Vera Caspary
Afterword copyright 2005 by A.B. Emrys
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, used, or stored in any information retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission from the Feminist Press at the City University of New York, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Originally published by Pocket Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., with special arrangement with Houghton Mifflin Company.
Cover and text design by Drew Stevens
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Caspary, Vera 1904-1987.
Laura / by Vera Caspary ; afterword by A.B. Emrys.
p. cm. — (Femmes fatales : women write pulp)
ISBN 978-1-55861-505-2
eISBN 978-1-55861-883-1
1. Police—New York (State)—New York—Fiction. 2. Manhattan (New York, N.Y.)—Fiction. 3. Mistaken identity—Fiction. 4. Single women—Fiction. I. Title. II. Series.
PS3503.A84L28 2006
813’.52dc22
2005029369
Contents