Jane Brown's Body

It's unfortunate that Woolrich didn't try the speculative fiction more often, since his scattering of horror stories, in particular "Dark Melody of Madness," "Speak to Me of Death," its novel version Night Has a Thousand Eyes, and "Jane Brown's Body," are among the greatest weird tales ever written. - Ryan Harvey, Black Gate

"Along with Raymond Chandler, Cornell Woolrich practically invented the genre of noir." Newsday

"Critical sobriety is out of the question so long as this master of terror-in-the-commonplace exerts his spell." - Anthony Boucher, The New York Times Book Review

"No one has ever surpassed Cornell Woolrich for shear suspense, or equalled him for exciting entertainment." - Robert Bloch

"Woolrich can distill more terror, more excitement, more downright nail-biting suspense out of even the most commonplace happenings than nearly all his competitors." - Ellery Queen

"Revered by mystery fans, students of film noir, and lovers of hardboiled crime fiction and detective novels, Cornell Woolrich remains almost unknown to the general reading public. His obscurity persists even though his Hollywood pedigree rivals or exceeds that of Cain, Chandler, and Hammett.What Woolrich lacked in literary prestige he made up for in suspense. Nobody was better at it." - Richard Dooling

"He was the greatest writer of suspense fiction that ever lived." Francis M. Nevins, Cornell Woolrich Biographer

Jane Brown's Body was first published in All-American Fiction in the March-April issue of 1938. The novella opens with typical Woolrich - a race against death. Dr. Anton Denholt drives likes a wild man to his mountain lab with a veiled woman in the back seat - a dead woman apparently. In his lab Denholt, like Frankenstein, brings her back to life but the woman is without memory. Denholt names her "Nova."

In a movie-like dissolve, it's two years later, and a pilot named "Penny" O'Shaugnessy crashes his plane into a nearby mountain. O'Shaugnessy finds the scientist and the stange Nova, who immediately captivates him. Believing Nova is a prisoner he escapes from the lab with Nova at his side.

Now in Chicago and married to Nova, O'Shaugnessy gets involved with mobsters who recognize Nova who, in her life before regeneration, was their bosses girl and they think she might know where the boss stashed some cash. There's a fast chase, a shoot-out, and some good ole Woolrich suspense. O'Shaugnessy and his girl Nova flee Chicago and take flight to China to escape the reach of the mobsters.

But in Shanghai Nova starts to decay and Woolrich supplies readers with some vivid descriptions of her reversion to death. O'Shaugnessy realizes he must rush back to the mad scientist with the hope of finding a cure to Nova's situation but also back into the grips of the mobsters.

One of Woolrich's greatest stories!

Cornell George Hopley-Woolrich (4 December 1903 - 25 September 1968) is one of America's best crime and noir writers who sometimes wrote under the pseudonyms William Irish and George Hopley. He's often compared to other celebrated crime writers of his day, Dashiell Hammett, Erle Stanley Gardner and Raymond Chandler.

Woolrich is considered the godfather of film noir and is often referred to as the Edgar Allen Poe of the 20th century, writing well over 250 works including novels, novelettes, novellas and short stories.

He attended New York's Columbia University but left school in 1926 without graduating when his first novel, "Cover Charge", was published. "Cover Charge"was one of six of his novels that he credits as inspired by the work of F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Woolrich soon turned to pulp and detective fiction, often published under his pseudonyms. His best known story today is his 1942 "It Had to Be Murder" for the simple reason that it was adapted into the 1954 Alfred Hitchcock movie "Rear Window" starring James Stewa

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