Phantom Lady [Hardcover]

Cornell Woolrich (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Penzler Pick, January 2000: It all started with Cornell Woolrich, whether using his own name or the pseudonym William Irish, if you're talking about creating suspense.

Take Phantom Lady, the first book under that pseudonym. Now, the idea is commonplace. You've read a dozen books and seen a hundred movies with the same plot idea, but this is where it began.

A condemned man, due to be executed for a crime he didn't commit, watches and feels the weeks and days and hours slip away as the moment of his execution approaches.

In case anyone reading the book doesn't quite get it, doesn't quite understand what it means to be able to count the hours before certain death, Irish begins each chapter with a time check. The first chapter is headed: "The Hundred and Fiftieth Day Before the Execution." Chapters 16, 17, and 18 state "The Eighth Day Before the Execution," "The Seventh," and "The Sixth." There are no other words in those chapters because nothing happens. But Scott Henderson is in jail and, so help me, the reader by now feels nearly the same tension that the poor guy must have been feeling. He didn't kill his wife, and he knows he didn't, and we know he didn't, but no one else knows. Oh, yes, one other person knows. The killer knows.

If you can't stand the suspense, don't read this book. If not knowing what is going to happen next, or in the end, makes you too tense, don't read this book. You won't be able to stand it. --Otto Penzler

Product Details

• Hardcover: 291 pages
• Publisher: Otto Penzler; Facsimile edition (July 8, 1996)
• ASIN: B000023VWC
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,088,516 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A classic from a master read in a superb facsimile, November 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Phantom Lady (Hardcover)

Cornell Woolrich or William Irish, the pseudonym he used for this title and others, was the master of dark intense suspense novels, filled with nightmare circumstances thwarting average people's lives. One such tale is PHANTOM LADY wherein Scott Henderson is the hapless soul beleaguered by a dead wife, strangled with his own necktie, and by the police demanding to know his alibi. The only hope he has is the dim memory of a woman in a pumpkin colored hat complete with a huge feather he chatted with in a bar after the argument with his wife. But because he hasn't a name nor a description, other than the hat, the police aren't quick to believe him and when witnesses to their conversation all claim she was never there, his world spirals into an inexplicable nightmare.You won't find a suspense novel as tight, swift and dark as this around much anymore and read in the spectacularly reproduced original dust jacket art and meticulously recreated boards, the experience might only be matched if you were able to own an original gem. But then who could afford to? Much better to read this masterpiece as the facsimile!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Another Great Reading Experience From Woolrich, March 25, 2002

By 

J. D Suggs (Atlanta, Georgia United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Phantom Lady (Hardcover)

Even if this one is not quite as powerful as "I Married A Dead Man", and the ending doesn't pay off quite as fully as you might hope, it is still a very involving and typically stylish piece of storytelling that grabs you in chapter one and holds on tight till it's done with you. It also contains one of the most powerful single chapters I've ever read- a set piece in which a mysterious woman stalks a bartender simply by staring at him and following him until his nerves begin to crumble- which could stand alone as a short story superior to the novel as a whole. As a reading experience, this is a genuine treat, and the book itself- a faithful facsimile of the first edition- is beautiful to look at and a great pleasure to own. A bargain at the original price and a steal on sale. Thank you again, Otto Penzler.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Among the Author's Very Best!, December 28, 2005

By 

S. Henkels (Devon, Pa United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Phantom Lady (Hardcover)

Step into Gotham City circa 1947 where you take a few steps into a local pub to get away from your wife, and by chance meet an interesting young lady, take her a few other night spots, then come home, and bang, your wife is dead! Not pleasant, especially when you can find no one in the great city to vouch for your alibi! The police arrive, and their suggestion that you may be the culprit is enough to give you the creeps. And the police detective in charge happens to be a good friend from way back, who also does not seem convinced of your innocence. So, you have 24 hours to prove yourself and the clock keeps ticking into the moment when your life may very well be through! This great thriller/ noir author spun many hard boiled tales where the lead character seems guilty, and has to prove his innocence, a nice twist on the "innocent before proven guilty" idea on which our system is (supposedly) based. PHANTOM LADY may be his best!