The Hours Before Dawn

Pick it up: If you like psychological suspense, this one is written very well, and tightly executed.

Celia Fremlin is an underrated author that most people might not have heard of, and it is thanks to a recent reissue of her works, that this is now possible to correct. Fremlin was a writer of mystery novels. Her first, The Hours Before Dawn, published in 1958, won a Mystery Writers of America Edgar Allan Poe award. The term “psycho-domestic noir” is used when referencing ther work. Her novels are domestic, they deal with women’s lives, and they are novels of suspense, I didn’t know I enjoyed psychological thrillers until I read Celia Fremlin. I first read Uncle Paul, the suspense-filled story of three sisters on a vacation, a holiday that is soon filled with terror at the prospect of a dreaded figure from their past (Uncle Paul) returning, to no good end. Was a Fremlin fan by the end of it.

In The Hours Before Dawn, Louise Henderson, who is married with three children (the youngest only an infant), finds herself utterly and completely exhausted. With a husband who loves her but is oblivious to her fatigue, and neighbours who complain about the crying baby, Louise is desperate for sleep, as her nights and days melt into each other in a work-filled and sleep-deprived fog.

To help meet their growing expenses, Louise and her husband decide to advertise for a new lodger, and she lets out one of their rooms upstairs to a Ms Vera Brandon, a teacher. Louise is unsure of this new lodger from the start - why she has so few possessions, why she secretly spends whole days locked in her room , why she should want to live in a house with the chaos and noise of young children. A string of events and incidents make Louise increasingly apprehensive about the motivations of her tenant, but she can’t seem to think straight through her sleep deprivation. The suspense builds gradually and the plot is anything but predictable. Utterly engrossing read.

If you like this one, you might also like Uncle Paul by Celia Fremlin, the suspense-filled story of three sisters on a vacation, a holiday that is soon filled with terror at the prospect of a dreaded figure from their past (Uncle Paul) returning, to no good end.