I Married A Dead Man.

WILLIAM IRISH

Publication: Avon Publishing Co, Inc, 1949, New York

First paperback edition. Avon 220. Originally published in hardcover in 1948 by J. B. Lippincott Company, Inc. Color pictorial wrappers in bright fine condition.

The story of Helen Georgesson, pregnant, penniless, and dumped by her boyfriend when she boarded a cross-country train. The train wrecks and Helen Georgesson had vanished without a trace because through a one-in-a-million chance, she had become a young widow named Patrice Hazzard, who was traveling to meet her parents-in-law she had never seen. Now Patrice is wealthy and her worries are over, but are they really? Eventually her boyfriend finds her and begins to blackmail her in order to maintain his silence. The blackmail simply cannot be tolerated and he has to "gotten rid of." In 1950, the story was the basis for the noir film SHE MARRIED A DEAD MAN that starred Barbara Stanwyck in the dual role of Helen and Patrice. Other cast members were John Lund, Jane Cowl, Phyllis Thaxter, Lyle Bettger, Henry O'Neill, Richard Denning, and others.