Net of Cobwebs - Elisabeth Sanxay Holding

THE STORY:  Malcolm Drake has returned from his WW2 Navy service a damaged man. He keeps dwelling on a young sailor whose death he feels he caused. While recuperating in his brother's home he has been amassing sleeping pills for what seems like a planned suicide. Then at an impromptu party he insists his teetotaling Aunt Evie join in drinking and she accepts a strongly prepared cocktail more on a dare than a willingness to be a social drinker. After downing that cocktail she dies on the spot, a rare case of alcohol poisoning that affected her weak heart. Malcolm is led to believe that he caused her death too. Police want to rule out murder and label the death a horrible accident.  But the family physician and several relatives lay the blame with Malcolm.  His mental state worsens with the additional guilt. Reality and imagination blur so that neither can be distinguished from one another.  Then another person dies - this one an obvious murder. Will Malcolm be able to escape the Net of Cobwebs (1945) that have entangled his mind and altered his reality?

THE CHARACTERS: The story is told exclusively through Malcolm's point of view and everyone he meets or knows is filtered through his skewed view of reality. This is an intriguing touch on Sanxay's part as everyone may not be presented as they really are. Just as Malcolm's mind is cracking and his guilt affects all of his actions and thoughts so we see the characters through this veil of cobwebs, an eerie but apt metaphor for a mind trapped in the past and at odds with the present. Of the supporting players in the the story these are the stand-outs:

Aunt Evie - the victim and a woman with a lot of money. Her nieces and nephews are expecting a share in her estate but when the will is read they are all in for a shock when Malcolm, someone Aunt Evie seemed to be ridiculing most of the time, receives $20,000 -- the largest bequest.

Virginia - One of Malcolm's in-laws, sister to Helene, his brother's wife. Virginia seems to be the kinder of the two sisters. Immediately following the reading of the will she begins to profess a fondness for Malcolm that grows increasingly obsessive.  She calls it love but it seems more like she has eyes on his inheritance.

Ivan Jenette - A musician who has inveigled his way into Aunt Evie's life and her bank account.  Described as a "detached sort of person" by Helene, Arthur Drake's wife. He's a wannabe artist with no ambition other than to grab as much money as he can from the older woman who becomes his patron of sorts.  She pays the rent on his apartment and supplies him with additional income when she has him perform concerts for her high society matron friends. He loathes his life but a indolent parasite can only cling to his gravy train. He's furious when he is left out of her will. Ivan then begins to bother Malcolm and claims to have seen something the night that Aunt Evie died. They arrange to meet, but he never shows up.

Lily Kingscrown - One of the next door neighbors to Malcolm's brother's house. She appears to be the embodiment of kindness. Her striking beauty captures Malcolm's eye and soon his heart.  She seems to good to be true.  Spends her free time volunteering at a mental institution for war veterans. She has an empathy for the men she cares for and this seems to give her an insight into Malcolm's troubles and perhaps why she listens to him more carefully than others.  She seems to be his only ally, but does she like everyone else have an ulterior motive in becoming friendly with Malcolm. Apart from Malcolm she's the most fascinating character in the book 

Gussie - Lily's not too bright housemaid.  Only 18 years old and thinks she knows the world. Malcolm must find a way to ge ther reveal what she saw in Lily's garage.  A little bribe might work...

Ben - Servant in the Drake household.  Works for Robert, Malcolm's brother. He may have something to do with Ivan's disappearance. Malcolm also discovers he and Gussie have some kind of sexual relationship that creeps him out because Ben is considerably older than Gussie.

Dr. Lurie - The family physician who is on hand for all the deaths. He is highly suspicious of Malcolm and wants everyone that the war vet is most likely unstable and liable to do something they will all regret. Wants Malcolm sent to the mental home. Reveals at a key moment int he plot that Malcolm has been hoarding sleeping pills. Comes across as a sinister threatening doctor, but we're seeing him through Malcolm's eyes and perception. Is he actually a good physician or is in he in cahoots with someone?

ATMOSPHERE:  Sanxay's strength in writing these kinds of suspense stories is her skill in creating an atmosphere of fear and dread.  Malcolm is truly haunted by the young sailor's death; it colors every waking moment so that the first half is almost a ghost story.  When Ivan disappears and a body turns up in Lily's garage a new kind of terror begins. Then just as quickly as it appeared the body disappears. We can only sympathize with this poor man who believes he is losing his mind. Nothing in the book is ever treated lightly.  Every event and incident has the potential for danger. No one's words ever seem honest or truthful. No one at Arthur's house seems to be on Malcolm's side, not even Virginia whose love seems over-the-top and insincere. By the midpoint we want Lily to be the ally Malcolm desperately needs.  But even Lily seems to be hiding true intent in her friendship with Malcolm. 

QUOTES: Four o'clock is the zero hour. That's when your vitality is at the lowest ebb. Ebb tide, when life is going out; when people die. All right, then die at four o'clock, and be done with it.

Three o-clock is certainly a quiet hour. What the hell is the matter with all the little crickets and things? Too late in the year? Or is it the rain? Or is it because I-- can't hear them?  Four o'clock is the zero hour. Then let it be. You've got to be dead or alive, one or the other. Not like this.

Cobwebs are pretty. I've looked at them. I saw a bee caught in a cobweb once. It was getting dragged along, by the littlest spider in the world. Dragged into web. The bee could break one thread, and another thread. But in the end there were too many threads. Each one of them is so little, you think, well, I'll bust out of this. But then there's another.  And another...

EASY TO FIND?  There were at least three paperback reprints after the initial 194 Simon & Schuster hardcover edition in the US: two editions from Bantam and one in a 2-for-1 Giant Ace. Most copies for sale are one of those three paperback editions.  For some reason several of the Bantam 1st paperbacks are priced at the cost of a 1st edition hardcover.  I'll never understand the prices of vintage paperbacks these days. Who is paying these absurd prices? No one, it seems, because they just sit out there in the digital shipping mall gathering ether dust. Anyway, the US 1st edition is pretty damn scarce these days though I did turn up two of the hardcovers though they look to be beat up reading copies.  The paperback reprints seem to be the only options now.  There may be a digital reprint, but I don't rarely spend too much time looking for them. Happy hunting!