for a mystery writer to find, or to focus on, a specialty of some kind—a theme or subject in which they flourish. For Charlotte Armstrong (1905–1969), the attraction was creating stories and novels of suspense and peril to the young and to the elderly.
In no work is this characterized more graphically than in Mischief (1950), in which a psychopathic hotel babysitter gradually becomes unglued as she contemplates killing her young charge. Filmed as Don’t Bother to Knock (1952), it starred the young and beautiful Marilyn Monroe in a rare villainous role. Directed by Roy Baker, it also starred Richard Widmark, Anne Bancroft, and Elisha Cook, Jr.
Another of Armstrong’s powerful suspense novels to be filmed was The Unsuspected (1946), a controversial novel that was both praised by critics for its writing skill and lambasted for disclosing the identity of the killer almost at the outset. A famous radio narrator steals money from his ward’s inheritance, and, when his secretary discovers his thievery, he kills her. More deaths follow before he confesses—on air. It was filmed under the same title and released in 1947 to excellent reviews. Directed by Michael Curtiz, it starred Claude Rains, Joan Caulfield, and Audrey Totter.
During the filming of The Unsuspected, Armstrong and her family permanently moved from New York to California, where she continued to write stories and more than twenty novels, one of which, A Dram of Poison (1956), won the Edgar as the best novel of the year. She also wrote television scripts, including several that were produced by Alfred Hitchcock.
“Meredith’s Murder” was originally published in the Fall 1953 issue of Conflict—Stories of Suspense; it was first collected in The Albatross by Charlotte Armstrong (New York, Coward-McCann, 1957) with the title “The Hedge Between,” under which it often has been reprinted.