It Had to be Murder
Although the title may not be familiar, more people know the plot of this story than one might suspect. Only they know it by the title it was subsequently republished under following a famous film adaptation. “It Had to be Murder” is the first-person account of L. B. Jeffries of what happened when his ability to move was severely limited and so he passed the time by observing his neighbors through a rear window. Hitchcock used that particular description of the voyeur’s viewpoint as the title when he adapted the story into a film starring Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly.
Murder in Wax
Somewhat similar in plot to Woolrich’s popular novel Phantom Lady, this is about a devoted wife attempting to save her husband from being executed for the murder of another woman; in this case, the other woman is the husband’s mistress. He would later expand it into a full-length novel under the title The Black Angel.
I Wouldn’t be in Your Shoes
The sound of cats crying in the night stimulates Tom Quinn to find relief by throwing his shoes at them, but when his wife insists he retrieves the footwear, they seem to have disappeared off the face of the earth. The very next day, however, the shoes mysterious show up, but they are not evidence pointing to a murder.
The Death of Me
An attempted insurance fraud scheme involving faking his death goes woefully awry when the accident victim he targets to take his place turns out to have been wanted for theft and is being pursued by multiple parties wanting the money back.
The Corpse and the Kid
A son willing to do anything for his father extends to helping him out with an inconvenient corpse: his stepmother whom his father has killed in a crime of passion. The story is notable for its black humor stemming from the situation of trying to dispose of a body rolled up in a carpet.
The Light in the Window
A tale of retribution for perceived guilt, the titular window belongs to the girlfriend of a soldier recently returned home. The light goes on just before the soldier’s good friend streams out of the apartment building bragging about having a good time. The soldier puts two and two together and enters the building with retributive justice on his mind.
Three O’Clock
Another tale of infidelity leading to plans for vengeance. In this case, the cuckolded man goes to the length of building a bomb with a timer that he places inside his basement. Before he can safely get away, however, burglars break in and tied him up, leaving him to face the deadly consequences of his own countdown to doom. The story ends with an interesting twist in which the bomb never goes off, but its maker is a victim of his own handiwork nevertheless.
Dead on Her Feet
Although a noted master of suspense and crime fiction, Woolrich is not known for the whodunit genre, so this example of that type of story is something of an outlier among his canon. The title refers to the fad of marathon dance contests in the 1930’s and the mysterious demise of a young female partner who becomes—in one of his most macabre sequences—a dance partner yet again after death.
The Body Upstairs
A strange tale of police brutality as a murder suspect is psychologically tortured in an attempt to coerce a confession. Meanwhile, another member of the force actually interested in doing his job discovers the man is innocent when he finds the actual murderer.
The Detective’s Dilemma
A European aristocrat tries to convince a private dick that he is about to be murdered by his wife who will exploit his own hemophilia as the means of killing him. A few weeks later, the prediction apparently comes true when he dies under mysterious circumstances described as an accident. It is not up to the detective to determine the truth: is the wife a murderer…or a victim of a sinister revenge from beyond the grave.
After-Dinner Story
Six men trapped in an elevator are rescued only after one of them has been shot. A year later, the the father of the shooting victim invites the survivors to a dinner party where the main course is revenge served up with a cold side order of the threat of poison unless he learns the truth of what really happened in that elevator.
Post-Mortem
A man wins the lottery and his wife wants to collect the winnings. Only one thing stands in her way: the man is dead. And neither she nor her new husband can locate the ticket. Another of Woolrich’s experiments in black humor.
Fur Jacket
A well-dressed corpse found on the side of the road seems like a simple case of hit-and-run, but a detective becomes convinced that the woman’s ex-husband was involved in something more nefarious. Only one problem: the man has irreconcilable alibi. The policeman has something as well: knowledge about the fur jacket the woman was wearing that proves it’s a case of murder.
Murder Story
What happens when police investigate a murder in which the details seem to be lifted right out of a writer’s story? Normally, one might suspect a lunatic inspired by the plot, but there is just one problem for this writer: this story was never published and so he’s the only one who knows those details.
Finger of Doom
A young man and woman are deeply in love. They are together and optimistic about their future on the day she has to deliver a package to an apartment. He waits for her out front but the sight of her entering the building is the last time he sees her; she never comes back. Making things worse for the boyfriend is the cop who refuses to believe his outlandish story.
