Year it was written
1952

Title
Bud Corliss pretended to love his victims and then killed them. Love came from Dorothy and Ellen, death from Bud.

Setting
The story takes place in Amerika in the fifties. It is full of thrilling episodes which cause an effective build-up of suspense.

Theme
The struggle between good and bad. Good triumphs in the end.

Main persons
Bud Corliss. A hard criminal who deceives and kills without any scruples in order to get what he wants. He is good at pretending and seems to win most people's trust. He is an excellent planner and improviser. He feels that he is a genius, capable of the perfect crime. Only at the end Bud experiences fear, just like the Japanese soldier had felt it before being kills by Bud.
Dorothy Kingship. A faithful, loving, gullible girl. She wants to get married to Bud. She is sure that he loves her.
Ellen Kingship. An intelligent girl who, by careful deduction and combination, finds the clue to Dorothy's death. Unfortunately, she does not find out that her boyfriend and Dorothy's killer are one and the same person until it is too late.
Marion Kingship. Bud's third victim. She does not believe Gordon's story and she feels that her father is manipulating her with the help of 'private investigator' Gordon Gant. Once she is convinced of Bud's guilt, she wants to witness the 'excution'.
Gordon Gant. A reliable, stubborn young man who puts Mr Kingship on the right track to his daughter's killer. He is so devoted to reveal the truth that he loses his job as a disc-jockey.
Dwight Powell. Dorothy's ex-lover who feels responsible for her 'suicide'.
He is relieved to discover that he could not have been the father of her unborn baby. He is helpful to Ellen in her search for the murderer.

Minor characters
Bud's mother. She thinks the world of him an he tries to live up to her expectations. Leo Kingship. The rich factory owner who is bent on revenge. He has a strong feeling of what is right and what is wrong. He plans the trip to the smelter to settle his score with Bud. In doing so Leo, and not Bud, planed and commits the perfect crime.

Point of view
The story is told by someone who is not involves in the plot, in the third person past. Most of the plot is told in chronological order but in chapter two there is the flash-back that serves to give some information about Bud Corliss (whose name is not yet known to the reader at that stage).

Personal opinion
I liked the book very much, because you suspect someone else to be the murderer.

Type of novel
A thriller, or a novel of adventure.

Plot
The setting of this novel is America in the fifties. The main character, Bud is trying to carry out a plan to become rich by marrying one of the daughter of a rich factory owner. His plan fails with the first girl so he tries again with her two sisters.

Part One - Dorothy
Without realizing it, Dorothy Kingship (Dorrie) has ruined her boyfriend's evel plans by getting pregnant. The boy whose name is not yet mentiones, is bent on securing the money of Dorothy's father, Mr Leo Kingship, managing director of Kingship Copper Inc. Dorothy loves him and does not see through his designs. She wants to get married as soon as possible but her boyfriend knows that he might just as well forget about getting any money if they did so. He persuades her...

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