Recommend pre-1970 non-sf non-fantasy suspense novels?

[Extollager]

I've said pre-1970 as a rule of thumb for this thread because I want to avoid books with explicit carnality, gore, and gutter language, and it seems it was around then that those three characteristics became more common. However, if you want to recommend suspense books without those issues from later, where they exist, fine.

I'm not thinking necessarily of detective stories but don't object to an overlap.

So if you know about such books, let's hear about them now. I don't myself know much about that category.

Thanks for helping build a bibliography here.

 

[Toby Frost]

This sounds like a big category. Do detective classics like Christie and Sayers count? Personally, I think Chandler is by far the best noir writer I've seen, so I'd recommend him, and James M Cain's The Postman Always Rings Twice and Double Indemnity are very good. Ira Levin's thriller A Kiss Before Dying is really good too. I like Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household too. I'm not sure about his other books: Dance of the Dwarfs was fantastical and pretty wacky. The Talented Mr Ripley is decent, but I've never read any other Patricia Highsmith books.

There's the whole early spy novel genre, I suppose. Pre-1990 le Carre would probably fit the criteria, although it's part the cut-off point. John Buchan works, although he's probably dated in a bad way. Many people like Deighton and Dick Francis, but I've not read any of their stuff.

explicit carnality, gore, and gutter language

These sound like capital offences during the reign of Cromwell (but I see what you mean)!

 

[Extollager]

Thanks... I do want to emphasize for other readers that I'm looking for books with a strong suspense element -- not necessarily ones with a whodunit quality. So, for example, Jack Finney's famous "Contents of the Dead Man's Pocket" is a great example of a suspense short story. Toby mentioned Household's Rogue Male -- a fine example in the novel form.

https://www.cusd80.com/cms/lib6/AZ01001175/Centricity/Domain/3421/Contents_of_the_Dead_Mans_Pocket.pdf

 

[BAYLOR]

Rendezvous in Black and Night Has A Thousand Eyes. both by Cornell Wooolrich

 

[Alex The G and T]

Do "Thrillers" constitute "suspense?" Alistaire McLean picked up the mantle of the spy thriller after Ian Fleming; until passing the baton on to Le Carre.
As a wee tad, in the 60's, I remember being quite enthralled by the books before seeing the movies: Ice Station Zebra, The Guns of Navarone, Where Eagles Dare, Force 10 from Navarone, Bear Island and a many others that didn't make it to the cinema.

 

[Extollager]

Do "Thrillers" constitute "suspense?"

There could be a lot of overlap. But I'm seeking suggestions.

I might be particularly interested in novels in which suspense occurs where the main character lives (and then perhaps he or she has to flee, or maybe not). Coziness that ebbs away kind of thing.

But exotic locales could be OK too.

 

[BAYLOR]

The 39 Steps by John Buchan I read this one in less than a day, I couldn't put it down.

The Sound of Thunder by Wilbur Smith

The Poseidon Adventure by Paul Gallico

 

[Randy M.]

Rendezvous in Black and Night Has A Thousand Eyes. both by Cornell Wooolrich

I'd expand that to include Black Alibi, Phantom Lady, and The Bride Wore Black; I wasn't as enamored of I Married a Dead Man as some readers, but it would be worth your attention.

Fred Brown's The Screaming Mimi might work for you, though maybe you'd prefer The Night of the Jabberwock. The Fabulous Clipjoint and His Name Was Death weren't favorites, but I plan on rereading the former to re-access my opinion because I've liked many of his mystery/suspense works, and was please to find an old edition of the next of his Am and Ed Hunter series. Also, for years I've heard good things about Here Comes a Candle but haven't gotten around to it.

I've also heard very good things about The Red Right Hand by Joel Townsley Rogers, so it's on my bookish radar, as is Margaret Millar's Beast in View and A Stranger in My Grave. I keep forgetting that I came across a copy of Celia Fremlin's The Hours Before Dawn and Hans Hellmut Kirst's The Night of the Generals, and should get around to them; again, good things heard.

Rebecca comes to mind as a prime example of suspense writing with an added dose of Gothic. I recall you've read Margery Allingham's The Tiger in the Smoke, so I wonder if any of her others might fit as well as that one. Marie Belloc Lowndes' The Lodger is slow burn in the best ways, the suspense building organically from the premise. As a long time fan of the movie Laura I was pleased to find Vera Caspery's novel was just as good.

I'm betting with myself that as soon as I post this a few other titles will come to mind. If so, I'w be bach.

 

[Randy M.]

I knew I hadn't thought of something obvious: And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie; her Tommy and Tuppence novels might also fit your request. For that matter, the The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett might, too; Red Harvest sort of fits, but it might seem a harsh ride. Then there's Eric Ambler's A Coffin/Mask for Dimitrios (I need to get back to him, myself) and Graham Greene's A Gun for Sale. Have you read Helen MacInnes? The only trouble I had with her was avoiding her straight romance novels, but I recall enjoying The Salzburg Connection and The Venetian Affair (a title which now sounds to me like a Man from U.N.C.L.E. episode).

I'm particularly fond of Raymond Chandler's The Little Sister, though The Long Goodbye may generate more suspense. I also think you can't go wrong with Ross Macdonald, in particular The Chill and The Underground Man, in the former he orchestrates his plot so that the answer to everything only comes in the final lines, and in the later he mixes a murder mystery with a rapidly approaching wildfire. There's also Geoffrey Holmes' Build My Gallows High, basis for one of the essential films noir, Out of the Past. Speaking noir Dorothy B. Hughes' In a Lonely Place is quite good, and Dread Journey only a bit less good.

You might find Jim Thompson rather harsh, but The Killer Inside Me is suspenseful; also, disturbing. If you don't mind the possible presence of the supernatural, there's also Richard Marsh's The Beetle.

Lastly, I've heard good things about Wisteria Cottage by Robert Coates.

Can you tell this is the sort of question that nags me for quite awhile after I come across it?

 

[Extollager]

Has anyone read this Celia Fremlin novel?

 

[Randy M.]

Wish I could be more helpful ...

In high school, while others were reading Analog or Dune or Dangerous Visions, I was reading Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. I can't recall a single short story by Fremlin, but I must have liked them because I've remembered her name in a positive way for years.