The Innocent Mrs. Duff

The Innocent Mrs. Duff, published in 1946, is one of Elisabeth Sanxay Holding's finest psychological thrillers. Jacob Duff, a self-pitying, hard-drinking man, becomes convinced that his calm, competent wife is manipulating everyone around her — including him. As Duff's paranoia deepens, the reader is drawn into an increasingly claustrophobic narrative where perception and reality diverge. Holding excels at the unreliable narrator, and her portrait of a marriage corroded by suspicion and alcohol is both a gripping thriller and a devastating character study. Chandler ranked it among the best crime novels he had ever read.