The internet has failed me on this one. I suspected that Prowler in the Night was based on the crimes of a real serial killer in Los Angeles, someone earlier than the Hillside Strangler. The best I could get out of Google was the name of Henry Bush, who was once labeled the Hollywood Strangler. I couldn’t discover the dates and circumstances of his crimes. Not even the online resources of the local library helped. Sometimes there’s just no substitute for looking through actual books or, perhaps in this case, actual microfilm.
Prowler in the Night by Jack Matcha. Fawcett Gold Medal (1959), 144 pp
In the third assault in a single week, an attractive young woman is murdered in the Hollywood hills. LAPD detectives Abe Goldberg and Jim Farley have no clues, but they suspect they’re seeking a quiet, ordinary looking guy with severe sexual problems. Pretty ad-writer Vita Reynolds isn’t concerned - - yet. She’s worried about choosing a boyfriend from two candidates: a married fellow worker, John Palmer, whom she thinks she loves, and a strait-laced boy from home, Hubert Buhler, who is her mother’s favorite. But when Vita starts getting weird phone calls late at night, however, she becomes more apprehensive.
This is one of those stories that would probably work better as a movie than as a book. Readers have more time than viewers to think about the action. So what may be surprising in a film comes to seem obvious in a novel. Take Vita, for instance. Even though she doesn’t know it, and the police don’t know it, Vita must be a target. And she must go on being one until the book is out of pages. The author works pretty successfully within these limitations. He puts in plenty of plot twists, throws into question the sexual proclivities of several male characters, and hides the killer’s identity until the end. And he employs the simple, straightforward writing style that typifies the Gold Medal series. Readers who like suspense stories and don’t mind some violent scenes are likely to enjoy the book.
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