Evvie — Vera Caspary

'Evvie,' by the author of 'Laura'

“Caspary is an expert at suspense and suspicion…She is also expert at evoking the flavor of a decade when martinis were drunk in coffee cups and rumbles were car seats.” -- The New York Times

Fanny Butcher, the literary critic for the Chicago Tribune, “came out of retirement to declare it obscene -- ironic judgment from today's point of view, since there are no graphic descriptions and the most explicit allusions are in a scene in which two naked girls discuss sex.” (Caspary's “The Secrets of Grown-ups,” p. 265)

It was a time when skirts were short and hair was shingled. A time of speakeasies, hipflasks and bathtub gin. A time when Evvie Ashton, the beautiful society girl who modeled, danced, painted and loved promiscuously had come of age -- knowing all the right people, doing all the wrong things, and sharing all of it with her roommate and confidante, Louise.
After being unusually reticent about her latest love, something unthinkable happens to Evvie. Louise must enter a world of duplicity and menace to learn of Evvie's fate and the identity of her last flame.

“Evvie is a haunting, period piece of a novel, written with the poetic power and skill of the novelist who gave us ‘Laura'.” -- The Los Angeles Times

“A brilliant book.” -- New Statesman

“A story of flaming youth... a whodunit with a surprise ending...a psychological study of character... of love...and of twisted relationships...written with perception and insight. -- The New York Herald Tribune

“Wonderful.” -- The San Francisco Chronicle