him. When all this comes into the open, the childless Lina at last leaves to stay with her sister in London. There she is introduced at a party to an affectionate unmarried artist, who wants her to get a divorce and marry him. But Lina refuses to sleep with him, instead returning to her purgatory with Johnnie. Johnnie meanwhile has been plotting new ways of raising money. Going with Lina to her parents for Christmas, after dinner he gets her father to perform a trick which is too much for the old man's weak heart. His death means that Lina comes into her inheritance and Johnnie thus has access to improved means. Later, he cons an old school friend into backing a property development and, taking his gullible partner to Paris, on a visit to a brothel pours so much brandy into him that the man dies. The money he had invested remains in Johnnie's hands. In Johnnie's view, neither of these events counts as murder. His big project will be to murder Lina, collect her money and insurance, and not be detected. In this he is aided by Isobel Sedbusk, a writer of crime stories, who often visits their village and enjoys discussing foolproof ways of getting rid of people. She tells Johnnie that there is a common chemical which is tasteless if mixed in milk, kills instantly, and leaves no trace in the body. Lina is driven increasingly desperate by Johnnie's interest in murder, accentuated by discovering that after years of marriage she seems to be pregnant. When she falls ill with flu, Johnnie mounts the stairs with a glass of milk which she deliberately drinks. About the story The novel covers a period of approximately ten years: Johnnie Aysgarth's courtship of, and marriage to, Lina McLaidlaw, the disintegration of their marriage, and her imminent death – although it is uncertain if she really dies (Isobel Sedbusk's alleged deadly chemical is never named, and maybe does not exist.) The story is told almost wholly from Lina's point of view, so readers follow what she does and learn what she thinks. On the other hand, little is revealed of what Johnnie is up to, except for what Lina sees and gathers. Adaptations The novel was adapted to film as Suspicion (1941), directed by Alfred Hitchcock. However, the inverted detective story format was eliminated, making Johnnie's murderous indiscretions merely a