24. The Dream Walker by Charlotte Armstrong

Charlotte Armstrong is another of those semi-forgotten and very good female mystery/thriller writers from the post WWII-era.  This is the last of her books that I had on my on-deck shelf after a concerted hunting effort.  I had been saving it but my 2023 focus is to reduce my on-deck shelf to zero if possible and to clear out books that have been sitting there for years (so I can buy more books!).

The Dream Walker has a novel approach.  It's not really a mystery, though there is a murder, as you know pretty much what happened in the opening pages.  The narrator Olivia, who announces herself unreliable due to the state of her health, is from a good family and an acting teacher at a girls school.  Her story is about a conspiracy to discredit her wealthy and influential uncle. The concept is relevant to today's world of disinformation.  A dissolute failson gets mixed up with a commie spy ring and it is the uncle who tips off the authorities.  By pure chance, the failson runs into a failed theatre director and together they cook up a plot with the help of two actresses to get revenge.  The idea is that one actress in New York will start passing out and having visions of herself in another place, speaking to a person in that place.  The second actress, disguised to look like the first one, actually is in that place and speaks to the person.  It is done subtly and cleverly so that it attracts little attention at first, but soon grows. The mystery that keeps you reading is exactly how this will involve the uncle.  The relevant idea is that even though many people will dismiss it as faked, it is enough to cause debate and controversy and thus doubt.

Alongside the conspiracy, there is a romantic angle, as Olivia's cousin (though not really as it is by marriage) is also investigating the visions.  This narrative I found less enjoyable and subtle as the mystery.  The cousins are always bickering and Olivia has this annoying mode of being constantly vexed by the cousin. You guess quite early on that they are supposed to fall in love and the bickering just seems odd.  I don't know, I wasn't feeling it. Her emotional insecurity contradicted her courage and cleverness in dealing with the mystery.  The climax was quite fun, with Olivia using her acting skills to turn the table on the manipulative playwright in an OTR/Suspense style that was quite fun.

So a bit of a mixed bag, but I'll give it a thumbs up for the innovative structure.