Charles Mergendahl (–1959)

I believe this was in the mystery/thriller section of the used bookstore where I found it, and I'm a sucker for anything with at 25 cent cover price and a nice painting. It was definitely misfiled, as it is a melodramatic soap opera about five wives staying in a rich man's guest house on the California Coast near San Diego while waiting (and hoping) for their husbands to get back from Korea. They pass the time in various ways. A couple of the girls engage in unashamed but also unserious flirtations and affairs. A third plays her guitar and pretends that she has some talent, finally finding a captive audience in a soldier who has lost his legs and is recovering in a nearby hospital. A fourth sulks, ruminates endlessly over how she first met her husband and lost her virginity to him, and goes for nude swims every afternoon. The fifth, Martha, the main focus of the book, has stayed faithful and boring until the book begins. She spends most of her time in the library or on the beach, staying away from the rich owner of the main house, who has an eye for her. He also has other 1950s-type issues that I won't go into. In any case, boredom overcomes her and she decides to spend a day in San Diego, stopping for just one drink at the El Cortez hotel, obviously a stand-in for the Del Coronado. And that's where she meets Hank McKellar, a Navy Lieutenant who falls for her. The problem with the story is seeing why she falls for him - at least physically. He treats her poorly nearly all the time, and in his obsession and threats, he is a very unappealing character. If the novel had been written by a woman, I might have accepted Martha's actions a little easier. In any case, Mergendahl is a good enough writer that I kept on reading from the first chapter to the last. He never lets the story get out of hand where you could justifiably throw your hands up in disgust and put the book down. In the end, you are unlikely to be terribly satisfied, but you will give him credit for creating a pretty good atmosphere and a set of characters that you may not like very much, but that do have their memorable aspects.… (more)