Quentin, Patrick - Danger Next Door (1952)

I read the messages about Danger Next Door with interest because I recently found an old library copy of the book I thought I had mislaid. I am surprised that it appears to be so scarce. When I found my copy I intended to post a message about it setting out some details and offering anyone who is interested any further information they would like. Now that I read Tony Medawar's generous offer I am shamed into print.

The copy I have is proclaimed to have been 'First published 1951'; the text runs from page 5 to page 176; there is a clean front and rear free end page, a half title page and a full title page; the book was published by 'Cassell & Co., Ltd, 37/37 St. Andrew's Hill, Queen Victoria Street, London, E.C.4 etc' and printing details set out at the foot of the verso of the title page provides this information 'Set in 11 point Baskerville Printed in Great Britain by the Bristol Typesetting Company Stokes Croft Bristol F.551'. On the verso of the half title page is printed 'By the same Author- S.S. Murder, Death in Dovecote, Darker Grows the Valley, Death Goes to School, Death in Bermuda, Death for Dear Clara'

The first two paragraphs of the book read as follows:

Clark Rodman could see the girl again at the window of the apartment next door. She stood there, unconscious of him, staring out at the bleak city prospect of wall and roof. She was beautiful with soft dark hair, fair skin and a delicacy of feature which made her seem exotic in this tumbled-down section of New York. But it was not only her beauty that had impressed Clark. There was something else about her, atension, an elusive atmosphere of expectancy as if she were waiting for her life to reach some inevitable but dreaded climax. The apartment in which she lived was on the fifth floor of the next house, directly opposite to the rooms which Clark had recently rented, and separated from them by only the width of a narrow alley. So close were the two sets of windows that, for the past three weeks while he worked at his typewriter, Clark Rodman had become increasingly conscious of her. Her appearances at the window were infrequent and yet she never seemed to go out. Visible or invisible, she was always there, near to him, reminding him that all was not well with her. If Clark had been romantic, he might have thought of her as a damsel in distress.

Alastair McLean