''Stranger Than Truth'' is a 1946

mystery novel Mystery is a fiction genre where the nature of an event, usually a murder or other crime, remains mysterious until the end of the story. Often within a closed circle of suspects, each suspect is usually provided with a credible motive and a re ...

by the American writer

Vera Caspary Vera Louise Caspary (November 13, 1899 – June 13, 1987) was an American writer of novels, plays, screenplays, and short stories. Her best-known novel, '' Laura'', was made into a successful movie of the same title. Though generally classifi ...

. The character of

publisher Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...

Noble Barnes was inspired by that of

Bernarr Macfadden Bernarr Macfadden (born Bernard Adolphus McFadden, August 16, 1868 – October 12, 1955) was an American proponent of physical culture, a combination of bodybuilding with nutritional and health theories. He founded the long-running magazine pu ...

and his

Macfadden Publications Macfadden Communications Group is a publisher of business magazines. It has a historical link with a company started in 1898 by Bernarr Macfadden that was one of the largest magazine publishers of the twentieth century. History Macfadden Publ ...

. Caspary had briefly worked on one of Macfadden's magazines in the 1920s, and had encountered Macfadden's daughter Eleanor who she used as the basis of a character of the same name in her novel.Wald p. 114 It uses multiple points of view as several different characters narrate the story in the first person. Unlike her previous two works, '' Laura'' and '' Bedelia'', it was not adapted into a film.

Synopsis

John Ansell, the newly-appointed young

editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, organization, a ...

of a

true crime True crime is a genre of non-fiction work in which an author examines a crime, including detailing the actions of people associated with and affected by the crime, and investigating the perpetrator's Motive (law), motives. True crime works often ...

magazine A magazine is a periodical literature, periodical publication, print or digital, produced on a regular schedule, that contains any of a variety of subject-oriented textual and visual content (media), content forms. Magazines are generally fin ...

wants to run a story about an unsolved murder, but finds the article is quashed by those above him. When he tries to pursue the story, he is warned off by both the magazine's owner Noble Barclay and his henchman Munn. Shortly afterwards an attempt is made on Ansell's life. He survives but his concerns grow that Eleanor, Barclay's daughter, may be mixed up in the original murder.

References

Bibliography

* Emrys, A.B. ''Wilkie Collins, Vera Caspary and the Evolution of the Casebook Novel''. McFarland, 2014. * Wald, Alan M. ''American Night: The Literary Left in the Era of the Cold War''. UNC Press Books, 2012. 1946 American novels American mystery novels Random House books Novels set in New York City Novels by Vera Caspary {{1940s-mystery-novel-stub