A Kiss Before Dying

A handsome, clever young man from a working-class background has a plan to escape it: marry into money. His target is one of the three daughters of Leo Kingship, a domineering copper magnate, and he has no scruples about how he gets there.

The book is a thriller in three parts, each built around one of the Kingship sisters. Dorothy, the youngest, is the first to fall for him. Her sister Ellen will not accept the official account of what happens to her.

The third part brings in Gordon Gant, a college radio announcer, who is drawn into an investigation. It tightens by degrees around a man who keeps showing up as someone different.

The structure is the book's main game. The reader's knowledge of who the killer is and what he wants is handled in an unusual way, so the tension comes from watching the pieces fit rather than from a simple whodunit. The tone is cool and controlled, the pace precise.

The novel won the 1954 Edgar Award for Best First Novel and has been filmed twice. Ira Levin wrote it just after leaving college.