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Go Home, Stranger
A celebrated actress steps out of a shower and finds her husband murdered on the floor of their hotel room.
A beautiful key witness takes it on the lam for no apparent reason. An inconspicuous fishing boat mysteriously explodes in a Gulf Coast harbor, blowing to shreds two men who could never be identified.
The only explanation was a man named Rupert Conway - who had disappeared from the face of the earth, or, maybe was six feet under it - or, perhaps, never actually existed at all...
A beautiful key witness takes it on the lam for no apparent reason. An inconspicuous fishing boat mysteriously explodes in a Gulf Coast harbor, blowing to shreds two men who could never be identified.
The only explanation was a man named Rupert Conway - who had disappeared from the face of the earth, or, maybe was six feet under it - or, perhaps, never actually existed at all...
158 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1954
9 people are currently reading
74 people want to read
About the author
Charles Williams
30Ìýbooks95ÌýfollowersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ database with this name.
Please see: Charles Williams
Charles Williams was one of the preeminent authors of American crime fiction. Born in Texas, he dropped out of high school to enlist in the US Merchant Marine, serving for ten years (1929-1939) before leaving to work in the electronics industry. He was a radio inspector during the war years at the Puget Sound Navy Yard in Washington state. At the end of World War II, Williams began writing fiction while living in San Francisco. The success of his backwoods noir Hill Girl (1951) allowed him to quit his job and write fulltime.
Williams’s clean and somewhat casual narrative style distinguishes his novels—which range from hard-boiled, small-town noir to suspense thrillers set at sea and in the Deep South. Although originally published by pulp fiction houses, his work won great critical acclaim, with Hell Hath No Fury (1953) becoming the first paperback original to be reviewed by legendary New York Times critic Anthony Boucher. Many of his novels were adapted for the screen, such as Dead Calm (published in 1963) and Don’t Just Stand There! (published in 1966), for which Williams wrote the screenplay.
After the death of his wife Lasca (m. 1939) from cancer in 1972, Williams purchased property on the California-Oregon border where he lived alone for a time in a trailer. After relocating to Los Angeles, Williams committed suicide in his apartment in the Van Nuys neighborhood in early April 1975. Williams had been depressed since the death of his wife, and his emotional state worsened as sales of his books declined when stand alone thrillers began to lose popularity in the early 70s. He was survived by a daughter, Alison.
Please see: Charles Williams
Charles Williams was one of the preeminent authors of American crime fiction. Born in Texas, he dropped out of high school to enlist in the US Merchant Marine, serving for ten years (1929-1939) before leaving to work in the electronics industry. He was a radio inspector during the war years at the Puget Sound Navy Yard in Washington state. At the end of World War II, Williams began writing fiction while living in San Francisco. The success of his backwoods noir Hill Girl (1951) allowed him to quit his job and write fulltime.
Williams’s clean and somewhat casual narrative style distinguishes his novels—which range from hard-boiled, small-town noir to suspense thrillers set at sea and in the Deep South. Although originally published by pulp fiction houses, his work won great critical acclaim, with Hell Hath No Fury (1953) becoming the first paperback original to be reviewed by legendary New York Times critic Anthony Boucher. Many of his novels were adapted for the screen, such as Dead Calm (published in 1963) and Don’t Just Stand There! (published in 1966), for which Williams wrote the screenplay.
After the death of his wife Lasca (m. 1939) from cancer in 1972, Williams purchased property on the California-Oregon border where he lived alone for a time in a trailer. After relocating to Los Angeles, Williams committed suicide in his apartment in the Van Nuys neighborhood in early April 1975. Williams had been depressed since the death of his wife, and his emotional state worsened as sales of his books declined when stand alone thrillers began to lose popularity in the early 70s. He was survived by a daughter, Alison.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
July 8, 2022
Apparently at some point in the past I’d marked this novel as “Read�. I was incorrect� this was my first time reading this ridiculously slow paced thriller.
It features the usual Williams nautical themes in the last third but mostly it’s a promising “men’s adventure� tale. Two fisted engineer/adventurer arrives in a fictional Gulfcoast town to find his sister in the jug, framed for murdering her ex-husband.
His sister is a famous TV/Radio star and the local rubes just love the publicity they garner for cracking a murder case with a famous star taking the fall. Her tough guy brother, convinced of his sister’s innocence, sets out to solve the murder case himself.
After the first 3 or 4 chapters his sister is mostly forgotten as the manly main character fools around in the swamp, battling assorted suspects in the bayous and sloughs, dodging bullets and redneck powder-monkeys, and meeting his true love along the way.
It’s a page turner but the ending is too pat and the real murderer easily discerned midway through.
I should give it 4 stars but it felt like the author was jerking the reader’s chain the final twenty something pages: Hey! It’s this guy! Ooops!- it’s that guy� wait-a-minnit- - - it’s that other guy!
Would’ve made a dandy Abbott & Costello movie.
It features the usual Williams nautical themes in the last third but mostly it’s a promising “men’s adventure� tale. Two fisted engineer/adventurer arrives in a fictional Gulfcoast town to find his sister in the jug, framed for murdering her ex-husband.
His sister is a famous TV/Radio star and the local rubes just love the publicity they garner for cracking a murder case with a famous star taking the fall. Her tough guy brother, convinced of his sister’s innocence, sets out to solve the murder case himself.
After the first 3 or 4 chapters his sister is mostly forgotten as the manly main character fools around in the swamp, battling assorted suspects in the bayous and sloughs, dodging bullets and redneck powder-monkeys, and meeting his true love along the way.
It’s a page turner but the ending is too pat and the real murderer easily discerned midway through.
I should give it 4 stars but it felt like the author was jerking the reader’s chain the final twenty something pages: Hey! It’s this guy! Ooops!- it’s that guy� wait-a-minnit- - - it’s that other guy!
Would’ve made a dandy Abbott & Costello movie.
December 23, 2009
In one type of Gold Medal PBO, the protagonist finds himself plunged into a crime-driven crisis: Perhaps he is accused of a crime that he did not commit, or perhaps he chooses to participate in a seemingly harmless crime that goes horribly wrong, or perhaps there is some other scenario involving crime and the protagonists' life spiraling out of control. In any case, such plots can make for compelling reading, as Charles Williams and his Gold Medal stablemates showed over and over again (for Williams, see A Touch of Death and Hell Hath No Fury). But Go Home, Stranger deviates from this general formula in a crucial way: It is not the protagonist, Pete Reno, who is caught up in a crime; rather, it is his sister, and she stays off stage for virtually the entire book while Pete runs around playing amateur detective and trying to prove her innocence. The result is remarkably bland; instead of a character desperately trying to extricate himself from a nightmare, we have a character trying to solve a puzzle that does not involve him, which is not nearly as interesting, even if someone is trying to kill him to prevent him from discovering the truth. Put another way, to a reader expecting the Charles Williams brand of noir, Go Home, Stranger will seem too much like a whodunit.
April 14, 2021
This is a mystery-thriller rather than a noir-thriller and it loses quite a bit of the edge that Charles Williams novels usually have because it sticks to the conventions of the mystery genre. The basic plot is that the protagonist - Pete Reno - needs to solve the mystery to save his sister who's facing the electric chair. So right from the start this story is somewhat tepid because we don't have the urgency of Reno trying to save his own skin. The third-person narration also pushes us a bit farther away from Reno and is another drop in urgency. These are perhaps subtle points, but all you need to do is read Williams' A Touch of Death to feel the difference. Williams wrote such great action sequences so it is hard to dislike this novel even if it does seem one of his weaker ones. You have car chases, boat chases, gun battles, and plenty of lurking about in the bayou. So, better than OK. And it also makes one realize how great his best novels are if this is a weakling.
June 22, 2017
“Go Home, Stranger� is another excellent pulp thriller by Charles Williams. It is a great read from start to finish. Pete Reno heads directly for Waynesport somewhere on the Gulf Coast after hearing that his sister, Vickie, a famous actress, has been arrested for murdering her husband, Reno’s best friend, after catching him after midnight walking into a hotel with another woman. She was found in the hotel room with the body and the murder weapon showed evidence of having been thrown out a fourteenth story window. She claims she was in the bathroom and, when she came out, she heard the gunshot and saw the killer bolt out the door. With motive, opportunity, and means, the case appears cut and dried and no one believes her story, no one other than Reno.
Working on barely any clues, Reno realizes that Mac, the deceased, was out in Waynesport, chasing leads on a character who had been dealing black market goods in Italy while in the army. Reno follows the leads to a small fishing camp and nothing there makes much sense to him, but he knows he is onto something.
The bullets fly on more than one occasion as Reno ducks the gunfire and dives into the bayou on more than one occasion. There are explosions in the bayou and mysterious characters that do not seem to want him around. Reno finds the intriguing woman who fits the description that Vickie gave of the other woman and starts stalking her to see where she’ll lead him. If nothing else, he enjoys watching those dark brown eyes and beautifully tanned face.
This story is filled with action, intrigue, romance, and just good old- fashioned storytelling. Nobody tells a story as good as Charles Williams does. This is a solid thriller and keeps the reader guessing all the way through.
Working on barely any clues, Reno realizes that Mac, the deceased, was out in Waynesport, chasing leads on a character who had been dealing black market goods in Italy while in the army. Reno follows the leads to a small fishing camp and nothing there makes much sense to him, but he knows he is onto something.
The bullets fly on more than one occasion as Reno ducks the gunfire and dives into the bayou on more than one occasion. There are explosions in the bayou and mysterious characters that do not seem to want him around. Reno finds the intriguing woman who fits the description that Vickie gave of the other woman and starts stalking her to see where she’ll lead him. If nothing else, he enjoys watching those dark brown eyes and beautifully tanned face.
This story is filled with action, intrigue, romance, and just good old- fashioned storytelling. Nobody tells a story as good as Charles Williams does. This is a solid thriller and keeps the reader guessing all the way through.
February 19, 2025
That's What She Said and That's What He Said
Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart? Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant? Doris Day and Rock Hudson? Admiral Rachel Levine and Chris Cuomo?
Nope. Pat and Pete. Yes, that's what she said. And that's what he said. Honest.
Now, maybe CKW invented this scene, maybe he was the first, a pioneer. But that's all the worse: He Invented a Crime. The uncontrolled eye-rolling from this scene has caused countless eye injuries and is a far bigger and enduring public health issue than The Hoax could ever hope to be.
But I still liked the book and it kept me reading.
I'm no prefesser, I know nothing of characterization, imagery, poetics, protagonists, denouments, genres, milieus, harbingers, lyricalness, grippingness, blisteringness, tautitude, epics (sweeping or otherwise), dark comics, dangerous games of cat-and-mouse, roller-coaster rides, or even rolllicking romps. And I wouldn't know an Immersive Art Experience if it offered to buy me drinks all night and emptied my ashtray without asking.
I want a book to entertain me and kill time. Just like TV should.
But, when TV and movie guys discovered the above scene they stuck it in EVER SINGLE SHOW. And that pisses me off.
CKW wrote Hot Spot though. So he can do no wrong. Five Thumbs Up. But I'm still pissed off. Because I LIKE being pissed off.
"No," she said flatly. "I'm going with you."
"You can't," he snapped, "it's too dangerous."
Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart? Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant? Doris Day and Rock Hudson? Admiral Rachel Levine and Chris Cuomo?
Nope. Pat and Pete. Yes, that's what she said. And that's what he said. Honest.
Now, maybe CKW invented this scene, maybe he was the first, a pioneer. But that's all the worse: He Invented a Crime. The uncontrolled eye-rolling from this scene has caused countless eye injuries and is a far bigger and enduring public health issue than The Hoax could ever hope to be.
But I still liked the book and it kept me reading.
I'm no prefesser, I know nothing of characterization, imagery, poetics, protagonists, denouments, genres, milieus, harbingers, lyricalness, grippingness, blisteringness, tautitude, epics (sweeping or otherwise), dark comics, dangerous games of cat-and-mouse, roller-coaster rides, or even rolllicking romps. And I wouldn't know an Immersive Art Experience if it offered to buy me drinks all night and emptied my ashtray without asking.
I want a book to entertain me and kill time. Just like TV should.
But, when TV and movie guys discovered the above scene they stuck it in EVER SINGLE SHOW. And that pisses me off.
CKW wrote Hot Spot though. So he can do no wrong. Five Thumbs Up. But I'm still pissed off. Because I LIKE being pissed off.
May 18, 2023
I never thought there would be a day when I would give a Charles Williams book two stars. He is my favorite writer and the author of some of my favorite books. But this one from 1954 shows he was human.
The story is just too confusing. There are main characters who have similar names, starting with the same initials...something I always detest. It takes me half the book to get them straight. And then there is a character who may or may not be dead, or may not even exist. The mystery concerns the killing of a man who was investigating the disappearance of another man. There's an explosion that kills two people who may or may not be the people who are missing. And a female character who is masquerading as one person but is actually someone else. There were times in this story when I felt completely lost.
However, true to form, Williams delivers some fantastic writing. One scene features a woman driving off of a bridge and being trapped underwater in her car. I almost felt myself gasping for air as I read about the protagonist's effort to save her. It is a spectacular scene.
I still love Charles Williams and will read everything by him I can find. But this one was, in my humble opinion, a dud.
The story is just too confusing. There are main characters who have similar names, starting with the same initials...something I always detest. It takes me half the book to get them straight. And then there is a character who may or may not be dead, or may not even exist. The mystery concerns the killing of a man who was investigating the disappearance of another man. There's an explosion that kills two people who may or may not be the people who are missing. And a female character who is masquerading as one person but is actually someone else. There were times in this story when I felt completely lost.
However, true to form, Williams delivers some fantastic writing. One scene features a woman driving off of a bridge and being trapped underwater in her car. I almost felt myself gasping for air as I read about the protagonist's effort to save her. It is a spectacular scene.
I still love Charles Williams and will read everything by him I can find. But this one was, in my humble opinion, a dud.
December 30, 2017
OK read a bit confusing until things come together in the end. Takes place in the bayou.
August 7, 2020
High class noir, some of the best I’ve ever read.
April 5, 2023
Charles Williams "" is possibly the best crime novel I've ever read. It blew me away. I've been reading some of his others works and they don't even come close. This is a simple mystery only noticeable for it bayou setting. The suspense is mediocre and everything is predictable. Not worth it.
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