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'Alena'

by Rachel Pastan

“Rebecca” redux. This reimagining of Daphne du Maurier’s famous novel is set on Cape Cod where a young woman, never named, assumes the role of curator of a famous art gallery owned by a powerful man. No romance, he’s gay. The gallery employees are a surly, menacing lot, just like at Manderley, and she learns that the former curator, Alena, disappeared while swimming. The nameless heroine has reason to fear a similar fate.

‘The Mad Sculptor: The Maniac, the Model, and the Murder That Shook the Nation’

by Harold Schechter

Roger Irwin was a brilliant young sculptor formerly incarcerated in an insane asylum. A madman who had once tried to physically self-emasculate, he murdered a photography model and her mother at their Beekman Place apartment in the spring of 1937. A sensational trial followed. True crime, but the stuff of a great noir novel.

‘I Forgot to Remember: A Memoir of Amnesia’ Su Meck with Daniel de Visé

The true story of a woman who at the age of 22 was whacked by a ceiling fan and lost her memory. Otherwise, she physically recovered and was released from the hospital within weeks. That meant she was back home caring for two young boys while her husband traveled for work. Meck relearned basic skills, but spent what seemed a lifetime mimicking others, feeling an imposter. Quite the tale.