Long before "Desperate Housewives," there was Bedelia: pretty, ultra femme, and "adoring as a kitten." A perfect housekeeper and lover, she wants nothing more than to please her insecure new husband, who can't believe his luck. But is Bedelia too good to be true? A mysterious new neighbor turns out to be a detective on the trail of a "kitten with claws of steel"a picture-perfect wife with a string of dead husbands in her wake. Caspary builds this tale to a peak of psychological suspense as her characters are trapped together by a blizzard. The true Bedelia, the woman who chose murder over a life on the street, reveals how she turns male fantasies of superiority into a deadly con. Femmes Fatales restores to print the best of women s writing in the classic pulp genres of the mid-20th century. From mystery to hard-boiled noir to taboo lesbian romance, these rediscovered queens of pulp offer subversive perspectives on a turbulent era. Enjoy the series: "Bedelia"; "Bunny Lake Is Missing"; "By Cecile"; "The G-String Murders"; "The Girls in 3-B"; "Laura"; "The Man Who Loved His Wife"; "Mother Finds a Body"; "Now, Voyager"; "Return to Lesbos"; "Skyscraper"; "Stranger on Lesbos"; "Stella Dallas"; "Women's Barracks.

"".