“The room wanted her to leave. She could feel the pervasive hostility in the still, stale air, the corrosive bitterness of the abandoned, the sad, sour lassitude of the lost.” — Refuge

Fletcher Flora was a terrific writer who had the misfortune of arriving too late in the thriving pulp cycle to receive his due, but that doesn’t lessen the startling number of memorable short stories he penned for magazines and digests such as Manhunt, Ellery Queen, The Saint, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Verdict Detective, Alfred Hitchcock, and a few others forgotten by most. He had been a teacher before enlisting in the US Army during WWII, where he was injured by shrapnel which would give him problems throughout his lifetime. By the 1950s he was writing for the pulps, or what remained of them as they waned in favor of digests, to which he transitioned.

Originally published in the October issue of Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine of 1968, Refuge is an involving short story which has hints of Cornell Woolrich in its conception. Ellen is absolutely convinced that her wealthy husband, Clay Moran, has murder in his heart, and she lives in terror. Flora allows the reader into Ellen’s thoughts, and does a masterful job at creating tension and sympathy. No one is willing to believe her, because her mother went off the deep end, and had to be put away. Is Ellen going mad too?

If Ellen’s own father won’t believe her, and neither will the sheriff — despite Clay’s first wife having died in an unusual accident — who can she turn to for help? Her thoughts turn to Roger, a school teacher who once loved her dearly, and she seeks him out, hoping he’ll be her white knight, and end this nightmare.

Like a lot of Fletcher Flora’s long short stories, or novelettes, this is a classy noir with a great story and a true noir feel to it. A nifty and classy read in the genre from a great writer. ( )