A 1959 British Pan paperback of Latimer's The Lady in the Morgue.

The Lady in the Morgue (1936) is one of the novels by Jonathan Latimer featuring private detective William Crane. The lady of the title is a female corpse which is stolen from a Chicago morgue before the dead woman's identity can be established. 1959 (MCMLIX) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Paperback may refer to a kind of book binding by which papers are simply folded without cloth or leather and bound - usually with glue rather than stitches or staples - into a thick paper cover; or to a book with this type of binding. ... See also: 1935 in literature, other events of 1936, 1937 in literature, list of years in literature. ... Jonathan Wyatt Latimer (October 23, 1906—June 23, 1983) was an American crime writer. ... Chicago (officially named the City of Chicago) is the third largest city in the United States (after New York City and Los Angeles), with an official population of 2,896,016, as of the 2000 census. ... A morgue is a building or room (as in a hospital) used for the storage of human remains. ...

The book is to a large extent a send-up of the hardboiled school of crime writing. Crane is depicted as an ambivalent figure. Although he is tough and eventually solves the case through reasoning and cunning strategy, he is also a heavy drinker and ever so often prefers taking a nap to investigating the crime for which he has been hired. On the other hand, he is not afraid to deal with gangsters when he believes this might help him clear up the mystery. Hardboiled crime fiction is a uniquely American style pioneered by Dashiell Hammett, refined by Raymond Chandler, and endlessly imitated since by writers such as Mickey Spillane. ... This article or section contains information that has not been verified and thus might not be reliable. ...

Throughout the novel the true identity of the young, attractive woman found hanging dripping wet from a rope in her hotel room remains a mystery. Neither her clothes nor the conspicuous lack of any shoes provides the police with any clue as to what has happened, and they assume the woman has committed suicide. At the same time a young woman from a prominent New York family goes missing, but when the stolen body is retrieved by Crane her relatives assert that these are not her human remains. Only in the final pages is it found out that a case of switched identities is at the bottom of the riddle. Official language(s) None, English de facto Capital Albany Largest city New York City Area  - Total  - Width  - Length  - % water  - Latitude  - Longitude Ranked 27th 141,205 km² 455 km 530 km 13. ...

The Lady in the Morgue is remembered for its frank treatment of drug addiction among artists, for its frequent references to contemporary jazz and swing music, and for its bizarre setting (morgues, cemeteries). Drug addiction, or dependency is the compulsive use of drugs, to the point where the user has no effective choice but to continue use. ... Jazz master Louis Armstrong remains one of the most loved and best known of all jazz musicians. ... Swing music, also known as swing jazz, is a form of jazz music that solidified as a distinctive style during the 1930s in the United States. ... Graves at Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York A cemetery is a place (usually an enclosed area of land) in which dead bodies are buried. ...

Film adaptation

The Lady in the Morgue was adapted for the big screen in 1938 (aka The Case of the Missing Blonde in the UK). The screenplay was written by Eric Taylor and Robertson White; the film, which starred Preston Foster as Bill Crane, was directed by Otis Garrett. It has often been cited as a particularly well-made B-movie. See also: 1937 in film 1937 1939 in film 1930s in film years in film film // Events January — MGM announces that Judy Garland would be cast in the role of Dorothy in the upcoming Wizard of Oz motion picture. ... A screenplay or script is a blueprint for producing a motion picture. ... Preston Foster (August 24, 1901-July 14, 1970) was an American stage and film actor. ... The term B-movie originally referred to a film designed to be distributed as the lower half of a double feature, often a genre film featuring cowboys, gangsters or vampires. ...

Read on

• Raymond Chandler's Farewell, My Lovely for another case of switched identities.