Punishment And No Crime

Title: The Blunderer

Rating: 4 Stars

Walter Stackhouse is unhappy. It’s all the fault of his wife Clara. Neurotic and high strung, she harasses Walter incessantly. She is in the process of alienating all of his friends. She falsely accuses Walter of having an affair with Ellie, a music teacher. Somehow the false accusation motivates Walter. He now starts having an affair with Ellie. Ellie is everything that Clara isn’t. Walter tells Clara that he is going to divorce her. As a result, she attempts suicide and nearly dies. Momentarily reuniting them, Walter and Clara fall back once again to their bickering.

While this is happening, Walter reads about the murder of Helen Kimmel. She was murdered at a rest stop while on a long distance bus ride. Walter imagines her husband, Melchior, following behind the bus, waiting for the bus to stop, calling to Helen, and then strangling her.  Walter even visits Kimmel to see if he has the look of a killer. Walter begins to fantasize about killing Clara.

Clara’s mother falls deathly ill. Even though they’re not close, Clara decides to ride the bus to visit her. His fantasies coming to life, Walter follows the bus. At its first rest stop, all passengers disembark. Walter, now out of his car, tries to find Clara. She is nowhere to be found. The bus leaves. Confused, Walter goes home.

He wakes up the next morning to the news that Clara’s body was found at the bottom of a cliff at the rest stop. It is assumed to be suicide. Especially given the fact that she’d just recovered from a previous attempt, this seems logical to the police. 

However, Walter was seen at the rest stop. Understandably suspicious, the police, in particular one LT Colby, begins a dogged investigation. At first denying that he was at the rest stop, Walter admits it. He can give no plausible reason for being there. Colby discovers how unhappy Walter and Clara were. He learns that Walter purchased a plane ticket to Reno to procure a divorce. He discovers the affair with Ellie. In Walter’s office, he finds the news clipping about the Kimmel murder.

Colby identifies the similarities between Clara’s murder and Helen’s murder. Eventually Walter confesses to meeting Melchior before the murder. Convinced that Melchior actually did murder his wife, Colby repeatedly tries to beat a confession out of Melchior. Given that there was no police suspicion on him before Walter interfered, Melchior tries to blackmail Walter for money. Walter refuses and Melchior goes public with a false accusation that Walter confessed to him that he murdered his wife.

This confession, along with all of the other inflammatory publicity that Colby had already leaked out, ruins Walter life. Ellie deserts him, he quit his job before he was going to be fired anyway, his partner for a prospective law practice backed out, and all of his friends, convinced of his guilt, have abandoned him. Melchior, outraged that his libel hasn’t resulted in the arrest of Walter, is now out to kill him. It’s fair to say, especially in the world of Highsmith’s noir, that no happy ending awaits Walter.

Remember that he is innocent of the initiating action. He has moments of hallucination where he visualizes killing Clara, but in fact, he didn’t. It might have been an accident, but in all likelihood, Clara probably committed suicide. If so, her revenge is complete. By the end of the novel, Walter is ruined, a murderer, and finally, is himself murdered. She could ask for nothing more.

What’s really interesting about this novel is how Walter brings all of this onto his own head. Walter, at least up to the point of Clara’s death, has committed no crime, but his punishment is extreme. Although not guilty, his actions inevitably lead to his ruin. You hear Walter’s interior thoughts. He’s convinced that every new idea or action that he comes up with will lead to some positive progress but instead is just another shovelful of dirt on his grave.

He lies when he doesn’t need to. In lying, he makes himself look so much more guilty. He simply can’t leave Melchior alone. Every time he visits him is just more evidence to Colby that the two are in cahoots. His friends stand by him, and since they know Clara, are sympathetic to his plight, until the bad publicity and his own suspicious actions drive them away. Ellie stands by him the longest, but even she ends up finding the weight of evidence against Walter (most of which was the direct result of his actions) is overwhelming.

Highsmith is particularly ingenious here. This is a crime noir. There is a femme fatale and a love triangle. The central character is a pretty hapless man that gets wrapped up in a web of intrigue. There is an implacable detective trying to get to the truth.

However, it’s also not a traditional crime noir. The central crime is actually not a crime. The femme fatale is a neurotic shrew, not some manipulative spider spinning webs of deceit. Every move that the protagonist makes is not only the wrong move but is actually the right move if the goal is ruination. The detective, not a good guy at all, ruthlessly beats Melchior, seemingly more interested in the glory of catching two murderers with one stroke than any pursuit of truth.

Although not as well known as other of her novels, I found this to be one of Highsmith’s strongest efforts.