Short of Murder — Paul Ernst

She lay in her bed in the pleasant house on the tree-shaded street. For years her world had been bounded by the walls of her room, peopled only by her family, her doctor and nurse. There, Clara Campbell quietly waited for death, which might come in ten minutes, or in ten years. Yet, weak and helpless as she was, all unknowingly she exerted a strange and sinister influence over the lives of a dozen people -- both those she loved and those she had never known -- which was to bring them into a nightmare of death and destruction:

Todd Campbell, her husband. Outwardly a respected middle-aged businessman dedicated to the care of his invalid wife and their daughter, inwardly he battled his own seething desperation.

Diane, Clara and Todd's teen-age daughter. She possessed a violent hatred that threatened to destroy not only her father as well.

Dr. Frank Morgan, the Campbell's physician. If he talked to the police, an innocent man might be condemned to death, if he didn't, a murderer might remain at large -- to kill again.

Manon Lovell, widow of Todd's former business assistant. Attractive, lovely, afraid of what the swift-passing hours might bring, she was forced to act -- and boldly.

Jimmy Harrat, filling station attendant blinded in an accident. He did his honest best to swear away the life of the man who one day would pay so that he could see again.

Bert Scully, Manon's neighbor. Surprisingly well off for an unpublished photographer, he kept in his mind a “little address book” that contained the names of five women, until Manon's became the sixth -- and last.