Graham seems almost forgotten now, but there was a time from about the mid-'60s onwards when he was (deservedly) regarded as almost the major practitioner of the psychological thriller. Among those the best remembered is undoubtedly Marnie, famously filmed (so-soishly) by Hitchcock, but my own favourite (of those I read) was The Walking Stick, which carried the true Winston Graham hallmark of keeping me up all night to finish it. But Graham served his apprenticeship writing more straightforward detections, and Take My Life is one of these. The husband of newly married opera singer Philippa Shelley is almost inadvertently framed for a murder he didn't commit, and -- Scotland Yard not being much interested in looking beyond the obvious suspect -- it's up to her to prove him innocent before the death penalty ends all discussions of the matter. Change the setting a bit and you'd have the story at the heart of various classic noir movies.

Not classic Graham, but good satisfying stuff anyway. ( )