Widely known as a master of suspense, Woolrich was a prolific pulp writer who wrote under different pseudonyms, turning out hundreds of stories and 25 novels by the time of his death. An introvert, repressed homosexual and heavy drinker, for most of his adult life he lived in hotels with his mother, on whom he was fixated and whose death in 1957 marked the beginning of his decline. For three decades, he was extremely successful, his stories published in magazines and adapted for cinema, radio and television, the most famous being Alfred Hitchcock's film of Rear Window, while his novels sold well and many were also filmed. But he was cursed by an overwhelming sense of doom, feeling like an 'insect' that was trapped 'inside a downturned glass' and most of his characters were similarly ensnared. When he died he was diabetic, alcoholic and had had his leg amputated due to gangrene. He had virtually stopped writing, but royalties continued to pour in, and his estate was valued at nearly a million dollars.

The Bride Wore Black inaugurated the famous Black Series, which consisted of six novels and ended in 1948 with Rendezvous in Black. It is the unbearably painful story of a bride, Julie Killen, whose husband is killed on their wedding day, on the steps of the church just moments after they were married, by five drunk drivers in a speeding car. She vows to avenge her husband's death and sets out to find each of the men, spending years tracking them down and, one by one, killing them. But policeman Lew Wanger knows something else about her husband's death and is on her trail, desperately trying to stop her before she honors her deadly vow. Dark, tautly written and feverishly plotted, this is prime Woolrich.