Strangers in My Bed

by Allen O'Quinn

It all happened to Willie in twenty-four hours - a long day and a long violent night - in a sleepy, red-dirt town in Georgia.
There was a fire - an assault - near murder.
Through it Willie lived almighty big.
For in that short space of time a girl made him into a man to reckon with.

142 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1955

Reviews

[Edwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good example of rural swamp noir, and a solid coming-of-age story, as kindly brother Willie tries to pick up the pieces when bad brother Elroy comes home from college and creates a unholy mess of everything. Although the title and cover blurbs promise some sleaze the book is not nearly as salacious, consisting of horny hillbillies talking about sex in metaphorical terms with no gratuitous or graphical depictions. The books touches on the discrimination of urban Southerners against the uneducated backwater folks, and some pretty disturbing examples of racism in the Deep South. A talented writer, Mr. O'Quinn wrote three backwoods/swamp novels for Gold Medal and then disappeared.