Published by the Feminist Press

      at the City University of New York

      The Graduate Center

      365 Fifth Avenue, Suite 5406

      New York, NY 10016

      feministpress.org

      First Feminist Press Edition, 2005

      Copyright © 1942, 1943 by Vera Caspary

      Afterword copyright 2005 by A.B. Emrys

      All rights reserved.

      No part of this book may be reproduced, used, or stored in any information retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission from the Feminist Press at the City University of New York, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

      Originally published by Pocket Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., with special arrangement with Houghton Mifflin Company.

      Cover and text design by Drew Stevens

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Caspary, Vera 1904-1987.

       Laura / by Vera Caspary ; afterword by A.B. Emrys.

       p. cm. ­— (Femmes fatales : women write pulp)

       ISBN 978-1-55861-505-2

       eISBN 978-1-55861-883-1

       1. Police­—New York (State)­—New York­—Fiction. 2. Manhattan (New York, N.Y.)­—Fiction. 3. Mistaken identity­—Fiction. 4. Single women—­Fiction. I. Title. II. Series.

       PS3503.A84L28 2006

       813’.52­dc22

      2005029369