Nightmare in yellow door Frederic Brown

Title

The title from this story is Nightmare in Yellow. I think it’s a good chosen title because at the end when he already killed his wife, he switch the ‘yellow light’ on and everybody sees then that he had killed his wife.

Nederlandse Vertaling:

Nachtmerrie in het geel

Author

Fredric Brown is the writer. He was born at Oktober 29, 1906 in Cincinnati, Ohio USA. In his young years he was a young native Cincinnati boy and a college drop out.

He stepped in the spotlights with the publication of ‘The Fabulous Clipjoint’ in 1947. For years, he had been writing detective story’s that had been published in several famious magazines.

For that book he won a award. The Mystery Writers of America’s 1947 Edgar Award for Best First Novel.

Brown wrote science fiction and mystery novels and his mastery of both genres was impressive. After ‘The Fabulous Clipjoint’ he releaseded 22 other books, which had also great succes.

Fredric Brown’swork continued in a print after his death in 1972. A decade later, his many stories written for magazines and anthologies earlier in his career were collected for the first time in a defenitive edition. It ran to 16 volumes.

Time

I'm not sure in which year the story plays but in think somewhere in the beginning of the 90’s. The story is during 2 days, but they are talking about months and years before the most important thing in the story happens. The time in the story is really important because the man wants to kill he wife at the exact time when he was born on his fortieth birthday. It could happen in 2003/2004.

Place

The most important place in the story is the house of the man and wife because there happen all those things which make the story. The country isn’t noticed in the story.

Structure

There are 2 structures:
Suspense & Adventure

Narrator

The story is trough the eyes of the character but there is a possibility that the writer places himself into his character.

Characters

The main character is the man who tells his story. He hasn’t got a name but we know it’s a man. He is married with a woman who really cares about him. He is going trough a big changement > from a gentle houseman to a murderer.

Theme

There are 2 themes:
Suspense & Murder

Summary

A lawyer is married to a woman who cares a lot about him. At that day the man must become forty at forty-six minutes after eight. He wants to start a new life because he stole money and if his wife would notice she would go to the police. He also hated his wife, so he wants to start a new life without his wife by murdering her at the exact time he will be forty. He had planned everything by detail.

For his birthday his wife gave him a suitcase. She couldn’t expect what would happen to her. They went out eating and when they were finished they immediately left because he was running out of time.

When they arrived at home, he took a cosh and slammed her at her head. She was dead… Then he took her over his arm and brought her inside and put on the yellow light. Then he saw the people yelling ‘SURPRISE’.

His wife had organised a surprise party for her husband…