Keziah Dane is a 1967

1967 in literature

The year 1967 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Influential science fiction anthology Dangerous Visions published.*Cecil Day-Lewis is selected as the new Poet Laureate of the UK.-New books:...

 novel by Sue Grafton

Sue Grafton

Sue Taylor Grafton is a contemporary American author of detective novels. She is best known as the author of the 'alphabet series' featuring private investigator Kinsey Millhone in the fictional city of Santa Teresa, California. The daughter of detective novelist C. W...

. A work of mainstream fiction, this novel was published by Grafton when she was 27 years old. This is one of only two Sue Grafton novels published before her more famous "Alphabet" series of mystery novels.

This is the fourth novel Grafton wrote but the first one published. Originally written under the title The Seventh Day of Keziah Dane, Grafton entered the unpublished novel in an Anglo-American Book Award contest. The novel did not win, but it drew a publication offer from a British publisher which Grafton used to get an agent who got the book an American publisher, Macmillan

Macmillan Publishers

Macmillan Publishers Ltd, also known as The Macmillan Group, is a privately held international publishing company owned by Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. It has offices in 41 countries worldwide and operates in more than thirty others.-History:...

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Plot summary

Keziah Dane is a widow who lives "on the brink of poverty" with her children in a small Kentucky town. She lost her husband in a flood that also devastated their town. A vagrant named Web gains Keziah's trust then attempts to rape her eldest daughter. The daughter fends off the attack but kills Web in the process. The body is dumped in the flooded town and unexpected complications ensue for the Dane family.

Critical reaction

Contemporary reaction was positive with featured reviews in The New York Times and Los Angeles Times, among others. Reviewer Marjorie Driscoll noted that Grafton presented her "widely varied array of characters" in a "sympathetic and understanding story" while displaying her "versatility" by "making them all very real."