Night Shift

Originally published in 1942, Maritta Wolff 'sNight Shiftwas an instant commercial success, receiving rave reviews and praise for her effortless grasp of human nature and stunning ear for dialogue. Now, it joins Wolff 's first novel,Whistle Stop, and her last,Sudden Rain, in a reissue that brings new readers to this riveting writer.Sally Otis works herself to the bone as a waitress, supporting her three children and a jobless younger sister. With her bills mounting and no rest in sight, Sally's resolve is beginning to crumble when her swaggering older sister, Petey Braun, appears on the scene. Petey, with her furs and jewels and exotic trips, is an American career woman -- one who makes a career of men. But when Petey gets a gig at the glamorous, rowdy local nightclub, it will forever alter the world of the struggling Otis family.A swift-paced tale full of tension, excitement, violence, and even bloodshed,Night Shiftpossesses the vividness of a documentary and the page-turning quality of the best commercial fiction -- even decades after its first publication.

Maritta Wolff was born in 1918 in Michigan. Whistle Stop, her first novel, won the Avery Hopwood Award in 1940. A runaway bestseller, the book was also printed as a special Armed Forces edition for American troops during World War II. Whistle Stop was made into a feature film in 1946, starring Ava Gardner. In the next two decades, Ms. Wolff authored more than five novels, but she hid her final, unpublished manuscript in her refrigerator until her death in 2002. Rediscovered, that novel, Sudden Rain, is available from Scribner.