The Story of Ivy

Ivy Lexton is beautiful, extravagant, and almost entirely without conscience. Married to a kind but failing husband and infatuated with a wealthy admirer, she decides that the simplest way out of debt and boredom is to remove the man standing between her and the life she wants. Marie Belloc Lowndes traces the poisoning and its aftermath with cool precision, following Ivy as she charms, lies, and lets an innocent man drift toward the gallows in her place. First published in 1927, it is a chilling portrait of a shallow woman whose selfishness hardens into murder, and it later inspired the 1947 film Ivy. The suspense comes less from whether she will be caught than from watching just how far she is willing to go. Free to read as a PDF and EPUB.