This is perhaps the last great short story penned by Cornell Woolrich, and it is also one of his most powerful and poignant.

This novelette begins as a lovely romance between Linda and Mark. In fact, it almost seems that Woolrich is reverting to an earlier form and style, before he created the dark noir tales of suspense which would be his legacy. But it quickly morphs into an achingly sad tale of brutal sadism, and the woman trapped in its web. When a man named Gary enters the picture, the narrative threatens to become a romance once again, hope dangling in front of Linda.

To reveal more would ruin this for the reader, so I won't. I will say, however, that this Woolrich story, perhaps as much as any he ever penned, embodies his view of fate being almost an inescapable thing hovering over us, even laughing as we attempt to thwart it. Not all of Woolrich's protagonists were doomed by fate, however, despite what you may have heard, so the outcome of this story is very much in doubt until the last moment.

In a few short pages at the beginning, Woolrich paints Linda Harris and the romance in Rome so beautifully that the reader feels her anguish, fear, and desperation all the more as the story unfolds. In just over forty pages, Woolrich penned a small masterpiece that will never be forgotten by the reader:

“Every life is a mystery. And every story of every life is a mystery. But it is not what happens that is the mystery. It is whether it has to happen no matter what, whether it is ordered or ordained, fixed and fated, or whether it can be missed, avoided, circumvented, passed by; that is the mystery.

If she had not come along the Via Piemonte that day, would it still have happened? If she had come along the Via Piemonte that day, but ten minutes later than she did, would it still have happened? Therein lies the real mystery. And no one ever knows, and no one ever will.”

Few stories are unforgettable. This one is… ( )