Laura, By Vera Caspary

Otto Preminger's 1944 movie Laura started life as a sophisticated novelette penned by the Chicago writer Vera Caspary.

This ground-breaking slice of noir centred around the unsolved murder of Laura, a Manhattan femme fatale. When her disfigured body is found bleeding into the carpet of a smart Park Avenue apartment, her many suitors are the chief suspects.

We hear from five narrators, including the detective, but it's Laura herself who has the best lines:: "He will find me like a slut in a pink dress....Like a doll, like a dame, a woman to be used by a man and thrown aside."