Attractive and charming, Earnest Ralph Gorse is quick to ingratiate himself with the ladies. He is also a con man, and he bides his time until he can take full advantage of his intended victims. An unflinching chronicler of the dark side, Patrick Hamilton wrote the novel Hangover Square and the plays Gas Light and Rope. Hamilton penned this gripping trilogy—The West Pier, Mr. Stimpson and Mr. Gorse and Unknown Assailant—in the mid-1950s, earning the praise of Graham Greene and L.P. Hartley.