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The Cruel Tower is a dog-and-pony variation of a well-worn triangle plot. John Ericson is a handsome young steeplejack, working side-by-side on a dizzying new structure with brooding partner Charles McGraw. Mari Blanchard is McGraw's beautiful young wife, whose history of illicit romances immediately arouses McGraw's suspicions vis-a-vis Ericson. The problem with all of these "dangerous profession" mellers is that the villain invariably hatches a scheme to make a murder look like an accident--and nearly always ends up the victim of his own scheme. For a while in The Cruel Tower, however, it appears as though John Ericson is really going to fall for Mari Blanchard.