The Blackbirder

Espionage, adventure and a hard-boiled heroine not to be trifled with - this classic noir will have you gripped from start to finish

Dorothy B. Hughes ranks with Raymond Chandler and Patricia Highsmith as a master of mid-century noir

Nobody but Dorothy Hughes can cast suspense into such an uncanny spell

A gun molling wordslinger who took it to the tough guys . . . I simply call Hughes one damn good story teller

Dorothy B. Hughes (1904-93) was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and lived most of her life in New Mexico. A journalist and a poet, she began publishing hard-boiled crime novels in 1940, three of which were made into successful films: The Fallen Sparrow (1943), Ride the Pink Horse (1947) and In a Lonely Place (1950). In her later years, Hughes reviewed crime novels for the LA Times, the New York Herald Tribune and other papers. She was named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America.

Espionage, adventure and a hard-boiled heroine not to be trifled with - this classic noir will have you gripped from start to finish 
 
Julie Guilles is in trouble. She's fled her home in Occupied France for a seedy neighbourhood in New York and has been laying low - but not low enough. Because now she has the Gestapo, the FBI and her shady Uncle, the Duc de Guille, all on her tail, and her options are running out. Whispers of the Blackbirder reach her - a sinister figure who, for the right price, can promise safe passage across the border to New Mexico. 
 
Finding the Blackbirder is her only chance of escape - but what if the Blackbirder doesn't want to be found? 
 
'Dorothy B. Hughes ranks with Raymond Chandler and Patricia Highsmith as a master of mid-century noir' New York Review of Books

Dorothy B. Hughes

Dorothy B. Hughes was in a class of her own. To be a female author of hard-boiled fiction back in the 1940s was unusual enough, but to write a first-person narrative from the viewpoint of a male serial killer was breaking new ground by anybody's standards. She marked out this territory years before most other writers even knew it existed.

Max Decharne, author of Hardboiled Hollywood: The Origins of Great Crime Films

After the war, cynical veteran Dix Steele has moved to L.A., a city terrified by a strangler preying on young women. Bumping into an old friend, now a detective working on the case, Dix is thrilled by closely following the progress of the police. And meeting his new neighbour, sultry and beautiful actress Laurel Gray, brings even more excitement into his life. But the strangler is still prowling the streets - and Laurel may be in more danger than she realises...

In a Lonely Place

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Dorothy B. Hughes

Praise for In a Lonely Place

Dorothy B. Hughes was in a class of her own. To be a female author of hard-boiled fiction back in the 1940s was unusual enough, but to write a first-person narrative from the viewpoint of a male serial killer was br ...

Books by Dorothy B. Hughes

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