The Blackbirder

The Blackbirder

Summary

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

Reviews

  • Dorothy B. Hughes ranks with Raymond Chandler and Patricia Highsmith as a master of mid-century noir
    New York Review of Books

About the author

Dorothy B. Hughes

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.
Learn More

Sign up to the Penguin Newsletter

For the latest books, recommendations, author interviews and more