In a Lonely Place
Ratings16
Average rating4.2
'The new crime and espionage series from Penguin Classics makes for a mouth-watering prospect' Daily Telegraph Los Angeles, the late 1940's. A serial killer stalks the foggy streets at night ... Dix Steele, a former fighter pilot, moved to L.A. after the war, looking for a new life. But the city is gripped by fear of a murderer in its midst. Dix, however, is not scared. And when he bumps into his old friend Brub, now a detective on the trail of the culprit, he is excited to follow the police's progress. A dark and terrible truth is revealed, in a noir novel like no other.
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I read this on kindle in Library of America's Women Crime Writers of the 1940s. I had questions about certain things in the text though, so also borrowed this NYRB edition from the library, so am reviewing it singly here.
I wasn't sure what to think of this. It read quickly and I didn't like Dix, but I had really liked The Expendable Man and... expected more I guess? The afterword to this edition though helped me make better sense of it all. You couldn't have the afterword as a sort of introduction, but I do wish I'd had more context going in. I'll be generous and give it the benefit of the afterword and go with four stars. I'll still try more Hughes I'm sure.
Less a thriller, more a deeply unsettling psychological ride in the head of a killer.
A great read. Not your normal mystery noir but very compelling. Enthralling study of a killer. Highly recommended. Keen to read more Dorothy B. Hughes.
