'Puts Chandler to shame ... Hughes is the master we keep turning to' Sara Paretsky

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 was adapted for film in 1950, with Humphrey Bogart as Dix Steele.

About the Author
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.

Reviews
My favourite crime writer. Full stop -- Sara Weinman * Los Angeles Review of Books *
Dorothy B. Hughes is the unsung godmother of every feisty female investigator who has hit the streets in the last twenty-five years -- Val McDermind
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
If you wake up in the night screaming with terror, don't say we didn't warn you. * New York Times Book Review *
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
An excellent novel -- David Thomson * Have You Seen...? *
A tour de force . . . The structure is flawless, and the scenes of postwar L.A. have an immediacy that puts Chandler to shame. No wonder Hughes is the master we keep turning to. -- Sara Paretsky



Book Information
ISBN 9780141192314
Author Dorothy B. Hughes
Format Paperback
Page Count 192
Imprint Penguin Classics
Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
Weight(grams) 145g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 11mm