Dorothy B. Hughes

in-a-lonely-place

About us

About Us (Header 4)

Kate-Atkinson

James-Baldwin

Marian-Keyes

haruki-murakami-320×320-1

Richard-Osman

Malorie Blackman

Lisa-Jewell

Charlie-Mackesy

Authors (Header 3)

Children&#039;s

Company

Discover

Fiction

Non-fiction

Penguin Classics

Penguin Shop (Header 5)

Useful links

Work with us

The Blackbirder

<a href="https://shop.penguin.co.uk/collections/book-bundles-modern-classics/?&amp;utm_source=Penguin.co.uk&amp;utm_medium=Linked_text&amp;utm_campaign=Penguin_Modern_Classics_Series_26_06">Choose 3 timeless classics for only £21 over on the Penguin Shop</a>

A Novel

History

Letters 1944-1959

Exiles

Poems

And Other Dystopian Novellas

The Portrait of My Double

The Lost Country

Mars in Aries

Cynics

The Cat

Woman in the Pillory

Vilhelm's Room

Collected Poems

Transfigurations

Selected Poems

This Is Not a Small Voice

Chinatown

Engagement

Wolf Solent

<a href="https://shop.penguin.co.uk/collections/book-bundles-clothbound-classics/?&amp;utm_source=Penguin.co.uk&amp;utm_medium=Banner&amp;utm_campaign=Penguin_Clothbound_Series_26_06" target="_blank">Buy 3 classics for £33 on the Penguin Shop</a>

Dubliners

Suspicion

Visual Politics

Art on My Mind

Orlando

In a Lonely Place

Penguin Shop: 3 Clothbound Classics for £33

Dorothy B. Hughes is the unsung godmother of every feisty female investigator who has hit the streets in the last twenty-five years

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.

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.

Dix Steele is back in town, and 'town' is post-war LA. His best friend Brub is on the force of the LAPD, and as the two meet in country clubs and beach bars, they discuss the latest case: a strangler is preying on young women in the dark. Dix listens with interest as Brub describes their top suspect, as yet unnamed. Dix loves the dark and women in equal measure, so he knows enough to watch his step, though when he meets the luscious Laurel Gray, something begins to crack. The American Dream is showing its seamy underside.

'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.

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.

In a Lonely Place

Format:

Buy the book from:

About the series

My favourite crime writer. Full stop

Dorothy B. Hughes is the unsung godmother of every feisty female investigator who has hit the streets in the last twenty-five years

If you wake up in the night screaming with terror, don't say we didn't warn you.

An excellent novel

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.

About Dorothy B. Hughes

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter