Search Results: Dorothy B. Hughes from I Cannot Live Without Books

Dread Journey (American Mystery Classics) by Dorothy B. Hughes
Hollywood big-shot Vivien Spender has waited ages to produce the work that will be his masterpiece: a film adaptation of Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain. He's spent years grooming young starlets for the lead role, only to discard each one when a newer, fresher face enters his view. Afterward, these rejected women all immediately fall from grace: excised from the world of pictures, they end up in rehab, jail, or worse. But Kitten Agnew, the most recent candidate, won't be gotten rid of so easily -- her contract simply won't allow it. Accompanied by Mr. Spender on a train journey from Los Angeles to New York, she fears that the producer might be considering a deadly alternative. Something will happen before they reach their destination and, as the train barrels through America's heartland, the tension accelerates towards an inescapable finale.
Dread Journey is a taut thriller that exemplifies Dorothy B. Hughes's greatest strengths as a… Read More

Ride the Pink Horse (American Mystery Classics) by Dorothy B. Hughes
Senator Willis Douglass isn't a senator anymore; when his tenure ended, he left Chicago, a trail of corruption, and a murder rap behind and ran off to Santa Fe. He left his fixer, Sailor, behind as well, but Sailor, anxious to collect the blood money he'd been promised for their last wicked deed, followed soon thereafter with blackmail on his mind. There's just one problem when Sailor arrives in New Mexico, a yearly carnival has filled the hotels -- and the streets -- with out-of-towners, leaving him suddenly homeless amid a frenzied celebration.
Down and out in a strange land, Sailor must rely on the kindness of strangers to survive -- a task made all the more challenging by his own bigotry. And when another man from Chicago appears in town with his own score to settle, Sailor's simple shake-down becomes a lot more complicated.
A tough and gritty novel that confronts the racism its author observed in her Southwestern home, Ride the… Read More

The So Blue Marble (American Mystery Classics) by Dorothy B. Hughes
The society pages announce it before she even arrives: Criselda Satterlee, daughter of the princess of Rome has left her career as an actress behind and is traveling to Manhattan to reinvent herself as a fashion designer. They also announce the return of the dashing Montefierrow twins to New York after a twelve-year sojourn in Europe. But after these three aristocrats meet during an evening walk, their polite conversation quickly takes a menacing turn: the twins have purposefully sought Griselda out to demand the rare and powerful gem they believe to be stashed in her apartment. Baffled by their request, she pushes them away, but they won't take no for an answer. And when they return, accompanied by Griselda's long-estranged younger sister, the murders begin.
Drenched in the glamour and luxury of the New York elite, The So Blue Marble is a suspense novel in which nothing is quite as it seems. In 1941, the book was included in Howard… Read More