Most would agree (or have said) that early Dorothy Hughes is
NOT hard-boiled, but folks may be interested in snippets from
reading notes on a couple of these novels, for the sake of
background to the more interesting titles: The Fallen
Sparrow, Ride the Pink Horse, In a Lonely Place, and The
Expendable Man:
The So Blue Marble, 1940, first mystery. Griselda,
protagonist, come back to NYC to sort her life out, after a
brief success in film, working as a
photographer/designer/model (?), living in her ex- husband's
(Con) apartment. Sister Anne, married, family; other sister,
Missy, just arriving after growing up on the Continent;
mother living in Rome with stepfather, aristocrat.
Characters all fr. rich set. In line of 30s society types who
get involved in crime--Thin Man, screwball comedy, where have
the rich, the reporters, sometimes professors, business
types, and finally the police come dragging in.
Introduced early are the identical twins, almost cartoonlike,
one with black hair, the other with blond hair. Both carry
canes with knife tips, gas ejection. Eyes hard and
glittering, like jewels. Twins seem to operate and move about
freely, without being watched, much as if we were in a John
Buchan thriller or some Eric Ambler East European setting,
with borders and official corruption creating openings for
crime. NO REAL PRESSURE FROM POLICE. Turns on a Maltese
Falcon device, the Blue Marble with a secret code inside,
invaluable, history of owner fatalities (96-97).
The Cross-Eyed Bear (1940) POV: ingenu, Lizanne Dene, recent
widow of heir to a fortune. Hus. killed, she flees to city,
to hunt for D's murderer. As with SBMar.'s Griselda, Lizanne
is brave, but ultimately in a world of men, one or more of
whom she must trust. Feelings, based on attractiveness cloud
judgement: Has she trusted the right one? That is the
question after she commits.
Bill Hagen
billha@ionet.net
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