In A Lonely Place by Dorothy Hughes is a classic psychological suspense story that is considered one of the finest examples of Noir. It stands the test of time with it’s setting of post-war Los Angeles as it exposes the main character as one of the most memorable villains of all time.

With it’s hard-boiled prose, intense characters, and dark atmosphere the story pulls the reader into the world of Dixon Steele. He is unemployed but educated, dependant upon the allowance that his uncle provides while he pretends to be writing a book when in fact, he is a hunter of young women. He lives in an absent friend’s apartment, drives the friend’s car, uses his charge cards and even wears his clothes. He looks up an old friend and finds to his surprise the friend is now a police detective who is working on the ongoing case of a serial killer. Dix decides to encourage the friendship so that he can obtain information of how the police are working this case.

In a Lonely Place was a stellar read. The author, Dorothy Hughes, delves into the mind of a psychopath and we are treated to a dark but fascinating character study. The story unfolds entirely from Dixon’s viewpoint. What he sees and feels is expressed through his narration and the author does an amazing job of showing the various layers of this man’s personality. ( )

A well written crime thriller set in Los Angeles of the 1940s. Hughes adopts the voice of a war veteran turned killer and documents his psychological unravelling over the course of several months. Misogyny embodied. ( )

I'm not the biggest fan of killer POV works, but they broke the mold with this one. Languorous, dark, and smoky. ( )

a study in madness... dark, tense, and ultimately very sad.

This is NOT the movie!!
(if you are interested in both, I strongly suggest reading the novel first.) ( )

I had heard Dorothy Hughes's name but not read any of her work. She is brilliant. This book is fantastic, the creation of the narrator's character grows and becomes ominous, then tougher than ominous. The other major characters are very well-formed and alive. This book is extraordinary. It is also different from the movie of the same name which was adapted from this book. I like both very much. ( )

4.75


Not just a good noir, but an excellent character drama. Good prose, great dialogue. It all flows and reads so well. Tight and rich.

My one minor qualm is that the ending feels just a little (little) bit rushed.

The film is also excellent, and less explicit (if my memory serves me). Not a criticism of the book in any way, just an observation. It's always a credit to a book if it manages to suck me in when I've already witnessed the story on screen. ( )

A noir classic, this novel takes place in post-WW2 Los Angeles.

Yes, this is a crime novel, but really it is a study of a criminal. The reader learns very quickly what is going on, but reading the story is watching the criminal's take on his own cleverness. Meanwhile the reader wonders when the people around him--including the police--will figure it out. Of course, maybe they already have, and are simply collecting evidence for a successful arrest and charging.

One of the main characters here, though, is Los Angeles. Late 1940s Los Angeles, which most definitely is not the same as modern Los Angeles. Beverly Glen Road is no longer a rural outpost above the city--it is lined with nice houses and is a "shortcut" commuting corridor. There are no longer drive-ins with carhops, and for all the driving around in this book there is no traffic. Because 1940s!

The description of Palisades Park, the California Incline, and Santa Monica Canyon still hold true, for the most part (no more foghorns, and it is 7th Street that drops from San Vicente down into the canyon, not 4th, and it is much more densely populated now). But the fog, the mist, the creepiness of it at night when it is quiet--it is still on point.

I have heard this book described as being very "gray" (it's noir, the NYRB cover is B&W, characters are named Steele and Gray). For me, though, this book was in vivid color. San Vicente is GREEN with trees and grass. Wilshire Blvd is lit up. The sky is BLUE unless it is foggy--and then yes, it is gray and monotone.

I really enjoyed the visit to 1940s LA, but the story itself is not my favorite type of book. I prefer mysteries where the reader is trying to figure it out (and it is possible to figure it out), or psychological studies like Perfume: The Story of a Murderer in which the creepy factor is over-the-top. But this is personal preference, and I plan to watch the movie (which is supposed to be VERY different) soon. ( )

The only thing I would add to the reviews here is that there are way too many passages where there is Dix or someone else lighting a cigarette, or Dix thinking about what he wants to eat, or Dix pouring more alcoholic drinks, or thinking about where he might drive and how he'll get there. Normally, I wouldn't notice something like that, but in this novel it's overdone. It's like Hughes was padding. Laurel comes across as sociopathic, which I'm not sure is intended. Otherwise, the positive points that other reviewers have talked about are valid. ( )

I was starting to think that the noir genre just wasn't for me until I read this book. I'll definitely try another Dorothy Hughes book when I'm in the mood for crime fiction again. ( )

Another amazing Dorothy Hughes book- not quite in the Ride the Pink Horse class, but excellent nonetheless in the cool and unsympathetic portrayal of the anti-hero of the book. Loved the simmering tension / love / bitter with Laurel Gray- quite the character her!- and the cat and mouse with the wife of his cop friend, Grub. but why did he kill Blackie back in England???

By chance I happened to catch the movie on TCM while I was reading this book and despite it's great reputation- it stinks compared to the book. Obvious and 180 shifted in lead character.. just a whole other story. Yes, great in its own way, but ...not very very. Laurel is the worst.. compared to the strong character of the book. O well. ( )

All killer, no filler noir with the double-satisfaction of a serial strangler POV and a case solved by a pair of cool dames.

Great character names (Dix Steele!), perfect title, ideal setting in the clammy, foglit environs of Hollywood and Santa Monica. Hughes nails the two noir essentials of atmosphere and moral ambiguity and doesn't waste a word in doing so.

Now for the film version! ( )

Narrated by a murderous psychopath. The genius is that he is quite normal. He gets his laundry done, falls in love and enjoys time with friends. But he is vain and insecure and lacking in empathy. He eternally feels sorry for himself

“Once he’d had happiness but for so brief a time; happiness was made of quicksilver, it ran out of your hand like quicksilver. There was the heat of tears suddenly in his eyes and he shook his head angrily. He would not think about it, he would never think of that again. It was long ago in an ancient past. To hell with happiness. More important was excitement and power and the hot stir of lust. Those made you forget. They made happiness a pink marshmallow.”

When he is triggered he has trouble controlling his anger. Killing is stress relief, an addiction he'll never kick. He also loves the thrill of taking calculated risks and outsmarting the police. The violence is kept in the background, the murders are described after the act. We know what the ending will be but it is still compelling. The film changes things up a lot and is a top notch noir starring Humphry Boggart. You can Eddie Muller's great intro to the movie on TCM Noir Alley on YouTube.

Dorothy B. Hughes gives a real feel of Hollywood at the time, I'd have no problem putting this in front of "The Postman always Calls Twice" as best noir novel I've ever read. ( )

A 'classic' LA noir story written from the point of view of a serial killer. First published in 1947, this compact novel, written from the point on view of the killer, reveals his twisted, misogynistic thinking. Without spoiling the plot, I just have to say that the characters who bring about the tale's resolution are an unusual type for this 'breed' of book. ( )

I did not seek out this novel to read but rather received it as the November selection as per the Bas Bleu Mysteries Book-A-Month 2020 package. I enjoyed the novel but I didn't realize all of its distinction until reading the "Afterword" authored by Megan Abbott. Ms. Abbott's own background is impressive not only as an author of novels, a study of hard-boiled fiction and film noir, and an editor of a female crime anthology, with a Ph.D. in literature from NY University. With Ms. Abbott's advisement I came to understand the contribution to literature by Dorothy B. Hughes as groundbreaking and also how it relates to the time period in our history following WWII.

The novel was made into the classic film noir under the same title starring Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Grahame in 1950 but the film differs from the novel.

"For example, in the film, despite being a violent man with a hot temper, Steele is innocent of the murders he's suspected of committing, and is sincere in his desire to be a successful screenwriter; in the novel, he is a sociopath who claims to be a crime novel writer in order to sponge off of relatives." [~Quote from Wikipedia]

For more information about Dorothy B. Hughes, I found this interesting article at https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/on-the-worlds-finest-female-noir-writer-doro... ( )

A masterpiece ( )

Took me several pages to really feel invested in this story, but once I was I was hooked into the ever growing claustrophobia and menace of Dix Steele's world. Imagine a slightly more gentile version of Jim Thompson's "Killer Inside Me" years before that book or style of writing would exist. What's not described and only eluded to forms the horror of the story, but Steele's growing uncertainty and paranoia, along with the authors thoughts on the dangers of masculinity during and after the war form the meat and backbone. ( )

Great book ! Set in LA 1947. A true crime mystery and possibly by favorite by Dorothey Hughes. ( )

This is an underrated noir classic that for me surpassed such better known novels as The Killer Inside Me or The Postman Always Rings Twice. Hughes writes from the point of a view of a serial killer who won't quite admit to himself what he is, depicting his breakdown as the police close in. Two things I appreciated: she never shows a murder on the page but instead lets the reader read between the lines, and the two female characters in the novel--although the killer views them as opposite "types"--are both real women who are instrumental in bringing him to justice. I recommend the edition with the excellent afterword by Megan Abbott. ( )

Classic noir, classic psychological thriller. We meet the protagonist as he stalks a lone woman taking the bus home from work, then learn that a serial killer is terrorizing post-war Los Angeles. Dix is just out of the Army, at loose ends, living in a buddy's apartment while he tries to write the great American novel. He reconnects with an old Army buddy who is now a cop investigating the murder. How interesting for Dix! He also meets Laurel, an aspiring singer and mysterious femme fatal.

It's 70 years old but holds up well. Probably one of the first to tell a story from the POV of the killer. It was republished by The Feminist Press at the City University of New York and there's an intro discussing the way the women have more agency than usual and how the book depicts toxic masculinity, years ahead of its time. Well worth reading. ( )

Dark like a city in blackout, hard and sharp like gun metal and knife blades, this is a pure 1940s noir lost classic of crime fiction, but also a before-it's-time oddity: an examination of evil from it's point of view that seems influential of later "mind of a killer" books like Highsmith's Talented Mr. Ripley, Thompson's Killer Inside Me, Suskind's Perfume, and Harris' Hannibal. ( )

Dark like a city in blackout, hard and sharp like gun metal and knife blades, this is a pure 1940s noir lost classic of crime fiction, but also a before-it's-time oddity: an examination of evil from it's point of view that seems influential of later "mind of a killer" books like Highsmith's Talented Mr. Ripley, Thompson's Killer Inside Me, Suskind's Perfume, and Harris' Hannibal. ( )

When the book opens, Dix is stalking a young woman who has just gotten off a bus at dusk and is walking home. Nothing comes of it, but we learn that a serial killer is strangling the young women of Los Angeles.

Dix is just back from WW II and at loose ends. He receives a small stipend from an uncle and is supposed to be writing a book. He lives in a nice apartment that belongs to Mel, a friend who suddenly took off for Brazil. He drives Mel's car and wears Mel's clothes.

When Dix reconnects with an old army buddy, Brub, he is surprised to learn that Brub is now married to Sylvia, and that Brud is now a detective on the LAPD. Not only that, Brub is also on the team trying to catch the serial killer. Dix also becomes entangled with a redheaded femme fatale named Laurel.

This is pure noir, in the tradition of James Cain, Raymond Chandler, and Jim Thompson. Moreover, Dix is a worthy predecessor to Patricia Highsmith's Ripley, although I think Dix lacks some of the characteristics that can make some readers feel sympathetic toward Ripley.

Most of the novel is narrated from the pov of Dix, although the gorier parts are left to the imagination, and occur in the breaks between chapters. The book distinguishes itself from other noir novels of this period in that the females play important roles in solving the crime and in that it is explicit in making the connection between misogyny and violence towards women.

This was one of the first novels to be narrated from the pov of a serial killer, and I will say it has held up well over the 70+ years since it was first published.

Recommended.

3 stars ( )

In a Lonely Place is terrific, psychological noir. Written in 1947, it depicts post war Los Angeles as a lonely place with fog shrouded canyons and people trying to make it big. The novel is told from the point-of-view of Dix Steele, a serial murderer. Dix is posing as a writer, longing to be rich, but chafing under the meager support of his uncle. He Is living in the house, wearing the clothes and driving the car of the rich Mel Terres who he explains has moved to Rio. Recognizing something of themselves in each other Dix and the beautiful, enigmatic Laurel Gray become involved. Laurel, once married to a rich man and possibly involved with Mel Terres, now despises the rich and is an aspiring actress. Because Dix is an unreliable narrator, it is unclear until the end whether he has deceived the police or evidence is mounting against him. Ultimately his downfall is not the tough, dogged and laconic tough guy of many noir plots, but the femme fatale, Laurel, and the wife of Dix’s friend from the war now a policeman.

I discovered Hughes only recently and after reading In a Lonely Place, I can see why she is compared with Raymond Chandler for her depiction of post-war LA. ( )

Reminiscent of Patricia Highsmith. Dix Steele is an ex-Army fighter jock living in Los Angeles and surviving nicely on a monthly check from his uncle. He's living in the apartment, wearing the clothes and driving the car of Mel Torries who has supposedly sublet everything to him and taken off for Rio. One evening he accidentally bumps into his best friend from the war, another fighter pilot, married to Sylvia, who is now a detective with the police force. There has been a series of women strangled by some unknown killer who leaves no clues or traces. Steele both loves and hates women and Sylvia, it turns out, has her suspicions of Steele.

This is a deliciously psychological page-turner as we watch Steele descend further and further into darkness. I have to disagree with Megan Abbott's analysis at the end of the book. "To his mind, the enemy is not the war, its trauma, but what men face upon their return: staid domesticity, the strictures of class, emasculation. And these threats are embodied wholly in women. Women, whose penetrating gazes are far mightier than his sword." Given this female perspicacity, I was puzzled by some of their actions that brought them into dangerous proximity to Steele. We only see the world through Steele's warped perception, and his view is hardly the most reliable so it's difficult to know just what the other characters are really thinking; indeed, what might be really happening. We are never privy to any of the violence, either, only the results, but even then everything is nebulous.

What is undeniable is the influence Hughes had on Highsmith and her Tom Ripley, James Cain, and the other practitioners of fifties noir. I will certainly seek out the rest of her novels.

( )

http://www.literaryfeline.com/2007/12/in-lonely-place-by-dorothy-b-hughes.html ( )