This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.
A classic California noir with a feminist twist, this prescient 1947 novel exposed misogyny in post-World War II American society, making it far ahead of its time. Los Angeles in the late 1940s is a city of promise and prosperity, but not for former fighter pilot Dix Steele. To his mind nothing has come close to matching "that feeling of power and exhilaration and freedom that came with loneness in the sky." He prowls the foggy city night--bus stops and stretches of darkened beaches and movie houses just emptying out--seeking solitary young women. His funds are running out and his frustrations are growing. Where is the good life he was promised? Why does he always get a raw deal? Then he hooks up with his old Air Corps buddy Brub, now working for the LAPD, who just happens to be on the trail of the strangler who's been terrorizing the women of the city for months... Written with controlled elegance, Dorothy B. Hughes's tense novel is at once an early indictment of a truly toxic masculinity and a twisty page-turner with a surprisingly feminist resolution. A classic of golden age noir, In a Lonely Place also inspired Nicholas Ray's 1950 film of the same name, starring Humphrey Bogart.… (more)
mambo_taxi: This Sweet Sickness is a good one to pick up if you enjoyed the fact that In a Lonely Place follows the activities of the killer/sociopath...and not just any sociopath, but a sociopath who by all appearance gets along well with others, has a pathological eye for detail, and is characterized by an obsessive nature.… (more)
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 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. ( )
It's in a lonesome place you do have to be talking with someone, and looking for someone, in the evening of the day. -J. M. Synge
Dedication
For Charlotte
First words
It was good standing there on the promontory overlooking the evening sea, the fog lifting itself like gauzy veils to touch his face. There was something in it akin to flying; the sense of being lifted high above the crawling earth, of being part of the wilderness of air. Something too of being closed within an unknown and strange world of mist and cloud and wind. He'd liked flying at night; he'd missed it after the war had crashed to a finish and dribbled to an end. It wasn't the same flying a little private crate He'd tried it; it was like returning to the stone ax after precision tools. He had found nothing yet to take the place of flying wild. -Chapter 1
Reading Dorothy B. Hughes's novel In a Lonely Place for the first time is like finding the long-lost final piece to an enormous puzzle. (Afterword)
A classic California noir with a feminist twist, this prescient 1947 novel exposed misogyny in post-World War II American society, making it far ahead of its time. Los Angeles in the late 1940s is a city of promise and prosperity, but not for former fighter pilot Dix Steele. To his mind nothing has come close to matching "that feeling of power and exhilaration and freedom that came with loneness in the sky." He prowls the foggy city night--bus stops and stretches of darkened beaches and movie houses just emptying out--seeking solitary young women. His funds are running out and his frustrations are growing. Where is the good life he was promised? Why does he always get a raw deal? Then he hooks up with his old Air Corps buddy Brub, now working for the LAPD, who just happens to be on the trail of the strangler who's been terrorizing the women of the city for months... Written with controlled elegance, Dorothy B. Hughes's tense novel is at once an early indictment of a truly toxic masculinity and a twisty page-turner with a surprisingly feminist resolution. A classic of golden age noir, In a Lonely Place also inspired Nicholas Ray's 1950 film of the same name, starring Humphrey Bogart.
)
)
Google Books — Loading...
Wikipedia in English
2
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. (