Mystery Review: In a Lonely Place is often close to poetry, even as it plumbs the mind of an aggrieved and resentful man back from the war, living on the edge and bordering on violence: "an outcast in a strange, cold world." That's a creepy place to be, and Dickson Steele is unpredictable yet credible, perhaps a sociopath but that's not the focus of the discussion. Less attention is paid to motivations (except subtly) than what is. At greater length it's a battle between the reader and an unreliable narrator: although in third person the voice stays within Steele's head. As an angry, misogynist (is that redundant?) he's never as smart as he thinks he is nor is his view of the world as accurate. There's a hole inside him and though he's found someone who can fill that void, his own self-destructive elements and paranoia repeatedly interfere. Dorothy Belle Hughes (1904-93) is too much forgotten and underrated and should have her place as one of the very best writers in the hard-boiled/noir genre. David Goodis is another writer I think of in that category, but I think Hughes is better. Posing as a mystery writer, in a bit of an in-joke, the protagonist name-checks Chandler and Hammett, as well as Ellery Queen, John Dickson (hmm?) Carr and Erle Stanley Gardner. At times In a Lonely Place feels as if Bret Easton Ellis rewrote a Jim Thompson novel and Patricia Highsmith dropped in to give it a good edit. But actually it's just Dorothy B. Hughes writing brilliantly as she does and dragging us along with her. For the discriminating, in a virtuoso performance all the violence takes place off-stage. You may still want to take a shower after reading it. In a Lonely Place is the kind of book that gets deep into your head well after you've stopped reading. Similar to, but quite different than the 1950 black and white, movie version with Gloria Grahame and Humphrey Bogart. Both are classics. [5★]
No comments:
Post a Comment