Classic Crime S.
2 total works
Espionage, adventure and a hard-boiled heroine not to be trifled with - this classic noir will have you gripped from start to finish
Julie Guilles is in trouble. She's fled her home in Occupied France for a seedy neighbourhood in New York and has been laying low - but not low enough. Because now she has the Gestapo, the FBI and her shady Uncle, the Duc de Guille, all on her tail, and her options are running out. Whispers of the Blackbirder reach her - a sinister figure who, for the right price, can promise safe passage across the border to New Mexico.
Finding the Blackbirder is her only chance of escape - but what if the Blackbirder doesn't want to be found?
'Dorothy B. Hughes ranks with Raymond Chandler and Patricia Highsmith as a master of mid-century noir' New York Review of Books
It's carnival time in Santa Fe, and three out-of-town visitors are drawn together in the heat, the smells and the colour of the festival . .
Sailor, a hood from Chicago, is there to confront his boss, Sen, a crooked politician, to try to get money for what he knows about the murder of Sen's wife, killed supposedly during a robbery gone wrong.
Following them both is Mac, a man from the same side of the tracks as Sailor, but who has made very different choices. He's a cop now, and wants Sailor to testify against Sen and put him away.
The three strangers collide, retreat and advance through the streets of New Mexico, moving ever closer to a charged and unexpected outcome . . .