Dolores Hitchens – författare

Two teenagers fresh out of stir set their sights on what looks like easy money in Dolores Hitchens’s Fools’ Gold (1958)—and get a painful education in how quickly and drastically a simple plan can spin out of control. The basis for Jean-Luc Godard’s film Band of Outsiders, Fools’ Gold is a sharply told tale distinguished by its nuanced portrait of a sheltered young woman who becomes a reluctant accomplice and fugitive. This classic novel is one of eight works included in The Library of America''s two-volume edition Women Crime Writers: Eight Suspense Novels of the 1940s & 50s, edited by Sarah Weinman.

"It had been timed and planned perfectly.” A convicted killer and the detective escorting him to prison aboard a Pullman train are the victims of a mysterious double assassination. When the detective is posthumously accused of corruption and criminal conspiracy, his widow embarks on a campaign to clear him, and soon finds herself enmeshed in an ever more complex web of deception and violent danger. Master suspense writer Dolores Hitchens sustains an atmosphere in which no one, whatever their social class or walk of life, is entirely to be trusted.

“Are you trying to tell me you don’t want the job, Mr. Sader?”: It started as a missing persons case and grew more puzzling with the discovery of another strangely coincidental disappearance. Private eye Jim Sader finds himself deep in a multilayered intrigue revolving around oil and real estate and the sleazy underpinnings of Long Beach, California, in the 1950s. Many consider this Dolores Hitchens’ best novel.

“The fact is that during the last year I have killed three young people”: A pleasant waterfront community in California is subjected to a series of seemingly random killings, the victims all children. Dolores Hitchens’ intricately plotted novel explores a town’s collective terror, as the inhabitants slowly come to realize that one of their neighbors is engaged in a terrible and protracted campaign of murder for motives impossible to guess. The Watcher expertly explores the resulting mood of anguish and mutual suspicion, and the vulnerability of the young people who are the inexplicable targets of violent evil.

"You’re playing with a child’s life”: The search for a kidnapped boy leads private detective (and ex-alcoholic) Jim Sader through a labyrinth of well-hidden family secrets and into the heart of an elaborate and malevolent deception. Sleep with a Slander is a novel in the classic hardboiled tradition, tough, compassionate, and tautly told.

Rediscover one of America’s pioneering women crime writers with this classic noir starring a Long Beach private investigator reminiscent of Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe“Are you trying to tell me you don't want the job, Mr. Sader?” It started as a missing persons case and grew more puzzling with the discovery of another strangely coincidental disappearance. Private eye Jim Sader finds himself deep in a multilayered intrigue revolving around oil and real estate and the sleazy underpinnings of Long Beach, California, in the 1950s. Taut, suspenseful, and gritty, many consider Sleep with Strangers to be Dolores Hitchens’ best novel.

Private eye Jim Sader returns in a hard-hitting thriller set in the dark corners of sunny southern California"One of the best hard-boiled private-eye novels ever written." —Sarah Weinman, The New York Times"You're playing with a child's life": The search for a kidnapped boy leads private detective (and ex-alcoholic) Jim Sader through a labyrinth of well-hidden family secrets and into the heart of an elaborate and malevolent deception. With little to go on--a tight-lipped client, an anonymous letter, a mother who is supposed to be dead--Sader must rely on his wits to find the child even as he outraces the demons that dog him. Sleep with a Slander has been called "the best hard-boiled private eye novel written by a woman—and one of the best written by anybody" (1001 Midnights: The Aficionado's Guide to Mystery and Detective Fiction).

Elderly cat fancier Rachel Murdock, "an appealing Jessica Fletcher antecedent" (Publishers Weekly), tackles a puzzling case in this cozy mystery from a master of domestic suspense.When sisters Rachel and Jennifer Murdock receive a letter from Miriam Hamilton, the daughter of the man who, decades earlier, swindled their father, inviting them to her luxurious home and offering financial amends, the sisters accept and head off with their beloved cat, Samantha, in tow. Shortly after they arrive, they meet their hostor rather, her body. Miriam has been murdered in her bed, and two things become clear: their invitation came with strings attached, and around the many corners of Miriams capacious home, strange things are afoot. There is no shortage of possible motives for Miriams murder, given her ruthless business practices and greedy nature. The appearance and subsequent disappearance of a bloodstained doll, which Miriams two grown stepchildren from previous marriages seem to know more about than they want to let on, raises Rachels suspicion, but the involvement of the local sheriff investigating the case is what ultimately throws Rachel for a loop. No mattertogether with the reluctant Jennifer and curious kitty Samanatha, amateur sleuth Rachel is going to make sense of this befuddling case, even if things arent what they seem. A delightful Golden Age cozy from a master of mid-century domestic suspense, Cats Dont Need Coffins engages playfully with genre conventions to entertaining and often humorous effect. It is the seventh novel in Hitchens long-running Rachel Murdock series (originally published under the name D.B. Olsen), which can be read in any order.