Dorothy B. Hughes – författare

Superb Art Deco suspense set in the glamorous world of high society New York from ''An author with a flair for terror'' The New Yorker''If you wake up in the night screaming with terror, don''t say we didn''t warn you'' New York TimesOnce the dashing, top-hatted twins, Danny and David, who share nice college boy laughs, have the marble, they will do to Griselda what they have done to the others.Her estranged husband, Con, is a thousand miles away, and can''t save her.A bloody trail has wound around the so blue marble: years of theft, torture, violence; whispers of secret riches, gold, diamonds, rubies as big as the moon. Soon it would be Griselda''s turn.But Griselda believes that nothing ever happens to nice people, and that there is no reason to feel nervous at night, not even in the heart of New York, and knowing what she does about the marble . . .

Alone in New York City, Lizanne Steffasson comes face to face with reality when her dream of acting on Broadway collapses.Now she just needs to pay her rent. So she answers an unusual ad in the paper, for ''a beautiful girl. One not afraid to look on danger''s bright face''.Lizanne is neither beautiful nor fearless, yet she is certainly about to look danger in the face. A New York estate lawyer wants her help to track down a young man who has vanished into the wilds of the city on the eve of inheriting a vast sum of money from his billionaire late father, a Swedish man known as the Cross-Eyed Bear.It turns out that Lizanne is the perfect person for the job, as she knows more about the story than her employer has bargained for . . .

Griselda and Con Satterlee are spending a second honeymoon in a cottage on Long Beach, and it''s not going well. To cap it all, Con picks up a blonde in the Bamboo Bar one night and walks out with her, leaving Griselda on her own.Con comes back, saying that he took the blonde outside to try to stop her from shooting herself, but the police find her body the next morning and Con is arrested for her murder.Then Con disappears, and Griselda is alone in their beach house with a door that can''t keep out the Major, who frightens her; Kew, whom Con distrusts; Kathie, who is lovely, and so strange; or Dare, who has caused trouble before . . .Griselda must work quickly to save Con - and their marriage.

Who killed Louie Lepetino?Was it Barby, with her silvery sheen of hair, looking like a top model and acting like a woman madly in love?Or the beautiful Toni, who is hiding some strange secrets?Could it be Otto, a handsome refugee, nicknamed Blue Eyes and an object of attraction for Barby?Kit, a cop''s son, has come back to New York to track down his best buddy''s killer. It had to be murder: Louie wasn''t the suicidal type. One person stands in the way of his revenge - The Wobblefoot, his unseen nemesis from two terrible years spent in captivity during the Spanish Civil War. He is watching. One false step will mean curtains for Kit. But Kit is willing to take any risk for a friend - even murder in cold blood.

Diplomatic corps man Piers Hunt watches the glittering lights of Broadway from his Hotel Astor room. The German girl''s mocking voice returns to his mind yet again: ''More melodrama, Piers?'' Yes: this time it''s ''more melodrama'', but with a vengeance.In New York incognito, only Piers knows that his superior, Samuel Anstruther, has been murdered, possibly to get him out of the way of a plan to withdraw a police force that governs post-Second World War Germany. Rumours abound that the Germans might be allowed free reign once again.Piers is a man of peace, but he may have to get his hands dirty if he doesn''t want to be murdered - before telling the world what Anstruther knew . . .

Private First Class Johnnie Brown is on a break in New York, with just two days to spend however he likes before shipping out to fight the Nazis. All he wants to do is ride the subway, and while his fellow soldiers are exploring the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building and what the nightclubs in Times Square have to offer, he pays his nickel and boards the train.Oddly, he runs into a stout, mysterious man speaking German. Johnnie follows him to an upscale townhouse, where he finds himself looking at more thrills than any cabaret. Suddenly he has lost his clothes, his sense of where he is and his dignity, but Johnnie isn''t going to give up until he''s uncovered every secret the townhouse is hiding.

One-way ticket to death . . .? ''Hughes is the master we keep turning to'' Sara Paretsky''The tension and terror of Dread Journey are such that few will be able to lay the book down unfinished'' New York Times''Cornell Woolrich meets Agatha Christie'' Publishers Weekly''Superbly done'' Washington PostIn the four years since she arrived in Los Angeles, Kitten Agnew has become a star. Not all by herself, of course; though beautiful and talented, Kitten would be lost without her director, the acclaimed and powerful Vivien Spender. But Spender is a dangerous man. Kit knows that, and has heard all the stories - of discarded stars that have ended up in a chorus line, or a sanatorium, or worse.Spender knows that Kit knows, and wouldn''t dare destroy her glittering career. But he may be willing to kill her . . .On a train from LA to Chicago, Kit makes a discovery that could have her fighting not just for her career, but for her life.

''Nobody but Dorothy Hughes can cast suspense into such an uncanny spell, and she''s never done it better'' San Francisco Chronicle''An excellent novel . . . A sympathetic study of the development of a criminal'' New York TimesIt''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 . . .

Jose Aragon is a ranch hand between jobs. Looking and smelling just like a piece of border-town trash, he''s hoping the Chenoweth Hotel, El Paso, will let him in for a much-needed shower, a room and a couple of cold beers.But a beautiful and wealthy woman with golden-brown hair, Dulcinda Farrar, mistakes him for a local, and offers him money to pick up a package for her. Jose goes along for the ride, but his playfulness is about to get him in trouble.Just minutes after he''s picked up the package, it disappears, and suddenly he has the border''s toughest thugs on his tail. Jose knows how to round up a herd of cattle, but a classy blonde is going to prove more difficult . . . and more dangerous.

One of them is the link to Davidian.One of them is holding out . . .Steve Wintress''s flight to Los Angeles is forced down in bad weather, and he shares a car into town with three fellow travellers: a shy young soldier, a cool Hollywood actress and a Justice Department official.But all four passengers have something in common - something any one of them might kill to get their hands on.Every secret agency in the world wants to possess the Davidian Report, smuggled out of East Berlin by a Communist defector, and it''s lying somewhere in LA. Steve wants that Report, but he''ll have to fight with the big guns, like the CIA and the FBI, if he''s going to get there first . . .

When Con Satterlee picked up the half-intoxicated blonde in the Bamboo Bar, Griselda was annoyed. When he walked out with the blonde, leaving Griselda flat, she was furious. She was frightened, too, returning alone to the isolated, ramshackle beach cottage. And this was to have been their second honeymoon!

Con came back rattling a handful of shells which he said he had taken from the blonde’s revolver. But the blonde didn’t come back. The police found her corpse the next morning. And then Con was arrested. That left Griselda alone, behind a door with a lock that a bent hairpin could open. Quite defenseless, she had to face the sinister Major Pembrooke, who wanted something from Con; beautiful, lying Kathie; Dare, so very possessive as far as Con was concerned; and the debonair Kew, who was intent on helping Griselda, for selfish reasons.