Back to the Classics #23

I read this book for reading challenge Back to the Classics 2022.

Classic Mystery. This 1947 crime novel was made into a classic film noir under the same title, starring Humphrey Bogart (too old, alas) and Gloria Grahame (perfect) in 1950. The problem, of course, as usual, is that the movie was not faithful to the book. This novel would make a good streaming mini-series, maybe five or six hours long.

In a Lonely Place – Dorothy Hughes

This is the city. Los Angeles, California. The year is 1946.

Dix Steele, a young veteran of good looks and no scruples, has had a pretty good war. Before the hostilities, he was a mere Princeton parasite, sponging tuition from a wealthy uncle and freeloading good times from rich friends. During the war, he was an ace in the Air Corps and ended up colonel in a cushy posting in London.

But postwar, he misses the excitement of flying and dogfights. He bored and sickened at the idea of work, family life, and contentment in a normal adult life. His case of the blues manifests in a constellation of symptoms like anxiety, depression, irascibility, willful isolation, mood swings, and insomnia. He seeks no help, not recognizing his sulks and bad feelings as warning signs.

Combined with his lust and women-hating, this disgruntled alienated male is the perfect subject for a novel that examines the mind of a monster, never more dangerous than when feeling hopeless or weak or embattled. Proving that classic crime literature can be relevant to today’s headlines, this brilliant noir story, vintage 1947, seems to have been written last week.

I highly recommend it to readers that like suspense, that like writers like Charles Willeford, Patricia Highsmith or Megan Abbott who wrote the afterword to the edition of this novel that I read.