The Expendable Man
Book description
The critic HRF Keating chose The Expendable Man as one of
his Crime & Mystery: The 100 Best Books. A late addition to the thirteen
crime stories Dorothy B Hughes wrote with great success in one prolific
spell between 1940 and 1952, it was, in his view, her best book.…
Why read it?
2 authors picked The Expendable Man as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
Dorothy B. Hughes wrote one of my favorite 20th century noirs, A Lonely Place. This less well known book, though published in 1963, had incredible resonance today based on where we are socially and politically--I can't say more than that because what gives it that resonance are several spoilers.
From the opening pages (where the heat of the desert seeps off the page), I was hooked by this mystery. And then, the fun and games began.
There I was, enjoying the superbly-paced plot, the psychological realism, the stark beauty of Hughes’ prose when – suddenly – the book leapt from being very, very good to being a work of genius. I won’t share the twist, but it’s a powerful, provocative one.
Hughes, like all the authors on my list, shows that pulp fiction can be truly great, game-changing literature.
From Anna's list on unputdownable, game-changing crime fiction from the Queens of Pulp.
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