Will I love The Expendable Man?

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.