Desperate Hours

by Joseph Hayes

Suspense novel about a middle class family whose home is invaded by dangerous escaped convicts.

Genres: Fiction, Thriller, Crime, Plays, Mystery, Classics, Suspense

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1954

Reviews

[Cathi]

I've mentioned before how much I enjoy reading plays, and this is a good one. The story of a couple of escaped convicts who hold a family hostage right in their own home is gripping and very fast-moving. When my husband and I read this play together, we could easily picture all the characters and the settings of the play, and it totally came to life for us. Later, we checked out the movie (with Humphrey Bogart and Fredric March) and enjoyed it a lot. But oh, how I would have loved seeing the original play on Broadway, starring a young and menacing Paul Newman and a stalwart Karl Malden (one of my favorites). That would have been a great show!

[Patrice]

This was a fantastic story. I read this as part of my high school English curriculum in the late 1970's.

[SweetAileen]

Great page turner!

[Lynda]

was offline for a week

[Charles]

There should be a "the" in the title. A pretty good book made into a pretty good movie. I like the version starring Mickey Rourke, myself.

[Robert Hudder]

This reads like a more detailed 1970s hostage drama. Probably because it was written in the 50s and was a popular play and movie. I can see how this could become a standard for writing those plots. It is largely action and suspense driven. There are some attempts at getting at the motivation of the folks involved but the focus is on the family that is held by escaped convicts.

This is the second book that I have read like this in a very short space and that can be helpful to compare and contrast. In this case, the tracking and police work to find where the criminals are quite similar to Caught by Lisa Moore. I get the sneaky suspicion that it is probably harder to evade authorities nowadays.

Regardless, this can keep you moving from page to page and it is well thought out. There is always room for one more wrinkle. This would be a good start for someone to see how a thriller of this type can work.

[Donald]

Well... the idea for this book is pretty sound - three guys break outta jail and hole up in the house of the all American family, the Hilliards. Mom, Dad, daughter, and son are terrorized. But really, it's pretty tame stuff. Sort of like a "Leave It To Beaver" version of a home invasion/family kidnapping. The characters think and think, what they could do, what they should do, and what they may have missed out on. And I didn't like the daughter, son, or Chuck, and I didn't care if something bad happened to any of them. It's a short book, but it seems long. The copyright in 1954, so maybe this is what the world looked like to this author back then. But it's just so sanitized, that I didn't enjoy it much.

[Raughley Nuzzi]

The Desperate Hours is a pretty quick read and has more depth than I would have expected. It still contains enough 1950s relics to be a little bizarre and unbelievable at times. Some of the characters make quite questionable decisions, too--sometimes because of character flaws, but sometimes in strange out-of-character ways.

As a light little action and tension story, it works and was a quick, enjoyable read!

[Abby]

This book was at the old farmhouse. It was definitely not a page turner. Could not get my mind around the central premise that the coos could nog bd trusted to get the family out safely. Enjoyed if mostly for nostalgia. Cant say id recommend it for its own sake

[Sebastián]

Lo tomé a lazar en una librería y no me arrepiento.

[Samantha Glasser]

This book/play became a movie in 1955 starring Humphrey Bogart.

[Van Roberts]

A taut read about a family dealing with hostile intruders.

[Craig Schlossin]

Characters are pretty good but what a cluster----- for police work and the situation.

[Ranette]

Bank robbers take a family hostage but don't realize all the trouble they are getting into.It was a poor plot with little consistincy.

[Exinfulo]

Très haletant, de l’action du début à la fin avec beaucoup de suspense.

[Subash Luigi]

Avvincente e serrato. Non lo annovero tra i migliori thriller che abbia letto, ma godibile.

[Bobby Sullivan]

Some of the dialogue is a bit dated, but the story absolutely works, even today. Thrilling.

[Corey]

I love pulp novels from which classic movies were made and this is a good one.

[Vicki]

Despite the fact that this was written 70 years ago, the writer keeps the suspense coming. Well developed charaters

[Margaret Boehm]

Excellent mystery thriller