The Scarlet Imperial

by Dorothy B. Hughes

Handed a mysterious package, a woman finds herself caught in a deadly game


Her name is not Eliza Williams. A fashionable young woman with a taste for adventurous men, she made the mistake of falling in love with Towner Clay—a New York City playboy whose international jetsetting conceals dangerous secrets. On Towner’s behalf, she has spent six months pretending to be Eliza Williams, a dowdy Midtown secretary. It’s dull work until the day Gavin Keane, a blue-eyed associate of Towner’s, leaves her with a mysterious package. Eliza understands that protecting it is a question of life and death. When he comes to pick up the package that night, Gavin is followed, and he shoots the man to protect the parcel’s secret. With blood on her carpet and a mystery on her hands, the woman who is not Eliza will have to act quickly to survive.

Genres: Mystery

127 pages, ebook

First published January 1, 1946

About the author

Dorothy B. Hughes (1904–1993) was a mystery author and literary critic. Born in Kansas City, she studied at Columbia University, and won an award from the Yale Series of Younger Poets for her first book, the poetry collection Dark Certainty (1931). After writing several unsuccessful manuscripts, she published The So Blue Marble in 1940. A New York–based mystery, it won praise for its hardboiled prose, which was due, in part, to Hughes’s editor, who demanded she cut 25,000 words from the book.

Hughes published thirteen more novels, the best known of which are In a Lonely Place (1947) and Ride the Pink Horse (1946). Both were made into successful films. In the early fifties, Hughes largely stopped writing fiction, preferring to focus on criticism, for which she would go on to win an Edgar Award. In 1978, the Mystery Writers of America presented Hughes with the Grand Master Award for literary achievement.

Reviews

[Elizabeth (Alaska) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think the members who rated this 2 stars want a different kind of mystery. There is no detective here and the central crime isn't murder. The Scarlet Imperial is a jewel-encrusted egg, which we learn is stolen. What we don't know is who stole it and when nor why it is now surfacing. More especially, we don't know which are the good guys and which are the bad guys.

Eliza Williams works for (and loves?) Towner Clay who has placed her as secretary to Bryan Brewer. She doesn't want to be a secretary, but this is what he wants her to do, so she does it. One day while Mr. Brewer is out of the office a man comes in with a white box for Brewer. He leaves it and Liza puts it in the bottom drawer of her desk. Brewer doesn't return that day, but a messenger comes to get the box. Liza is suspicious of this "messenger" and says she doesn't have the box.

Pretty much all goes downhill from there. I thought several times this would make a wonderful old black and white film. This fits the period perfectly, of course, having been originally published in 1946. The characterizations are certainly not fully-fleshed - one should not expect them in this genre - but one can easily see the straight faces with the lies told, but also fear and questioning as appropriate. I thought early on this is probably a very good 3 stars, but I'm bumping it up just because it was such fun to be with Eliza and the others.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

a bit noir, but not really, deeply. I've been reading Raymond Chandler and Joseph Hansen and Dorothy Hughes really fits with them. She wrote in same period (sort of) as Chandler. And similar sort of milieu. Sort of seamy, but not really grim. This is only the second of hers I've read but I'm very impressed. It's a very layered story. Main character is a young woman who is definitely up to something--we know that from the beginning. But what? And she is surrounded by an increasing number of characters who have something to do with what's going on. But she is not exactly the best judge of who to trust, etc. Moves right along. I

[John Marr · Rating 2 out of 5]

A seriorusly sub-par outing from Ms. Hughes. Almost everything about this book is rank from the incoherent web of double and triple crosses driving gthe action to the ditzy rom-supense heroine who, despite her mean streets background, is just another ditzy rom-suspense heroine that you'd wish someone would just punch in the face. The only saving grace of this book is atmosphere. Ms. Hughes always does great atmosphere and does not disappoint here. Too bad it takes more that atmosphere to make a book.

[Cbg · Rating 2 out of 5]

She is. She isn't. He is. He isn't. But he isn't HIM. They are. They aren't THEM. Who's who and what's what? It's like a slapstick Keystone Cops comedy. Except it's a mystery. People die. Nobody's anybody who's him. Or her. He has it. She has it. They have it. No they don't. It's HE who has it. But he gave it to her. She put it away. He got it. She had it. I was just exhausted about 3/4 way through and gave up. Who cares?

[biologenie]

The Scarlet Imperial (1946) is an engrossing, fast-paced crime novel written by Dorothy B. Hughes.

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