The Fallen Sparrow

by Dorothy B. Hughes

For more than a year, Kit McKittrick languishes in a Fascist prison, his days spent in darkness and his nights tortured by fear of his limping jailer, whose name he never learns. He escapes Spain with the help of Louie Lepetino, a childhood friend who came with him to fight on behalf of the Republican cause. Back in the United States, Kit heads out West to recover from his ordeal, while Louie returns to a life of cafés and cocktail parties in New York. But Kit's convalescence is cut short when he learns Louie has taken a fatal tumble out of a window, and he journeys to New York to discover who gave his savior the final push.

Genres: Mystery, Noir, Crime, Fiction, Audiobook, Espionage, Mystery Thriller

200 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1942

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

[Bill Kerwin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m looking for the first great book written by Dorothy B. Hughes, the mid-century writer and critic who is often called “the queen of noir." I just finished reading The Fallen Sparrow (1942)...and I guess I’ll have to go on looking.

It’s not a bad book, really. It is certainly better than the two earlier Hughes’ efforts I have read, The So Blue Marble and The Bamboo Blonde. It has much of the same sinister atmosphere and serviceable plot—conspiratorial spy-types rummaging around for a mcguffin—and a much more effective protagonist. This time it is a damaged idealist, who is both ruthless and vulnerable.

When young Kit McKitrick returns to New York City from his “rest cure” out West, still jittery from the torture and imprisonment he suffered at the hands of the fascists during the Spanish Civil War, he finds that his pal Louie Lepetino—the man who helped engineer his escape—has been murdered. Kit immediately sets out to solve the crime, but finds he cannot shake his nightmares of his Fascist torture-master, a man he never saw, but whose coming he could always identify, because the man walked with a limp. Then one night, during his investigation, he hears something familiar: the sound of a lame man dragging one foot up the stairs. upon the stairs.

There are a few effective scenes in this novel (like the one I just mentioned), but it takes a third of the book before things really pick up speed, and even then the plot is murky and meandering. The last third, however, is suspenseful, and the conclusion is satisfactory.

I think I’ll stop looking for Hughes’ first great novel and just try to find one novel of hers that I like unreservedly. So for my next, I’m going to skip a few books ahead, and read Ride the Pink Horse. (A hopeful sign: the movie version of Horse is much better than the movie of Sparrow.)

[Chrissie · Rating 2 out of 5]

A GR member this morning yelled at me, accusing me of going into books to find fault with them. This is SO not true. I want to love every book I pick up, but it is impossible for me to turn off my brain. When I read a book, I feel with my heart and think with my brain. I cannot turn off either. I am willing to try books outside those genres I most prefer. Why? In the hope I will enjoy them. In the hope that a whole new genre will open up for me. A person willing to stretch their borders, a person willing to read outside their comfort zone, is of course not going to like every book tried!

Mysteries and crime is a genre I am now testing. I have enjoyed some classic noir mysteries, so I have thought to try more, but The Fallen Sparrow was not a hit for me. I started wondering it if really should be classified as noir. To the net I went.

“Taken from the French word meaning "darkness" or "of the night," noir is a category of modern crime fiction. Used for fiction of crime and detection, often in a grim urban setting, featuring petty, amoral criminals and other down-and-out characters, and permeated by a feeling of disillusionment, pessimism and despair.”

All that fits here, using this definition, is that the setting in The Fallen Sparrow is NYC!

“There are two essential ingredients that separate noir fiction from the rest of the mystery-crime genre: a protagonist lacking a moral center and an unhappy ending,” says Dick Lochte, award-winning author and president of the Private Eye Writers of America.

Gotham Writers Workshop has approximately the same definition: “There are two essential ingredients that separate noir fiction from the rest of the mystery-crime genre: a protagonist lacking a moral center and an unhappy ending ...”

In this story by Dorothy B. Hughes, the central protagonist is guided by a strong moral code. He values and is guided by decency, honesty and truth! In the noir mysteries I have liked most, it is debatable who is “bad” and who is not. The ambiguity allows food for thought, which is what I am looking for. The ending? It is happy—in the sense that the central protagonist does find out who has killed his buddy. It was this that was his goal!

I would classify this as a who dunnit crime novel. A knot is to be unraveled. It is set during the Second World War and involves German spies, murders and the search for valuable goblets and gems. Will the jewels and goblets end up at the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art, where they belong? Will the perpetrators of the crimes committed be caught?

The knot to be unraveled is unraveled. All is made clear by the end. However, halfway through, I stopped caring. Nobody was who they seemed to be. The knot to be untied is not easy to undo—I got tired of fiddling with it.

The story told is not graphic in any way.

The writing, at the start, is good. The author creates an ambiance, a mood that draws you in, but then as the story shifts to who did it, I lost interest. I felt no connection to the characters. Whether they live or die was of no importance to me. My interest in the characters was null.

Those who like who dunnit mysteries will like this more than me.

Stefan Rudnicki narrates the audiobook very well. His voice is strong, forceful and clear. The narration is easy to follow. Females tend to sound softer, weaker, more vulnerable—which isn’t necessarily true. In the novel, this is part of their allure. I found myself chuckling at this; I couldn’t take it seriously. Four stars for the narration.

*****************

*Ride the Pink Horse 4 stars
*The Fallen Sparrow 2 stars
*The So Blue Marble 1 star
*Dread Journey maybe

*The Expendable Man TBR
*In a Lonely Place TBR

The latter two have been recommended to me as being two of the author’s best. These I will read if and when I can get my hands on them.

[X · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great, dark revenge thriller in which the emotionally unstable MC returns to his hometown, NYC, to hunt down and kill his friend’s murderer, whoever they might be. This was published in 1942 but the political and social milieu doesn’t feel too different from today, with socialites and Nazis and refugees and celebrities and corrupt cops galore, and in the midst of it a lot of people just trying to make it through without becoming any more broken than they already are.

Kit has recently escaped from Europe, where he spent two years in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War being tortured for information on a certain McGuffin treasure a lot of sketchy people are after. The high-wire act of this book is how he’s always teetering on the edge of irredeemable - treating people (read: women) like shit, making dumb decision after dumb decision, getting wasted at the worst times, literally walking around with a gun in his pocket “for protection” - he’s just roiling with paranoia. There is some corny writing in here to begin with but Kit’s perspective is extremely claustrophobic and gripping throughout - I can see the ways in which this book is a precursor to In a Lonely Place.

I found the class elements really interesting - Kit’s dad was a beat cop turned Tammany leadership figure, and after he died his mom married into Old New York Money. And then Kit’s dad was Irish, obviously, and the friend whose death he’s trying to avenge is the son of Italian immigrants. Compare that with the refugees who are coming over when the book is taking place - French and German, some victims of circumstance and some who are clearly Nazi spies. I won’t spoil one particular twist as to one of them - I’ll just say it was funny and surprising and yet couldn’t have been more authentic. Again - this book came out in 1942 but with just a few changes it could have been set today… or a few years from now.

There are some let’s just say dated elements - the most obvious one being the fact that the torturer villain is identifiable by the sound of his limp. The misogyny, dare I saw, worked for me - it fits in with Kit’s general paranoia about the people he’s coming across. The presentation of Constant as a possible love interest came the closest to bad (since she’s literally a minor) but I found the way that plotline wraps up, or doesn’t, to be satisfying. (That, together with the shock ending of the Toni plotline - fascinating.)

After I finished this I did a bunch of searching for commentary and sadly couldn’t find much (and what I did find was mostly about the movie adaption). I would love to see more. [I did find an article about Hughes’ adaptions that said this book’s adaption included changes such as cutting one character’s homosexuality - uh what? I would love to know who they were referring to bc I didn’t notice that, but unfortunately I wasn’t able to find any answers. The problem with reading old books!]

[Also - I’m very glad Penzler brought this back into print, but I did find a few typos.]

[Sketchbook · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ah, buddy!
Man's best friend, mystery fiction tells us, is not his dog, but his buddy! From the great "Third Man" and counting forwards or backwards, it's always a dead buddy that our hero must avenge. Author Hughes is a nifty writer, but here, she sorta gimps along as does the villain with a lame leg. His shuffling foot gives our hero the shudders because he was tortured in a Spanish jail by an unseen Gimp during, we must assume, the Spanish Civil War. (Hughes doesnt specify the war...she plays it neutral... & vague, which is confusing).

Hero's sleuth centers on NYC's Cafe Society of 1940, smirched w Nazis. The finale, a drugged hero -who must escape a house - may have given Ben Hecht his finale for "Notorious." There's also a deceitful beauty. This is dated nonsense as the bad guys are searching for jeweled goblets! (Not maltese falcons) Only torch singer Libby Holman is missing. And she was probably home drinking and hurting for Monty Clift. Ah, Monty, ah Buddy!

[tortoise dreams · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Fallen Sparrow is a spy thriller as much as it's a crime novel or noir. A volunteer in the Spanish Civil War, captured and tortured in prison, has escaped but realizes that Nazi agents have followed him back to the U.S. The protagonist, once an idealist but now half-broken, wills himself to battle his own moral code and kill a man in cold blood. A revenge story and a noir theme if there ever was one. Even when writing about spies, as Hughes did regularly, she introduced several shades of noir. There's not just one but three femmes fatale of all stripes: the possibly promiscuous opportunist, the possibly corrupted European refugee, the sultry chanteuse who's barely of age. At different points he wants to save all three and at others suspects he may need to kill them. There's also a bromance but the bro is dead. Disjointed and tangled at times the story gets better as it goes on, the final third being suspenseful and challenging. The complicated plot requires the reader to go with the flow, not ask too many questions, and just enjoy the ride even as our hero recapitulates and vaccilates. Unsure whom to trust, suspecting everyone, paranoia strikes deep. At times Hughes tries to do too much, throwing in what seems like bits and pieces of three different stories as our hero moves from shell-shocked jerk to decent human being while he cicrculates through Manhattan's upper crust. At times the story seems only sketched. Much is a thinly veiled, or more accurately an overt and strident, call to arms against the international threat of Nazism after the failed resistance to fascism which was the Spanish Civil War. The "little man" repeatedly referred to is Hitler. This propaganda was right on the mark in 1942, but Hughes fills paragraphs with high minded, resolute, and cliched speechifying urging all to resist the fascists (sad that now so many countries are flirting with hate and fascism). Warning, spoiler ahead. One of the book's main flaws for me is a minor thing, but ... it's that the terrifying, blood curdling, stomach churning villain, a sadistic torturer and monster, is introduced by our hero as he's lying, beaten, traumatized, and dessicated in a Spanish prison: "A thud -- a minute silence -- the slavering drag of a wasted foot. The cup fell from his nerveless hands; the water spilled, untasted, upon the ground. It was the Wobblefoot!" That didn't scare me at all. I laughed -- which was not the intention. Couldn't Hughes come up with a better appellation? Nuff said. Although the Introduction and cover blurb both claim that Hughes wrote 15 crime novels, I count only 14. I have a weakness and fondness for DBH, but this is not her best. Her best (that I've read) are Dread Journey (1945), In a Lonely Place (1947), and The Expendable Man (1963). The next tier, excellent but not quite as good, are The So Blue Marble (1940), The Blackbirder (1943), Ride the Pink Horse (1946), and The Davidian Report (1952). The only one that was a clunker for me was The Bamboo Blonde (1941), clearly lesser than her other work. The So Blue Marble and Dread Journey may have appealed more to me than other readers. Hughes' plots require a willing suspension of disbelief at times but are artfully and maturely written. There are five more books of hers that I haven't read, which I would love to see reissued. Dorothy B. Hughes (1904-1993) began her career as a poet as she was awarded the vaunted Yale Series of Younger Poets prize for a debut book of poems in 1930. The Fallen Sparrow was also a good 1943 film with John Garfield and Maureen O'Hara.
[3½★]

[Elizabeth (Alaska) · Rating 3 out of 5]

When a world is crazed with war, many sparrows fall.

It is deep in the novel before Dorothy B. Hughes gives us this quote. We know from the beginning that our hero, Kit McKittrick, had been in Spain during their Civil War and ended up imprisoned for a couple of years. We learn he was rescued by his friend Louie Lepetino. Kit spent months recuperating in Arizona before his mother sent a letter telling Kit his friend Louie was dead. Kit immediately got on a train and headed for New York City. The official report was that Louie jumped out of a 14th floor window, but Kit believed differently.

Make no mistake, Dorothy B. Hughes is noir. Darkness and intrigue and always our main character is in danger. With noir, we rarely know the source of the danger. It could come from almost any direction so it's wise to be suspicious of almost everything and anything.

For nearly half the novel, I believed this wasn't her best work. Maybe I was still with my previous read, but this came to be so typical of noir that I was soon embracing it, turning the pages to see how Kit would fair, how he might confront the danger. Kit did not know the source of that danger, nor did we. It might be from the maid or the cab driver waiting outside or ...

Good stuff! I was glad to be back with Hughes. I'm glad I have some more on my shelf and I'll be glad to get to them ... eventually, though, not right away. My granddaughter's husband likes horror, says he likes to be scared. Horror isn't for me, but I love noir. I can't explain it. Still and all, this is just a high 3-stars.

[Leslie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is pretty bonkers. Any attempt to read its plot straight, as a realistic thriller or crime story, is doomed to annoyed frustration; as long as you know it's supposed to be bonkers, it's pretty fun. A glamorous nightclub singer, creepy foreign musician, wheelchair-bound foreign scientist, shadowy Nazis, sexy but unknowable femme who may or may not be fatale, a glossy heiress, a superannuated hooker who runs a hat shop that's too classy to put hats in its windows, various Park Avenue party types, the straight arrow government investigator who falls for the hero's girl and gets too close to the truth, the emotionally unstable hero fresh from the funny farm (or ranch, in this case) who's haunted by memories of torture in Spanish dungeons, and--above all--the treasure they're all after. The treasure, of course, is an enormous, glaring McGuffin (a la the Maltese Falcon); Hughes isn't the least bit subtle about that: "Once they meant little to me, priceless and legendary as they were. They weren't more than a nice trinket for Geoffrey, my stepfather, a slight repayment for all he'd given me through the years. That and the thwarting of a man whose chin I didn't like.... Through the years that they tried to force me to give them up, they meant life to me. My hold on existence.... Now they mean more to me than life. Now they are the symbol of all the right and justice and beauty that should be the heritage of man on this earth, that would be our heritage if the false god were slain and his prophets ground to dust." And just in case the reader is still wondering why our hero doesn't just give up the damned treasure because it can't possibly be worth this much death and suffering, Hughes reminds you why: "In the long run it doesn't matter a damn who owns a couple of pounds of gold and jewels. But to me it's more than that. It's letting him know that he isn't a god, that one person had dared defy him, not with bombs and tanks, not because of fear of the alternative, not for any economic or social reason but for something more deep and more real. For an intangible abstraction. Someone has defied him because of decency and beauty and truth. If one can do it, there'll be another and another and more. He'll see it. He'll have the first doubt, the first tremor. There will be the first shadow writing on the wall." Not a single one of the characters breathes, but they don't need to in order to add to the whole pattern Hughes is making. This is storytelling as symbolic dream structure--which is basically what noir always is, anyway.

[Betty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Best appreciated as a period piece. Written in 1942 and set in New York City, you can imagine it best as a black and white film made with contract actors, better than a B-movie but not by much. Even Humphrey Bogart made a lot of forgettable films. I'm not sorry I read it, but I'm sure that Dorothy Hughes has done better. I just happened to have it on the shelf from the days when I was collecting Dell map-back paperbacks. In this editiion, opposite the title page is the following paragraph: BOOKS ARE WEAPONS--in a free democracy everyone may read what he likes. Books educate, inform, inspire; they also provide entrtainment, bolster morale. This has been manufactured in conformity with wartime restrictions--read it and pass it on. Our armed forces especially need books--you may give them to your nearest U.S.O. office, leave them at your public library, or send them direct to Commanding General, 4th Corps Area Headquarters, Atlanta, Ga., marked "For Army Libraries."

[Tara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Less of a murder mystery, more of a spy thriller, The Fallen Sparrow journeys through the mind of Chris "Kit" McKittrick, from inside a fascist Spanish prison to the mean streets of New York City. Kit survived 2 years of torture and torment at the hands of Wobblefoot, but can he survive his own quest for vengeance? Part Indiana Jones, part Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy, motives and allegiances, truth and dissembling, are all muddled together right until the last pages. Kit is full of bravado, but it is very clear that he is just as much trying to convince himself as the reader. If I had a dollar for every time he said he wasn't afraid...This being the third Hughes book I've read, I would rate it square in the middle--better than Dread Journey but not as good as Ride The Pink Horse.

[Randy Money · Rating 4 out of 5]

Young, idealistic American Kit McKittridge went to Spain to fight in the Spanish Civil War. He was captured and tortured (not closely described) for knowledge he had, but he managed to escape with his secret, a secret a certain little man in Berlin wants to know. Older in spirit, less idealistic, Kit is back in N.Y. City, looking to find whoever murdered his friend, the man who helped him escape. He’s certain it has something to do with his secret.

Published in 1942, and dedicated to Lieutenant Eric Ambler who, according to Hughes, wouldn't have a book coming out that year, it's a hard-boiled spy/mystery story. I've read Hughes' In a Lonely Place and Dread Journey. She wasn't as stylish as Raymond Chandler, but she was a good writer at the sentence level, and probably better than Chandler, except at his very best, on the level of story -- Lonely has become recognized as a classic of noir. Being a novel from the 1940s, it’s not surprising that the protagonist is male. Two narrative decisions are striking, though: First, Kit was broken by torture and fear, but has recovered somewhat. Throughout the novel, he flounders and makes mistakes, sometimes seems on the edge of hysteria, but keeps plowing forward. Second, Hughes weaves three young women around Kit, a narrative tactic which would be worth studying for beginning writers. Each woman has her secrets, may be duplicitous or innocent, calculating or lightweight, but each determines Kit’s actions or adds to his understanding of his situation at key points in the narrative.

Recommended for anyone who's interested in Hughes, or curious about older thrillers/mysteries.

[Lisa Kucharski · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book begins with a snapshot of a young man in some kind of prison in Spain being tortured for some kind of information. Then we jump to him arriving in New York City after receiving news that his best friend committed suicide by falling from a window. He believes it’s murder. He also believes that it was due to helping him escape from the prison.

This story is told by a young man, whose young grandiose ideals are being crushed by cruel reality and the rise of fascism in Europe and its reach into the U.S. It’s pretty hard going at the start as the information is spat out in chunks and Kit's paranoia is out of control. As the story gets moving, Kit McKittrek, is able to tame his mind a bit… but he is still a victim of his heart. There are three women in the story, one who he loved (and no longer loves him), another who adores him though he sees her as a child and not the woman she is now, and the beautiful woman from Europe he clearly sees himself saving.

Once he realizes the lay of the land in NYC, things really getting moving as he tries to locate the murderer of his friend etc... He is both the hunter and hunted. The ending is interesting as the clarity of the world truly finally finally- hits him. You finally see him - in essence- become material to be a spy.

If you like mystery and espionage this is for you. (It’s also being reprinted this year as well – 2024.)

[Bruce · Rating 3 out of 5]

A recent essay by A. B. Jewell discusses the importance of what he calls noir dialogue in traditional "tough guy mysteries." About the two main characters in the film Thieves Like Us he writes, "Yes, they are on the run, pursued. But the real tension comes from how they talk.”

In this novel I'd say Dorothy B. Hughes is cutting her teeth at creating such dialogue with which the protagonist attempts to deflate his ever-mounting angst with sardonic humor. Its sporadic appearance sometimes seems forced, like an artificial infusion intended to liven things up a bit, but often it's spot on.

She does a pretty good job, too, with navigating a complex plot, though its a bit shaky at first. In the first few chapters the reader must give up any attempt to sort things out until more information is given. Overall, a rewarding read, presaging her future, more expert thrillers (e.g., In a Lonely Place.

[Bill FromPA · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent WWII era spy thriller, reminiscent of Rogue Male and Hitchcock's Saboteur. Nazi agents mix with Manhattan high society in an attempt to learn the location of an ancient treasure from an American escapee from a Fascist Spanish prison. Hard to put down.

Unknown reference: "Sister Anne was announcing the news." (pg. 171)

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Closer to 2 and a half. Okay but at a certain point was reading it just to finish it.

[Doctor Moss · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dorothy Hughes threw all the genres and themes into her mixer to come up with this one. It’s a noirish mystery spy story, with a robust romantic sauce.

Kit McKittrick has escaped from a Fascist Spanish prison where he had been held after his volunteer participation in the Spanish Civil War. He has information on the whereabouts of a jeweled treasure, a set of goblets, and a man he calls “Wobblefoot” is determined to pry that information out of him. Wobblefoot is called that by Kit because he never sees him but only knows him by the sound of his distinctive labored walk, a sound he hears when Wobblefoot arrives at the prison to oversee Kit’s prison torture.

Kit escapes with the help of his friend back home in New York, Louie Lepetino. When Louie then dies by what the police rule an accidental fall from a fifth floor window, Kit believes Louie has really been murdered, in retribution for his aid in Kit’s escape.

The plot takes off from there. A suspicious group of characters hovers over Louie’s death and Kit’s attempt to find out what really happened. At the center of the group are wheelchair-bound Dr. Christian Skaas and his nephew Otto Skaas, refugees from Nazi-era Germany. Otto draws Kit’s immediate suspicion for maybe irrelevant reasons — Otto seems to be moving in on Kit’s love interest, Barby, the woman he longed to return to from his Spanish imprisonment.

It gets more complicated from there, especially with the character of Toni Donne. Toni is the beautiful granddaughter of reclusive Prince Felix, who is helping the Skaases find their place in America. Kit has a fondness for Toni, and however she may be involved in Louie’s death, Kit doesn’t want her pinned for it.

As it turns out, Kit hasn’t completely escaped. He still has information that his captors want, and they have followed him back to America. Kit’s haunting by the sound of Wobblefoot’s steps may be more than his imagination.

Kit is determined to find Louie’s killers and avenge his death. And Louie’s killers are obviously tied up in the ongoing efforts to extract information from Kit. The whole thing is constantly on the edge of blowing up in Kit’s face and bringing collateral damage with it.

Hughes conducts this orchestra of characters (only a small number of whom I’ve mentioned) with skillful, meticulous art. I’ll admit her dialogue, for me, is tinged by John Garfield’s portrayal of Kit in the story’s movie adaptation, although Garfield’s rapid-fire intensity, almost manic, fits the novel well.

Hughes doesn’t write only “entertaining” stories. In a Lonely Place confronts misogyny (and pyschopathology). The Expendable Man confronts racism. Ride the Pink Horse confronts ethnocentrism. The Fallen Sparrow confronts the price of innocence, the scales of romance vs. justice, and maybe most centrally, the question of what is worth fighting for. Kit endures torture, and the deaths of others around him, to prevent a treasure from falling into the hands of enemies and bad actors — is it worth the price?

This is one of Hughes’ less noir-soaked efforts. If you’re looking for noir, try In a Lonely Place — it’s fatalistic and desperate. This one is more a matter of intrigue, with an interesting pay-off in its romantic/anti-romantic resolution.

[Tony · Rating 2 out of 5]

Picked this up because I loved Hughes' The Expendable Man, and saw that this had been reissued under the Penzler "American Mystery Classics" imprint, so figured it had to be decent. Written and published in the midst of WWII, it features a young man from New York who has been convalescing on a ranch out west for a year. He's recovering from several years in a prison in Fascist Spain where he was tortured by a European (presumably German) man with a limp. The book opens with him rushing back to Manhattan because his best friend from childhood supposedly committed suicide, and he knows that's not possible.

What follows is an awfully complicated and at times confusing plot amidst Manhattan's fancier set, where people live on Riverside Drive in apartments with maids and whatnot, and taxi around town to various dinners and nightspots. The cast includes a sexy nightclub singer, a sullen Spanish violinist, an earnest G-Man, our hero's glamorous former flame, a creepy European doctor, a presumed Nazi, and a nervous maid. As the hero muddles through the middle of the book trying to figure out why his friend was surely murdered, it turns out it's all about some jeweled goblets from Spain? The plot is all over the place, with motivations murky and breathless speechifying. Readers with an interest in period mysteries may enjoy the 1940s New York vibe, but I found it more tiresome than suspenseful. It was turned into a Hollywood film a year or so later, starring John Garfield and Maureen O'Hara -- I might check it out to see if they were able to bring some semblance of coherency to the screen.

[Robert Meyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not as good as "In a Lonely Place", but better than "The So Blue Marble." Writing is better than "Ride the Pink Horse." In short, well above average reading, but not her very best.

A murderer identified by a hobbling gait caused by Turkish torture. Great evil enemy charcteristic. Albanians and others posing as Germans. Why not make the other evil people have stereotypical evil heritage?

It is primarily about a chase for invaluable Spanish antiquities which the protagonist Kit earned by surviving two years in post-WW II Spanish jail. So, Albania, Estonia, Spain and Germany (probably more) converge in New York city for the Spanish antiquities. Or so we think.

In the end, revelations occur. The British accented German bodyguard is really a New Jersey poor boy (or something like that) who fills in some of the gaps.

The moll's beauty appears to violently contrast to her core. The moll's German appearances are hiding French roots. Apparently, evil German extortion, which is founded upon kidnapping of innocent children, successfully makes beautiful people do rotten things. By this time, I can only think of that great final scene in "Tootsie." This more courted than a ballpark pretzel.

Unlike common noir, Hughes employs more than gumshoe city cops. Like "The So Blue Marble", the crimes are big. Really big. And such crimes demand FBI investigation.

This book has hints if John le Carre. In my opinion, gumshoe dialogue far exceeds FBI speak.

Fun read even if all over the place.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dorothy B. Hughes dedicated this book to Eric Ambler. Appropriate. The protagonist went through torture in the Spanish Civil War but now he's in over his head. Published in the decisive year 1942 but possibly set in the Lindbergh vs. FDR period before the US officially entered the war, there are byzantine plot elements aplenty, with a New York society that's more House of Mirth than Age of Innocence. Like if Chandler wrote a spy story set in NYC. Sparrow has some overwritten Why We Fight moments but like Ambler it rewards close reading. Interesting period piece, with lots to think about with regard to refugees, immigrants, and Trump's return to power.

[Ray Hubley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bit of a mess this book with ambitiously complex plotting and an unconvincing protagonist. Still leaves a better impression than the film adaptation, which tries to address both these issues. First, by casting John Garfield who does bring the PTSD element to life. And second, by seeking to streamline the story which really doesn't work.
Readers of Hughes' celebrated IN A LONELY PLACE are familiar with the edgy, intense quality of her writing -- and it comes through here as well (at least intermittently): a sense that anything likely to transpire will be steeped in a striking moral ambivalence.

[Lauren R. Santoro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not what I expected. This is a who-done-it but is also a historical crime novel with insight into America post WWII, especially the European refugees who came to live here and were sponsored by American families. Kit - the main character - is endearing and paranoid and yet always spot on. There’s duplicity, femme fatales, and espionage. Does evil always win? Can good (aka the Americans) prevail? Why do we fight wars? For power or for ideals of justice and peace? Does anyone really believe in those ideals or is it a mask for obtaining power?

[Ted · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid noir. Written in 1942, with all the war time ethos, by an author I hadn't read. Stacks up nicely with the exemplars of the genre.

Story is a bit patchy but involves an American fascist fighter seeking revenge on the people who killed is friend. These are bad folks fighting against the allies and for themselves, trying to grab some precious treasure. Has Marlowe and Casablanca vibes all over it. Good but not great.

[Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a tangle of personal revenge, hidden priceless art and wartime dishonesty -creating an action that is pretty much on a level plane, the scenes seem random in length and detail, and the characters are outlined rather than fully detailed with felons more cardboard than real.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

It may be the Casablanca-era morality which makes this one stick out yet Hughes’ standard, tragic theme of “Fuck around and find out” still makes an appropriate showing. The pacing, the plotting, and the backstory all hold up in spite of some cloying turns of phrase.

[Susan Ovans · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable mostly as a piece of early American noir, this mystery-cum-espionage novel meanders all over the upper echelons of 1942 New York City. It's fun, intermittently suspenseful, intermittently preachy. Not a bad weekend read.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Super interesting to read a book from this time period and seriously, the slang, you're like what are you even saying, did people really talk like this? And with it being set after WWII in New York with upper class society it was interesting to see how different nationalities were viewed.

[Jennifer Hanlon · Rating 4 out of 5]

a great corrective to postmodern literature where not much happens! things happen in this book and consequences follow because no one can forget the past. also mysterious and glamorous and tragic. more like this please, world.

[Billie Raven · Rating 2 out of 5]

Love Dorothy B. Hughes
Did not love this book.
Unbelievable and Uninteresting

[Katy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Was looking forward to this as In a Lonely Place and Ride the Pink Horse were so good. I found this confusing and unsuspenseful.

[Jim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too convoluted -- early Dorothy Hughes. oh the groan-worthy speeches!