3.5
Dread Journey
ByPublisher Description
Four years after she arrived in Los Angeles, Kitten Agnew has become a star. Though beautiful and talented, she'd be nowhere without Vivien Spender: Hollywood's most acclaimed director—and its most dangerous. But Kitten knew what she was getting into when she got involved with him; she had heard the stories of Viv's past discoveries: Once he discarded them, they ended up in a chorus line, a sanatorium, or worse. She knows enough of his secrets that he wouldn't dare destroy her career. But he may be willing to kill her.
On a train from Los Angeles to Chicago, Kitten learns that Viv is planning to offer her roommate a part that was meant for her. If she lets him betray her, her career will be over. But fight for the part, and she will be fighting for her life as well.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesDread Journey Reviews
3.5
DeeS
Created 6 months agoShare
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Kathleen
Created about 1 year agoShare
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Emily
Created over 1 year agoShare
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Barbara K
Created almost 2 years agoShare
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“I was not aware of 40's author Dorothy Hughes until sometime last year, and although this is not her most well known book (that would be https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/591354.In_a_Lonely_Place ) I picked it as my first venture into her work because the summary suggested there might be some tie-ins to the #MeToo movement. More on that later.
What I want to start with is the quality of Hughes' writing. She knew her way around a sentence, and her character descriptions and plotting are distinctive. The story is built on an Agatha Christie-like premise - multiple characters on a train headed from L.A. to NYC, and someone is going to die - but told with a 40's noir sensibility. Her characters are for the most part types: glamorous actress, innocent ingenue, controlling producer, dedicated secretary, world-weary musician, alcoholic journalist, failed scriptwriter, and Pullman porter. But she fleshes them out so that they don't become caricatures. The journalist, for instance, is haunted by memories of war and famine, and the porter is introspective as he reflects on his job and his relationship to the passengers in his car.
This exploration of the interior life of the passengers is reminiscent of Patricia Highsmith, except that Highsmith typically focuses on one or two principal characters, while Hughes taps into the entire "cast". The producer and the secretary, especially, would have been right at home in a Highsmith novel.
And the producer is the tie to the #MeToo movement. In part it is his conviction that the rules that govern the behavior of others don't apply to him. But the connection is also there in the way that so many people feel helpless to stop him. Shades of Harvey Weinstein.
The weakest part of the book, for me, is the character of the ingenue. Her very existence drives much of the action, but I didn't find her, or her effect on the other passengers, to be especially believable. Despite that flaw, I liked the whole book enough to give it a 4 star rating.
As usual, I will close with comments on the narration. I can't say I was really happy with Gabrielle de Cuir's reading, which tended more toward dramatization that I generally like. It was OK, but it didn't enhance the book for me.”
Travis Stone
Created almost 3 years agoShare
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About Dorothy B. Hughes
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
(1931). After writing several unsuccessful manuscripts, she published
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
(1947) and
(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
Other books by Dorothy B. Hughes
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