2.5
The Blackbirder
By Dorothy B. HughesPublisher Description
A suspenseful World War II–era novel from “the world’s finest female noir writer . . . [featuring] a resourceful spy heroine” (Sarah Weinman, Los Angeles Review of Books).
Julie Guilles has escaped to New York from Nazi-occupied France. But that doesn’t mean she’s safe. The German invasion put an end to her glamorous, sheltered life in Paris three years ago, and because she entered America illegally, she has to live in the shadows, a refugee without papers, never quite sure whom she can trust.
When an old acquaintance is gunned down in front of her apartment building, Julie worries she could be next. To evade the NYPD, FBI, and Gestapo—basically anyone who might want to arrest, deport, or kill her—she must make her way to Santa Fe, New Mexico, in search of “the Blackbirder.” She’s heard whispers about the trafficker who supposedly carries people across the southern border—for a hefty price. Julie has nothing but a smuggled diamond necklace with which to pay, and before the danger’s over, she may once again have to take a perilous stand in the war that’s plunged the world into chaos . . .
Palpably tense from the first page, The Blackbirder is a dark, riveting tale of intrigue and espionage from an “extraordinary” Mystery Writers of America Grand Master (The New Yorker).
“Without question this is the best book that Dorothy Hughes has written.” —The New York Times
“Sleek suspense . . . grand reading.” —Kirkus Reviews
“The master.” —Sara Paretsky, author of the V. I. Warshawski Novels
Julie Guilles has escaped to New York from Nazi-occupied France. But that doesn’t mean she’s safe. The German invasion put an end to her glamorous, sheltered life in Paris three years ago, and because she entered America illegally, she has to live in the shadows, a refugee without papers, never quite sure whom she can trust.
When an old acquaintance is gunned down in front of her apartment building, Julie worries she could be next. To evade the NYPD, FBI, and Gestapo—basically anyone who might want to arrest, deport, or kill her—she must make her way to Santa Fe, New Mexico, in search of “the Blackbirder.” She’s heard whispers about the trafficker who supposedly carries people across the southern border—for a hefty price. Julie has nothing but a smuggled diamond necklace with which to pay, and before the danger’s over, she may once again have to take a perilous stand in the war that’s plunged the world into chaos . . .
Palpably tense from the first page, The Blackbirder is a dark, riveting tale of intrigue and espionage from an “extraordinary” Mystery Writers of America Grand Master (The New Yorker).
“Without question this is the best book that Dorothy Hughes has written.” —The New York Times
“Sleek suspense . . . grand reading.” —Kirkus Reviews
“The master.” —Sara Paretsky, author of the V. I. Warshawski Novels
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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 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.
Other books by Dorothy B. Hughes
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