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Dorothy B. Hughes

The Expendable Man (New York Review Books Classics) Paperback – July 3, 2012

by Dorothy B. Hughes (Author), Walter Mosley (Afterword)

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“It was surprising what old experiences remembered could do to a presumably educated, civilized man.” And Hugh Denismore, a young doctor driving his mother’s Cadillac from Los Angeles to Phoenix, is eminently educated and civilized. He is privileged, would seem to have the world at his feet, even. Then why does the sight of a few redneck teenagers disconcert him? Why is he reluctant to pick up a disheveled girl hitchhiking along the desert highway? And why is he the first person the police suspect when she is found dead in Arizona a few days later?

Dorothy B. Hughes ranks with Raymond Chandler and Patricia Highsmith as a master of mid-century noir. In books like In a Lonely Place and Ride the Pink Horse she exposed a seething discontent underneath the veneer of twentieth-century prosperity. With The Expendable Man, first published in 1963, Hughes upends the conventions of the wrong-man narrative to deliver a story that engages readers even as it implicates them in the greatest of all American crimes.

Print length

264 pages
Language

English
Publisher

NYRB Classics
Publication date

July 3, 2012
Dimensions

5.11 x 0.55 x 7.97 inches
ISBN-10

159017495X
ISBN-13

978-1590174951
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“The Expendable Man is one of the great trick novels of crime fiction. Yet to call it that is to belittle it. Its trick is no clever, superimposed bit of literary legerdemain: it is integral to the whole conception of the book. . . . A fine achievement.” —H. R. F. Keating, Crime and Mystery: The 100 Best Books

“Hughes didn’t just pre-date Jim Thompson, she also pre-dated Patricia Highsmith, Ruth Rendell, and other so-called Masters of Psychological Suspense or Noir. And her writing style stands up to the test of time.” —Sarah Weinman, Bookslut

"Puts Chandler to shame . . . Hughes is the master we keep turning to."—Sara Paretsky, author of the V. I. Warshawski novels

“You are rocked back by Ms. Hughes some fifty pages into her story, and I can certify that the effect is truly rocking. You even read past the vital word, just one word in a sentence of swift
dialogue, before you realize what it has said, and what a new and different light it casts on everything you have read up to that moment.” —H. R. F Keating

“A mystery writer who. . . in America was regarded as one of the great names of detective fiction. . . . Her real talent lay in an ability to create atmospheres of growing apprehension and
fear, a very modern approach at a time when Agatha Christie was producing her comparatively predictable puzzles. . . . Her last, and some consider her best, work of fiction was The
Expendable Man.” —The Times (London)

“Let me say that it is Mrs. Hughes’ finest work . . . of unusual stature both as a suspense story and as a straight novel and nowise to be missed.” —Anthony Boucher, The New York Times

“The suspense twist makes this tale a stand-out.” —Saturday Review

“To read The Expendable Man today is to experience a mature work by a mistress of her craft.” —Dominic Power

"A surprise-twist gasper about a young doc who picks up a sick chick and gets framed by a hack dick for her kill" —Time

“One of crime fiction's finest writers of psychological suspense.” —Marcia Miller, author of the Sharon McCone novels

"This lady is the queen of noir. . ." —Laurie R. King, author of the Mary Russell novels

“Nobody but Dorothy Hughes can cast suspense into such an uncanny spell . . .” —San Francisco Chronicle

"A gun molling wordslinger who took it to the tough guys . . . I simply call Hughes one damn good story teller." —John Hood, Bully Magazine

About the Author

Dorothy B. Hughes (1904–1993) was an American mystery writer and critic. Born Dorothy Belle Flanagan in Kansas City, Missouri, she received a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri and worked as a reporter before attending graduate school at the University of New Mexico and Columbia University. In 1931 her collection of poetry, Dark Certainty, was selected for inclusion in the Yale Series of Younger Poets. The next year she got married and it was not until 1940 that she published the first of her fourteen mystery novels, The So Blue Marble. For four decades Hughes was the crime-fiction reviewer for The Albuquerque Tribune, earning an Edgar Award for Outstanding Mystery Criticism from the Mystery Writers of America in 1950. The Expendable Man, published in 1963, was her last novel. “I simply hadn’t the tranquility required to write” while caring for her family, she later said. In 1978, however, she published The Case of the Real Perry Mason, a critical biography of Erle Stanley Gardner, and that same year she was recognized as a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America. Among Hughes’s best-known books are The Cross-Eyed Bear, Ride the Pink Horse, and In a Lonely Place (which was made into a movie directed by Nicholas Ray and starring Humphrey Bogart).

Walter Mosley is the author of more than thirty-four books, including the best-selling mystery series featuring Easy Rawlins. Among the many honors he has received are an O. Henry Award, a Grammy, and PEN America’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ NYRB Classics; Revised ed. edition (July 3, 2012)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 264 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 159017495X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1590174951
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.6 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.11 x 0.55 x 7.97 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #194,499 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #850 in Hard-Boiled Mystery
- #9,601 in Literary Fiction (Books)
- #11,551 in Suspense Thrillers

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fra7299

Maybe a smidge less than In a Lonely Place and Ride the Pink Horse, 3.75 stars

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 16, 2022

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A man driving on a lonely stretch of a road in Indio away from the big city. A simple act of being a Good Samaritan will turn into something else entirely. Hugh Densimore, a young intern doctor who decides to come to the aid of a girl on the side of the road, suddenly has his world turned upside down when later she winds up dead.

This was my third read from Dorothy B Hughes and they all have been fascinating with intense psychologically driven moments in their own way. And while I did feel ultimately that the book The Expendable Man was a solid read, there are a few points that make it rank slightly lower than In a Lonely Place and Ride the Pink Horse. I think the two aspects of this novel that were slight blemishes were 1) elements of the ending/ conclusion and the big reveal were slightly anti climatic and 2) there was a circular or repetitive aspect in some spots to the narrative and her protagonist’s pursuit for justice. This is where I wish there were quarter stars or half stars because I think this book would be slightly below 4 stars, maybe about 3.75. However, in the big picture, I will round up because everything else was intense and tension-filled and Hughes delivers for the most part.

One of the defining and effective aspects of The Expendable Man is Hughes’ ability to put us right into her protagonist’s head as he becomes the prime suspect in the young girl's death. Hughes’ establishes a frantic and paranoid atmosphere within the opening moments, as we learn that an innocent man has everything stacked against him in many ways. And in this work, Hugh Densimore must always be one step ahead and vigilant in his next move, knowing full well that the other side is playing psychological mind games. And we are right there with Densimore, anxiously awaiting the next step, the next move.

This edition offers a nice afterward by Walter Mosley who sheds insight into the book, the author, and the ties to his own writing and career.

Overall, The Expendable Man is mostly a solid noir and psychological ride.

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Sam Weller

Invisible versus Expendable

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 9, 2021

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Just because this novel was set and published in the early sixties it shouldn’t be dismissed as dated. George Floyd’ death occurred with no discernible motivation by an officer determined to murder him, an officer who in a public place and in the presence of children put a knee to his neck for over nine minutes, until he robbed him of his last breath.

In this novel the prejudice takes many days and numerous interrogations where law enforcement questions the main character for the death of a young girl, who had terminated a pregnancy with an abortion and ended up dead in a canal.

The young man who is considered a suspect is a an intern, and he picks up the young girl alone at night, miles away from the nearest town, while traveling from L.A. to Phoenix to attend a family wedding. There is a mix of characters to flush out the story and that one can recognize as the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The plot is linear, a predictable, algebraic equation that needs no answer key. The social issues are as real today as they were back when this novel was written. But they are too refined and polished for the most part. There are no twists or real eruptions that take place for the main character, even in real moments of crisis. He is questioned, he worries about having his family discover the charges that might be brought against him, he feels the sting of racism(that can never be marginalized), he is savagely attacked, and yet. This all happens in the most perfect arc of events, events that all just fall into place, waiting for the inevitable conclusion for the expendable man.

At one point the main character hunts dow his prey, the real killer. He says of his failed pursuit,”He’s only safe as long as he’s the invisible man.” The irony of this moment for me rests in that he’s expendable as is the other man is invisible. It seems to me that the real issue for the main character as a black man is that he is invisible and the white man he’s chasing to rightly pin the crime on is the expendable man. Ralph Ellison’s definitive novel covers that designation of a black man as invisible. I am not sure I can point out a piece of fiction, maybe something from Faulkner, that squarely shoulders the ignorance and ugliness of prejudice that to this day is celebrated by some whites.

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DGustafson

A 60-year-old thriller with contemporary resonance

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 5, 2022

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I read this novel because I was raised in Phoenix, Arizona -- where it is set -- at the time when it was written. A friend recommended it on the basis of its portrayal of a bygone era in a city that seems embryonic by today's standards. Yet the big surprise was that it was well-written and compelling, and that two major issues that it raises remain with us to this day. My wife, who never lived in Arizona, loved it, and I just mailed a copy to a friend who grew up on the same streets in the same era as I did. It's interesting that my knowledge of the layout of the city at that time revealed something central to the plot earlier for me than for my wife, who is a shrewd reader of mysteries. I am eager to see if my fellow Phoenician will figure it out early on as well. I heartily recommend this novel.

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Graham G Grant

Kafka in the Valley of the Sun

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 15, 2021

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This is a remarkable page-turner blending social commentary with fast-paced action: the story of a promising young doctor and a chance encounter with a hitch-hiker that will change his life. It’s a Kafka-esque thriller set in the baking heat of Arizona, so vividly rendered that you feel you’re there sweating alongside the tormented protagonist, Hugh Densmore, as he grapples with forces seemingly beyond his control. It’s hard to disclose more without spoiling it, as there’s a great twist relatively early on - about a fifth of the way in - which changes your perspective on the novel. I was inspired to read it by the Backlisted podcast. If you like it, try In A Lonely Place, another Hughes classic… my only frustration is that there are several typos in the e-book of this text, which could have been easily avoided.

One person found this helpful

JD

Gripping and unexpected

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 23, 2021

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I was drawn to this book without knowing very much about it. The writing is economical but precise and drew me in from the start. Recently I’ve been a reluctant reader but happily this broke the spell.... I was gripped. It’s an unassuming but powerful read of one man’s subjective experience, a man whom you empathise with to the point I had dread in my stomach as events unfolded around him. It does something very clever and, without wanting to give anything away, pivots to only truly make you aware of its central theme part way through. This is an original and engrossing book that should be more widely known and appreciated than it is.

2 people found this helpful

Antenna

Automatic assumptions

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 24, 2014

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Hugh Densmore, a young American doctor on his way to his niece's wedding in Phoenix feels obliged, against his better judgement, to pick up a teenage hitchhiker. Who knows what will befall her if he does not? She proves to be both an unpleasant liar and a pathetic object of pity. When local newspapers report the discovery of a young girl's body in a canal, Hugh is convinced it belongs to the hitchhiker, and that the police will soon be knocking on his door. He is fatalistic, yet also determined not to spoil the wedding and to prove his innocence.

It is not until more than fifty pages in that the author delivers a master stroke by revealing a piece of information that stopped me in my tracks. Not only does it explain Hugh's previous almost paranoid fears, but completely alters the reader's perception of the situation. I was forced to look back to see if I had misread some details, but it was clear that I had made certain assumptions and was potentially as guilty of misjudgements as some of the characters in the book.

This book is partly a psychological crime thriller in which every step is developed in forensic detail. It is also a study of life in the western states of America in the early 1960s - the baking afternoon heat and traffic jams of Phoenix, the "startling growth" of the suburbs, the abrupt change from surfaced roads to rough tracks through the semi-desert landscape of "troglodyte rocks and spire cacti". Although Dorothy Hughes can be a little shaky on the flowering of romance, she is excellent on landscapes, cold starry nights and the burgeoning fast food culture as well as deeper issues in a world of racial prejudice and criminalisation of abortion.

The sustained sense of menace and very evident risk of Densmore being unjustly ruined, combined with occasional suspicions that he may go free at the end yet turn out to be a villain after all, make this a page turner. With so much suspense, it is perhaps inevitable that the final climax is a somewhat underwhelming, but overall this gripping tale deserves its recent revival. It stands the test of time as one of the best crime novels which everyone who enjoys this genre should read.

2 people found this helpful

Carol Cass

Suspense writing at its absolute best

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 13, 2021

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Another great thriller. Amazing writing. I wish Dorothy B Hughes had written even more so there were further books like this to look forward to.

WORLDGIRL

Excellent story by late-great noir fiction queen Dorothy Hughes

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 28, 2016

Verified Purchase

Excellent story by late-great noir fiction queen Dorothy Hughes. A man's life is turned upside down when he picks up a teenage hitchhiker outside of Indio, California. This is a book that will stay with you.

One person found this helpful

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