Dolores Hitchens and PI Jim Sader

Sleep With Strangers by Dolores Hitchens.
Perma M3040, Copyright 1955

Sleep With Slander by Dolores Hitchens
Perma M4243, Copyright 1960

Continuing with these wonderful discussions on female authors writing excellent noir novels in the days when men dominated the field; Ed Gorman makes an excellent point that these should not be overlooked and deserved to be read. And having read many, I wished there were more. Although I have a very strong affection for Leigh Brackett's noir works, I was more impressed with the Jim Sader novels written by Dolores Hitchens.

The majority of Hitchen's work are tame mysteries, but along the way she gave us two excellent hardboiled Jim Sader PI novels. Sader a loner, with his own problems, takes on missing person cases for the two-man agency he has with his partner Dan Scarborough. In "Sleep With Strangers," Sader gets involved with a wealthy blonde, along with her family and her acquaintances. The gorgeous woman hires Sader to locate her missing mother. The story get into the filth of her society and Sader gets dragged downward into it. "Sleep With Slander" has Sader hunting down a kidnapped child. This one grabs you from the start with a moving two page prelude. People are not who they make out to be and Sader discovers that there are plenty of false truths throughout the case. "Slander" is the better of the two books, which may be because Sader's partner is not involved in the story and we witness a strong emotional involvement in Sader on this case. But the first novel should not be dismissed.

"There was a sudden taste of exhaustion, as sharp as that of blood, in his mouth, and he was aware that he had taken a beating, that he hadn't had any dinner, that he was so tired that he could have dropped where he stood to sleep. He felt that he was alone in a room full of ghosts."

These female writers provided more than hardboiled PI stories, they had the ability to capture true development of their characters; which I find a large number of male authored PI novels leave out. For some reason the female authors from that era, get it and make it the strength in their stories. I guess that was the point I was trying to convey in my previous post on 'The Blank Wall."

As for Kevin Burton Smith and his upcoming study on female hardboiled/pulp-era authors, it's long overdue and he should be applauded for taking on the task.

The Day the Sun Came Out by Dorothy M. Johnson

The Day the Sun Came Out by Dorothy M. Johnson.
Short Short in Bar 4 Roundup of Best Western Stories.
Perma M3035, Copyright 1955.

I remember reading Dorothy M. Johnson's "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" after seeing the movie a dozen times. Surprisingly different than the John Ford movie, but you could see how Hollywood would of used the story as a base for the screenplay. The story has a wonderful strong, passive western ending, which I believe wasn't again achieved until Elmore Leonard's "Valdez is Coming." Dorothy M. Johnson was an extraordinary talent, who didn't write western stories-she wrote western literature.

"The Day the Sun Came Out" is equally as good. The story is told through an eleven year old boy traveling with his Pa and two younger sisters. They have left their home for a more prosperous life towards the mountains. They are with little provisions and almost out of food. Along the way they come upon Mary, a young woman who wants to travel with them. The father can't feed another mouth, but reluctantly allows Mary to go along to look after the girls. Soon they are out of food and the father heads out alone to seek provisions. Mary and the boy wait with the girls for his return. Days pass and they are starving. Mary finds a large mushroom-fries it up, eats some of it, but doesn't share with the others. The boy hates her for not sharing, even after begging for the sake of the girls. He later learns that she was waiting to see if it was poisonous, risking herself to save the others. Mary is fine in the morning and the others eat. The last sentence of the story is "My stepmother was a wonderful woman."

Wonderfully told through the eyes of the boy. An enjoyable, heartwarming western frontier story. This short story is just one of the gems in this collection from 1955.
Included are:

Thirst by John Prescott
War Party by James Warner Bellah
The Killer Came to Call by Bennett Foster
The Bretnall Feud by Steve Frazee
The Makings by Norman A. Fox
River Crossing by Lester Dent
The Man Who Talked Too Much by Jack Schaefer
Pride by Ernest Haycox
Mountain Medicine by A. B. Guthrie Jr.
Westward the Egg by R.W. Krepps & H.L. Gold
Manuel by William Heuman