Dorothy B. Hughes (August 10, 1904 – May 6, 1993) was an Americancrime writer,literary critic, and historian. Hughes wrote fourteen crime and detective novels, primarily in thehardboiled and noir styles, and is best known for the novelsIn a Lonely Place (1947) andRide the Pink Horse (1946).

Born Dorothy Belle Flanagan inKansas City, Missouri, she studiedjournalism and after graduating from theUniversity of Missouri with a B.J. degree in 1924 worked in that field inMissouri,New Mexico, andNew York, including work for theOlean [NY]Times for two years.^[1] She did graduate work in journalism at theUniversity of New Mexico and atColumbia University without receiving degrees from either institution. In March 1932, she married Levi Allen Hughes Jr. in Santa Fe, NM.^[2]

Hughes's first published book,Dark Certainty (1931), a volume of poetry, won theYale Series of Younger Poets Competition.

In 1940, she published her first mystery novel,The So Blue Marble. She published eight more mystery novels in the 1940s. She also wrote a history of the University of New Mexico and a critical study of writerErle Stanley Gardner. In 1951 she received anEdgar Award from theMystery Writers of America in the category of Outstanding Mystery Criticism, and in 1978 she was given the MWA's Grand Master award.

Hughes acknowledged the influence of such writers asEric Ambler,Graham Greene, andWilliam Faulkner.^[3] Her writing style and suspenseful plots exemplify the hardboiled genre of crime and detective novels, and her literary career associates her with other female crime writers of the 1940s and 1950s, such asMargaret Millar,Vera Caspary,Elisabeth Sanxay Holding, andOlive Higgins Prouty. In his afterword to a reissue of her last novel, The Expendable Man (1963),Walter Mosley wrote that her fiction "captures an unease under the skin of everyday life in a way that is all her own."^[4]

Hughes was a successful writer and popular during her day. Three of her novels were made into feature films:The Fallen Sparrow (1943), starringJohn Garfield;In a Lonely Place (1950), directed byNicholas Ray and starringHumphrey Bogart; andRide the Pink Horse (1947), directed by and starringRobert Montgomery, which was remade for television in 1964 asThe Hanged Man. Hughes made her home inSanta Fe, New Mexico, which she used as the setting of several novels.

From 1940 to 1979 she reviewed mysteries forThe Albuquerque Tribune, theLos Angeles Times, theNew York Herald-Tribune and other newspapers. Over the course of her career, she wrote a total of fourteen novels, the majority of which were published between 1940 and 1952.^[5]

Hughes died on May 6, 1993, inAshland, Oregon, from complications following astroke.^[6]

• Pueblo on the Mesa: The First Fifty Years of the University of New Mexico (1939)
• The So Blue Marble (1940) – her first novel
• The Cross-Eyed Bear (1940) – later published asThe Cross-Eyed Bear Murders
• The Bamboo Blonde (1941) – sequel toThe So Blue Marble
• The Fallen Sparrow (1942) – filmed in 1943
• The Blackbirder (1943)
• The Delicate Ape (1944)
• Johnnie (1944)
• Dread Journey (1945)
• Ride the Pink Horse (1946) – filmed in 1947;Robert Montgomery Presents TV series, "Ride the Pink Horse" episode, 1950,remade in 1964 asThe Hanged Man
• The Scarlet Imperial (1946) – also published asKiss for a Killer
• In a Lonely Place (1947) – filmed in 1950
• The Big Barbecue (1949)
• The Candy Kid (1950) –Climax TV series, "Spider Web" episode in 1958
• The Davidian Report (1952) – also published asThe Body on the Bench, 1952;Robert Montgomery Presents TV series, "The Davidian Report" episode, 1952
• The Expendable Man (1963) – republished byPersephone Books, 2006. Edgar Award nominee, Best Novel.
• Erle Stanley Gardner: The Case of the Real Perry Mason (1978) – critical biography. Edgar Award nominee, Best Critical/Biographical Work

"The Fiesta of White Waters" [as Dorothy Belle Flanagan]. Schubert Theater, Kansas City, MO, May 2, 1929.

[as Dorothy Belle Flanagan]

• "Absurd Child."The Bookman, February 1928, p. 641.
• "All the Day Long."Commonweal, February 1, 1928, p. 1013.
• "Ancestors." TheAnniston [AL]Star, Dec. 6, 1935, p. 5.
• "Belinda."Alton [IL]Evening Telegraph, Aug 29, 1929, p. 4.
• "Betrothal." TheSanford [FL]Herald, December 4, 1928, p. 4.
• "Brave Lady."New York Times, March 26, 1929, p. 29.
• "Bride Vigil."The Charleston [WV]Daily Mail, August 19, 1928, p. 6.
• "Concerning Gardens."New York Times, January 26, 1929, p. 10.
• "Confession (in a Moment of Despair)."Meriden [CT]Record, January 14, 1931, p. 6.
• "Curse." "The Conning Tower" by F.P.A. [Franklin Pierce Adams],New York Herald Tribune. Rpt.Oakland Tribune, June 10, 1931, p. 21.
• Dark Certainty. Poetry collection, 1931.
• "Dissertation on the Morning Hours."Cortland [NY]Standard, March 7, 1930, p. 2.
• "Down South."Contemporary Verse, February 1929, pp. 2-3.
• "Fashion Hints for Fall."Altoona [PA]Mirror, October 8, 1928, p. 8.
• "First Communion."Contemporary Verse, October/November 1928, p. 29.
• "For Antony."New York Sun, April 14, 1937, p.
• "For a Young Daughter."New York Times, February 12, 1933, p. 64.
• "Gabrielle to Her Zither."The American Literary Assn Anthology, 1927, p. 46.
• "Heartbreak."The Poets of the Future: A College Anthology for 1924-25, 1925, p. 106.
• "I Miss You So."Fairfield [IA]Daily Ledger', October 19, 1934, p. 4.
• "Intruder."New York Times, June 30, 1928, p. 9.
• "Just Trying to Get Along."Ottawa Citizen, May 27, 1929, p. 27.
• "Lullaby from a Stable."South New Berlin [NY]Bee, 14 December 1929, p. 7.
• "Miss Carrie—Spinster."Farmer's Wife, May 1, 1929, p. 70.
• "New England Soil."The Conning Tower by F.P.A.,New York Herald Tribune. Rpt.Oakland Tribune, July 15, 1931, p. 23.
• "Prayer for Fidelity."Spartanburg [SC]Herald, March 13, 1929, p. 2.
• "Purity."Decatur [IL]Herald, August 5, 1928, p. 6.
• "References." TheSoutheast Missourian, December 27, 1930, p. 4.
• "Sea Wife."New York Times, July 17, 1929, p. 15.
• "A Slattern."Altoona [PA]Mirror, November 21, 1930, p. 8.
• "Summer Romance."The American Literary Assn Anthology, 1927, p. 46.
• "To a Half-God."Overland Monthly and Out West Magazine, October 1927, p. 306.
• "To One Quite Faithful."Cortland [NY]Standard, July 20, 1931, p. 2.
• "Vespers."Commonweal, 1929. Rpt.Catholic Courier and Journal, August 23, 1929, p. 4.
• "Witch Look."Contemporary Verse, April/May 1928, p. 16.

"The Turquoise Ring Murders" [radio serial by Dorothy Belle Flanagan].New Mexico Radio Station, Griffin Electric Co., Oct. 1933.

• "Brave Guy" [as Dorothy Belle Flanagan].The Midland, September/October 1928.
• "The Candy Kid."Collier's, May 20-June 24, 1950.
• "Cristemasse Is Forever."Santa Clues, 1993.
• "Danger at Deerfawn."Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, August 1964.
• "Everybody Needs a Mink."The Saint [UK]Mystery Magazine, June 1965.
• "The Homecoming."Murder Cavalcade, 1946.
• "Horatio Ruminates."Cat Crimes, 1991.
• "It Couldn't Possibly Happen."The American Magazine, March 1945.
• "Judith Picks a Water Lily" [as Dorothy Belle Flanagan].Complete Love Novel Magazine, August 1930.
• "Nigger Blues" [as Dorothy Belle Flanagan]New Copy, ed. Donald Lemen Clark, Columbia UP, 1931. Repr. as "Black and White Blues" [as Dorothy B. Hughes],Chase, January 1964.
• "Sherlock Holmes and the Muffin."The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, 1987.
• "Summer Is for Loving."Cosmopolitan, July 1961.
• "Wedding" [as Dorothy Belle Flanagan].The New Yorker, February 21, 1931.
• "Wintry Wedding."McCall's, September 1940.
• "You Killed Miranda."The Saint Detective Magazine, August 1958.

• DeAndrea, William L. (1994).Encyclopedia Mysteriosa. A Comprehensive Guide to the Art of Detection in Print, Film, Radio, and Television. New York: Macmillan.

• Dorothy B. Hughes atIMDb 
• Dorothy B. Hughes atLibrary of Congress, with 26 library catalog records

• 1904 births
• 1993 deaths
• Writers from Kansas City, Missouri
• American crime fiction writers
• 20th-century American novelists
• Edgar Award winners
• Writers from Santa Fe, New Mexico
• Writers of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction
• American women journalists
• Yale Younger Poets winners
• 20th-century American women writers
• 20th-century American poets
• American women novelists
• American women poets
• American women mystery writers
• Novelists from Missouri
• University of Missouri alumni
• 20th-century American non-fiction writers
• American Noir writers

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use mdy dates from November 2024
• Articles with hCards