From Dark and Psychological to Cozy and Charming: 9 Dolores Hitchens Mysteries

A classic slab of 1950s noir. There are definite echoes of Dorothy Hughes and Patricia Highsmith in this psychologically precise portrayal of a trio of desperate and doomed small-town criminals.

Two dim-witted boys enlist the help of a loveless girl in committing a robbery they believe will help them escape to a more glamorous life.

Naturally, everything goes disastrously and bloodily wrong, and the gang is soon on the run not only from the cops, but a bunch of ruthless mobsters.

Memorably filmed as Bande a part by French director Jean-Luc Goddard in 1964.

Originally published as Catspaw for Murder in 1943, this is one of 12 ‘cat mysteries’ Hitchens wrote under her D.B Olsen pseudonym. 

Like the others in the series, this one features cranky septuagenarian amateur sleuth Rachel Murdock and her incredibly perceptive puss, Samantha

 On this occasion, the female and feline duo are accompanied by Rachel’s less cranky sister, Jennifer on a trip to Southern California to investigate a slaying.

The Murdock books are lighter and more fun than the hardboiled books Hitchens wrote under her own name, but retain the writer’s mastery of punchy plotlines.

Cat’s Claw is republished on June 10^th.

A genuinely gripping suspense thriller first published in 1961, The Watcher shows Hitchens at the peak of her considerable powers. A seaside town is menaced by a serial killer who preys on local teenagers.

Most unsettlingly of all, the local Sherriff begins to conclude that, far from being the lone-wolf outsider of popular imagination, the murderer is actually living a perfectly normal life within the community he is terrorizing.

Unsettling and highly charged, The Watcher reads like a Hitchcock movie.

Another Hitchens hardboiled gem that calls to mind Margaret Millar, Nets to Catch the Wind begins with the mysterious double assassination of a prisoner and the detective who is escorting him to prison.

When the dead detective is accused of corruption and malfeasance, his widow steps in to clear his name. She’s soon caught in a game of mirrors in which nothing and no one can be trusted.

A brilliant private eye novel featuring veteran Long Beach gumshoe, Jim Sader (who also leads in the earlier Sleep with Strangers).

The book begins in traditional style with Sader hired by an old, rich—and possibly deluded—man who wants him to track down an illegitimate grandchild who was put up for adoption five years earlier.

Things turn out to be distinctly murky and a deal more disturbing than Sader bargained for. The PI is brilliantly characterised and the background detail beautifully rendered in a satisfyingly atmospheric hardboiled mystery.

The first in a couple of mysteries Hitchens wrote featuring police detective, Stephen Mayhew.

In this one Mayhew is on his honeymoon in San Francisco but that doesn’t stop him from taking an interest when a famous local artist apparently takes her own life. 

Encouraged by a former colleague, Mayhew is soon obsessing about the crime and pretty soon has enlisted his new bride, Sara to help him.

Written under the pseudonym D.B Olsen this is a rollicking B-Movie adventure tale filled with shoot-outs and fisticuffs. 

Hitchens’ second husband, Bert Hitchens was a railroad detective. The couple collaborated on a series of five books that are set in the world of trains.

In this one a mysterious tunnel wreck is investigated by a pair of detectives who soon establish that the crash was no accident. But who was behind it, and why?

The quest to find answers takes them to a small desert town where a ruthless killer lies in wait.

This entertaining whodunit set in a fly-blown army town features another of Hitchens’ recurring sleuths, Professor Pennyfeather.

Like the other novels in the series, this one is a witty and light-hearted mystery that sees the academic amateur ‘tec, helping an old pupil whose inheritance is pegged on him getting married.

But with so much money at stake, the flighty young man finds himself with a wealth of would-be brides—and not all of them are prepared to take rejection lightly.

A small-town girl trying to survive in New York City finds herself thrown a financial lifeline by her Uncle Baxter in this mystery written just a couple of years before Hitchens’ death in 1973.

All Uncle Baxter wants Jennifer Burch to do is to hand-deliver a letter for him. The fact that he’s prepared to pay her $300 for this simple task ought to set alarm bells ringing, but Jennifer and her husband need the money.

Soon the man she gives the letter to is dead, so when Uncle Baxter asks her to deliver another one, for an even higher fee, she decides to find out what exactly he is up to.

Tightly plotted and featuring a cast of utterly believable cast of characters, The Baxter Letters is a memorable piece of work by a great crime writer.