Detective Fiction

First post. I read these two books this month for my summer course on Detective Fiction. Firstly, Raymond Chandler wrote in 1st person and the story kept unearthing twists and turns and in the end I was shocked. The characters are interesting but there are some who I feel don’t particularly belong in said story. Regardless, I enjoyed it and will definitely be reading his other novels. There were many tense moments, moments that you can say they brought you on the edge of your seat. Some moments made me gasp, some made me question life, and that’s when I know a novel is written beautifully. Dorothy B. Hughes is a fantastic writer especially in The Expendable Man. I came across a few interesting motifs about shadows and colors which connect to race and how fearful the main character was as a black man to become a suspect in a murder he didn’t commit. It’s a tense story but very important to look into. The ending for me seemed a bit abrupt, very similar to Raymond Chandler, but I do recommend if you love mysteries.

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