A classic California noir with a feminist twist, this prescient 1947 novel exposed misogyny in post-World War II American society, making it far ahead of its time. Fighter pilot Dix Steele has returned from World War II and is yearning to recapture “that feeling of power and exhilaration and freedom that came with loneness in the sky.” He prowls the Los Angeles night—bus stops and stretches of darkened beaches are where he seeks and finds young women on their own. His funds are running out and his frustrations are growing. Where is the good life he was promised? Why does he always get the raw deal? Then he runs into his old Air Corps buddy Brub, now working for the LAPD, who just happens to be on the trail of a strangler.... Written with controlled elegance, Dorothy B. Hughes’s tense noir is at once an early indictment of a truly toxic masculinity and a twisty page-turner until the very end.
