Dorothy Hughes - The Blackbirder - TFP/New York - 2004

Dorothy B Hughes - The Blackbirder - The Feminist Press/City Univ of New York -- 2004

In the `Femmes Fatales - Women Write Pulp` series

Modern reprint of book first published in 1943.

Some time has passed since I read this, so I can`t really provide a review as such. 

This book was first published during World War Two and at that time would have been quite contemporary. The author was not writing for an academic audience, probably not writing for posterity,  and disliked the term `woman writer`.

I`m guessing she would not have been chuffed to be published  by the Feminist Press at the City University of New York, or to have been included in a series of  highlighting women writers of pulp. 

However unchuffed she might have been, I for one am glad this title has been reprinted.

It is not what I would call a spy story, but is an absorbing read in the `noir` style.

I recall there were quite a few printing errors and it was not always clear when she was using dated terminology and when the text had simply been wrongly transcribed. One instance that I was recall is when her central character refers to her location as a "definitely 9 o`clock town". Was that a phrase people used in the `40s, or was it included in error ? I am not sure. 

I found the story absorbing and Ms Hughes` writing style distinctive. I enjoyed reading it and will almost certainly read it again.