Woman In The Dark: A Novel of Dangerous Romance

This book is another step in my premature search for an author to replace Raymond Chandler - premature because I have one of his books left to read. In Dashiell Hammett, it seems I have not found that replacement. To me it wasn't hard-boiled, or noir enough to compare with Chandler. Pulp fiction - yes.
This was an odd little book - no way a novel, a short story, at most a novella. I read it in a day, at lunch time for 45 minutes, then another hour or so in the evening.

It has a format which held interest, by throwing the reader into the story without explaining the characters and their relationships until partway through. It is a little abrupt in the telling, meaning I had to skip back occasionally where the story took a turn I wasn't expecting, and I had missed a half sentence of importance - like someone new entering a conversation when in the paragraph prior there were only two persons present - and I had missed a couple of words bringing a character into the room.

I don't want to introduce spoilers in such a short book, so it is hard to review the plot, other than to say we don't really get to know the characters well, and it felt more like a storyline that should form the basis of a longer work - needing fleshing out and tidying up, giving us more. I am not sure if this is the style of the author, or whether his novel length detective stories provide more depth.

Not too sure I will find out, I don't think I will be pursuing more of his work, although if it were to fall into my lap i might give it another go.

An average 3 stars.