Whereas I read THE SO BLUE MARBLE in one big gulp, it has taken me almost two weeks to get through its sequel THE BAMBOO BLONDE, and thus no surprise that the series ends here. It’s the West Coast on the verge of WWII. Griselda Satterlee, Hollywood costume designer is honeymooning in Long Beach with her husband Con. They meet a drunken blonde in a bar. Con goes to take her home. The blonde ends up dead. Griselda does her best to clear her husband; her husband has another agenda; and so does everyone else: murder, spies, jealous lovers. The whole story unfurls through the wife’s consciousness and her point-of-view. The villain is a British major, interesting in the light of the times. But the main villain is not the main murderer. So who is it? It should all have been more gripping than it was. Only willpower, rather than a desire to know who did what, kept me going to the end. My third (In A Lonely Place is the other) and least favourite Dorothy B. Hughes novel. A disappointment.

José Arroyo