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Deadline at Dawn
They meet after midnight in a dance hall: two young innocents from the midwest, trapped in New York City–she from lack of courage and he because of the murder charge hanging over his head. They make a pact to leave by dawn. But first they must find the real murderer...
Deadline at Dawn is a fantastic novel of existential angst, as two characters in a soulless city set out for redemption and a chance at a new life.
Deadline at Dawn is a fantastic novel of existential angst, as two characters in a soulless city set out for redemption and a chance at a new life.
210 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1944
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April 28, 2020
Deadline at Dawn was written in the 1940s, during that incredible period when Cornell Woolrich released one memorable novel of suspense after another. Some he wrote under the Woolrich name, others William Irish, still others George Hopely. He was so prolific he feared glutting the market. Woolrich was in essence a romantic, which is why he had originally — and with some success — set out to become the next Fitzgerald.
Woolrich's sense of romanticism, and wishing it could be a certain way, but knowing it often wasn’t, led to a theme running through the most talked about novels in his oeuvre. In many of Woolrich’s finest efforts, fate and destiny were forces which couldn't be overcome, no matter how desperately the protagonist tried. There was a rainbow at the end, but often the protagonist couldn't reach it, and get out of the jam. Why? Because fate was laughing at him, dooming him.
If Night Has a Thousand Eyes exemplified Woolrich's overwhelming sense of fatalism in this part of his oeuvre, then Deadline at Dawn exemplified the romanticism, the hope that somehow, once in a blue moon, a guy and a girl could fight fate and win. Maybe.
Darkly romantic and deeply involving, New York City becomes a living thing in Deadline at Dawn. The city is a Woolrich extension of fate working against two little people in a jam. To say that Deadline at Dawn is about a young man who has made a mistake, and a cynical yet secretly soft-hearted dance hall girl who decides to help him try to fix it, is like saying Lonesome Dove is about a couple of old Texas Rangers making a cattle drive. Neither description can convey the tenderness, beauty, and heartfelt moments that stay with us long after the final page is turned.
After finishing this novel, I had the same feeling as when finishing Remarque’s Three Comrades, and The Night in Lisbon; I knew I had just read something wonderful. As in many Woolrich novels, there is much detail and description, a gradual building of suspense. Everything takes place as a race against the clock, an effort to stave off doom for the protagonists. Also, as in many Woolrich tales, the reader is drawn into their plight, and into their souls. We are aching for them to succeed, and give fate a kick in the pants.
First it’s trying to fix a moment of weakness, then get out from under a murder charge before anyone finds the body. But ultimately, Deadline at Dawn is a lovely novel which happens to be suspenseful. It is an exciting and moving story of two “little” people fighting a city that doesn’t care about them, has changed them in ways they don’t like, is laughing at them as they try to fix things and catch a bus back home before it’s too late.
Woolrich once wrote that he didn’t think he was a very good writer, he just wrote the truth. His reputation, and the respect among great writers like Bradbury and Chandler for his work, would suggest that he was undervaluing his place in literary history. While Night Has a Thousand Eyes is more heralded — and still in print — and is one of his most brilliant works during that aforementioned stretch at the beginning of this review, I prefer to believe that it was in Deadline at Dawn that a writer who was more than just good, but great, actually told the truth.
A wonderful, involving read. It's dense, rather than bloated, so takes some getting used to for the modern reader. Both a mystery and suspense story, it is about so much more. A masterpiece, from a guy who wrote a slew of them. A must read, and probably my favorite among his novels.
** Adding an update to make people aware that this terrific, hard-to-find Woolrich novel is finally available on Kindle! **
Woolrich's sense of romanticism, and wishing it could be a certain way, but knowing it often wasn’t, led to a theme running through the most talked about novels in his oeuvre. In many of Woolrich’s finest efforts, fate and destiny were forces which couldn't be overcome, no matter how desperately the protagonist tried. There was a rainbow at the end, but often the protagonist couldn't reach it, and get out of the jam. Why? Because fate was laughing at him, dooming him.
If Night Has a Thousand Eyes exemplified Woolrich's overwhelming sense of fatalism in this part of his oeuvre, then Deadline at Dawn exemplified the romanticism, the hope that somehow, once in a blue moon, a guy and a girl could fight fate and win. Maybe.
Darkly romantic and deeply involving, New York City becomes a living thing in Deadline at Dawn. The city is a Woolrich extension of fate working against two little people in a jam. To say that Deadline at Dawn is about a young man who has made a mistake, and a cynical yet secretly soft-hearted dance hall girl who decides to help him try to fix it, is like saying Lonesome Dove is about a couple of old Texas Rangers making a cattle drive. Neither description can convey the tenderness, beauty, and heartfelt moments that stay with us long after the final page is turned.
After finishing this novel, I had the same feeling as when finishing Remarque’s Three Comrades, and The Night in Lisbon; I knew I had just read something wonderful. As in many Woolrich novels, there is much detail and description, a gradual building of suspense. Everything takes place as a race against the clock, an effort to stave off doom for the protagonists. Also, as in many Woolrich tales, the reader is drawn into their plight, and into their souls. We are aching for them to succeed, and give fate a kick in the pants.
First it’s trying to fix a moment of weakness, then get out from under a murder charge before anyone finds the body. But ultimately, Deadline at Dawn is a lovely novel which happens to be suspenseful. It is an exciting and moving story of two “little” people fighting a city that doesn’t care about them, has changed them in ways they don’t like, is laughing at them as they try to fix things and catch a bus back home before it’s too late.
Woolrich once wrote that he didn’t think he was a very good writer, he just wrote the truth. His reputation, and the respect among great writers like Bradbury and Chandler for his work, would suggest that he was undervaluing his place in literary history. While Night Has a Thousand Eyes is more heralded — and still in print — and is one of his most brilliant works during that aforementioned stretch at the beginning of this review, I prefer to believe that it was in Deadline at Dawn that a writer who was more than just good, but great, actually told the truth.
A wonderful, involving read. It's dense, rather than bloated, so takes some getting used to for the modern reader. Both a mystery and suspense story, it is about so much more. A masterpiece, from a guy who wrote a slew of them. A must read, and probably my favorite among his novels.
** Adding an update to make people aware that this terrific, hard-to-find Woolrich novel is finally available on Kindle! **
May 23, 2021
Deadline at Dawn was written in the 1940s, during that incredible period when Cornell Woolrich released one memorable novel of suspense after another. Some he wrote under the Woolrich name, others William Irish, still others George Hoply. He was so prolific he feared glutting the market.
Woolrich was in essence a romantic, which is why he had originally — and with some success — set out to become the next Fitzgerald. The author's sense of romanticism, and a kind of soft-boiled sentimentality (he never wrote a truly hardboiled story) of protagonists wishing things could be a certain way, but knowing they often weren’t, led to a theme running through his most successful and legendary novels. In many of Woolrich’s finest efforts, fate and destiny were forces which couldn't be overcome, no matter how desperately the protagonist tried. There was a rainbow at the end, but often the protagonist couldn't reach it, and get out of the jam. Why? Because fate was laughing at him, dooming him.
If Night Has a Thousand Eyes exemplifies Woolrich's overwhelming sense of fatalism in this part of his oeuvre, then Deadline at Dawn exemplifies the romanticism many critics ignore. That sentimentality, the hope that somehow, once in a blue moon, a guy and a girl could fight fate and win, is at its most palpable in Deadline at Dawn.
Darkly romantic and deeply involving, New York City becomes a living thing in this novel. The city is a Woolrich extension of fate working against two little people in a jam. To say that Deadline at Dawn is about a young man who has made a mistake, and a cynical yet secretly soft-hearted dance hall girl who decides to help him try to fix it, is like saying Lonesome Dove is about a couple of old Texas Rangers making a cattle drive. Neither description can convey the tenderness, beauty, and heartfelt moments that stay with us long after the final page is turned.
After finishing this novel, I had the same feeling as when finishing Remarque’s Three Comrades, and The Night in Lisbon; I knew I had just read something wonderful. As in many Woolrich novels, there is much detail and description, a gradual building of suspense. Everything takes place as a race against the clock, an effort to stave off doom for the protagonists. Also, as in many Woolrich tales, the reader is drawn into their plight, and into their souls. We are aching for them to succeed, and give fate a kick in the pants.
First it’s trying to fix a moment of weakness, then get out from under a murder charge before anyone finds the body. But ultimately, Deadline at Dawn is a lovely novel which happens to be suspenseful. It is an exciting and moving story of two “little” people fighting a city that doesn’t care about them, has changed them in ways they don’t like, is laughing at them as they try to fix things and catch a bus back home before it’s too late.
Woolrich once wrote that he didn’t think he was a very good writer, he just wrote the truth. His reputation, and the respect among great writers like Bradbury and Chandler for his work, would suggest that he was greatly undervaluing his place in literary history. While some of his "Black" titled books written in the aforementioned stretch at the beginning of this review are more heralded, Deadline at Dawn, also written during that period, outshines them in some ways. I tend to believe that it was in Deadline at Dawn that a writer who was more than just good, but great, actually told the truth.
A wonderful and involving read, despite its length. It's dense, rather than bloated, and Woolrich's prose takes some getting used to for the modern reader. Both a mystery story and a novel of suspense, it is about much more than just those things. Deadline at Dawn is a type of masterpiece, from a guy who wrote a slew of great reads; both short stories and novels. It's great that this fine novel is finally available on Kindle. A must read for Woolrich fans, and probably my all-time favorite among his novels.
Woolrich was in essence a romantic, which is why he had originally — and with some success — set out to become the next Fitzgerald. The author's sense of romanticism, and a kind of soft-boiled sentimentality (he never wrote a truly hardboiled story) of protagonists wishing things could be a certain way, but knowing they often weren’t, led to a theme running through his most successful and legendary novels. In many of Woolrich’s finest efforts, fate and destiny were forces which couldn't be overcome, no matter how desperately the protagonist tried. There was a rainbow at the end, but often the protagonist couldn't reach it, and get out of the jam. Why? Because fate was laughing at him, dooming him.
If Night Has a Thousand Eyes exemplifies Woolrich's overwhelming sense of fatalism in this part of his oeuvre, then Deadline at Dawn exemplifies the romanticism many critics ignore. That sentimentality, the hope that somehow, once in a blue moon, a guy and a girl could fight fate and win, is at its most palpable in Deadline at Dawn.
Darkly romantic and deeply involving, New York City becomes a living thing in this novel. The city is a Woolrich extension of fate working against two little people in a jam. To say that Deadline at Dawn is about a young man who has made a mistake, and a cynical yet secretly soft-hearted dance hall girl who decides to help him try to fix it, is like saying Lonesome Dove is about a couple of old Texas Rangers making a cattle drive. Neither description can convey the tenderness, beauty, and heartfelt moments that stay with us long after the final page is turned.
After finishing this novel, I had the same feeling as when finishing Remarque’s Three Comrades, and The Night in Lisbon; I knew I had just read something wonderful. As in many Woolrich novels, there is much detail and description, a gradual building of suspense. Everything takes place as a race against the clock, an effort to stave off doom for the protagonists. Also, as in many Woolrich tales, the reader is drawn into their plight, and into their souls. We are aching for them to succeed, and give fate a kick in the pants.
First it’s trying to fix a moment of weakness, then get out from under a murder charge before anyone finds the body. But ultimately, Deadline at Dawn is a lovely novel which happens to be suspenseful. It is an exciting and moving story of two “little” people fighting a city that doesn’t care about them, has changed them in ways they don’t like, is laughing at them as they try to fix things and catch a bus back home before it’s too late.
Woolrich once wrote that he didn’t think he was a very good writer, he just wrote the truth. His reputation, and the respect among great writers like Bradbury and Chandler for his work, would suggest that he was greatly undervaluing his place in literary history. While some of his "Black" titled books written in the aforementioned stretch at the beginning of this review are more heralded, Deadline at Dawn, also written during that period, outshines them in some ways. I tend to believe that it was in Deadline at Dawn that a writer who was more than just good, but great, actually told the truth.
A wonderful and involving read, despite its length. It's dense, rather than bloated, and Woolrich's prose takes some getting used to for the modern reader. Both a mystery story and a novel of suspense, it is about much more than just those things. Deadline at Dawn is a type of masterpiece, from a guy who wrote a slew of great reads; both short stories and novels. It's great that this fine novel is finally available on Kindle. A must read for Woolrich fans, and probably my all-time favorite among his novels.
February 10, 2022
Deadline at Dawn was written in the 1940s, during that incredible period when Cornell Woolrich released one memorable novel of suspense after another. Some he wrote under the Woolrich name, others William Irish, still others George Hopely. He was so prolific he feared glutting the market. Woolrich was in essence a romantic, which is why he had originally — and with some success — set out to become the next Fitzgerald.
Woolrich's sense of romanticism, and wishing it could be a certain way, but knowing it often wasn’t, led to a theme running through the most talked about novels in his oeuvre. In many of Woolrich’s finest efforts, fate and destiny were forces which couldn't be overcome, no matter how desperately the protagonist tried. There was a rainbow at the end, but often the protagonist couldn't reach it, and get out of the jam. Why? Because fate was laughing at him, dooming him.
If Night Has a Thousand Eyes exemplified Woolrich's overwhelming sense of fatalism in this part of his oeuvre, then Deadline at Dawn exemplified the romanticism; the hope that somehow, once in a blue moon, a guy and a girl could fight fate and win. Maybe.
Darkly romantic and deeply involving, New York City becomes a living thing in Deadline at Dawn. The city is a Woolrich extension of fate working against two little people in a jam. To say that Deadline at Dawn is about a young man who has made a mistake, and a cynical yet secretly soft-hearted dance hall girl who decides to help him try to fix it, is like saying Lonesome Dove is about a couple of old Texas Rangers making a cattle drive. Neither description can convey the tenderness, beauty, and heartfelt moments that stay with us long after the final page is turned.
After finishing this novel, I had the same feeling as when finishing Remarque’s Three Comrades, and The Night in Lisbon; I knew I had just read something wonderful. As in many Woolrich novels, there is much detail and description, a gradual building of suspense. Everything takes place as a race against the clock, an effort to stave off doom for the protagonists. Also, as in many Woolrich tales, the reader is drawn into their plight, and into their souls. We are aching for them to succeed, and give fate a kick in the pants.
First it’s trying to fix a moment of weakness, then get out from under a murder charge before anyone finds the body. But ultimately, Deadline at Dawn is a lovely novel which happens to be suspenseful. It is an exciting and moving story of two “little” people fighting a city that doesn’t care about them, has changed them in ways they don’t like, is laughing at them as they try to fix things and catch a bus back home before it’s too late.
Woolrich once wrote that he didn’t think he was a very good writer, he just wrote the truth. His reputation, and the respect among great writers like Bradbury and Chandler for his work, would suggest that he was undervaluing his place in literary history. While some of his other novels are more famous, and more heralded, I believe that it was in Deadline at Dawn that a writer who was more than just good, but truly great, actually told the truth.
A wonderful, involving read. It's dense, rather than bloated, so it will take some getting used to for the "modern" reader. Both a mystery and suspense story, it is about so much more. A masterpiece that's now available on Kindle, from a guy who wrote a slew of them. A must read, and probably my favorite among his big novels.
Woolrich's sense of romanticism, and wishing it could be a certain way, but knowing it often wasn’t, led to a theme running through the most talked about novels in his oeuvre. In many of Woolrich’s finest efforts, fate and destiny were forces which couldn't be overcome, no matter how desperately the protagonist tried. There was a rainbow at the end, but often the protagonist couldn't reach it, and get out of the jam. Why? Because fate was laughing at him, dooming him.
If Night Has a Thousand Eyes exemplified Woolrich's overwhelming sense of fatalism in this part of his oeuvre, then Deadline at Dawn exemplified the romanticism; the hope that somehow, once in a blue moon, a guy and a girl could fight fate and win. Maybe.
Darkly romantic and deeply involving, New York City becomes a living thing in Deadline at Dawn. The city is a Woolrich extension of fate working against two little people in a jam. To say that Deadline at Dawn is about a young man who has made a mistake, and a cynical yet secretly soft-hearted dance hall girl who decides to help him try to fix it, is like saying Lonesome Dove is about a couple of old Texas Rangers making a cattle drive. Neither description can convey the tenderness, beauty, and heartfelt moments that stay with us long after the final page is turned.
After finishing this novel, I had the same feeling as when finishing Remarque’s Three Comrades, and The Night in Lisbon; I knew I had just read something wonderful. As in many Woolrich novels, there is much detail and description, a gradual building of suspense. Everything takes place as a race against the clock, an effort to stave off doom for the protagonists. Also, as in many Woolrich tales, the reader is drawn into their plight, and into their souls. We are aching for them to succeed, and give fate a kick in the pants.
First it’s trying to fix a moment of weakness, then get out from under a murder charge before anyone finds the body. But ultimately, Deadline at Dawn is a lovely novel which happens to be suspenseful. It is an exciting and moving story of two “little” people fighting a city that doesn’t care about them, has changed them in ways they don’t like, is laughing at them as they try to fix things and catch a bus back home before it’s too late.
Woolrich once wrote that he didn’t think he was a very good writer, he just wrote the truth. His reputation, and the respect among great writers like Bradbury and Chandler for his work, would suggest that he was undervaluing his place in literary history. While some of his other novels are more famous, and more heralded, I believe that it was in Deadline at Dawn that a writer who was more than just good, but truly great, actually told the truth.
A wonderful, involving read. It's dense, rather than bloated, so it will take some getting used to for the "modern" reader. Both a mystery and suspense story, it is about so much more. A masterpiece that's now available on Kindle, from a guy who wrote a slew of them. A must read, and probably my favorite among his big novels.
January 18, 2023
“At daylight, at six, there’s the bus that leaves for home. The last bus, Quinn, remember that, the last bus. I don’t care what the schedule says, for us it’s the last in the world.”
The novel is constructed like a fairytale: two innocent children are lost in a dark forest, chased by an implacable monster. They must reach a gateway back home before the day breaks.
The novel is a classic noir: puny humans try in vain to escape their predetermined fate, running like lab rats through a mad labyrinth. The mad scientist who set them up is checking their progress against his timepiece, toying with their hopes and laughing at their mental torment.
The novel takes place in real time, from ten minutes to one after midnight to a little past six in the morning. A boy and a girl, who meet for the first time as the novel starts, run through the empty streets of New York in an effort to find a murderer before they are themselves accused of the crime. It’s their last chance to break free of the grip the malevolent city has on them and to catch the last bus back home.
“You still haven’t learned, have you? They beat you black and blue, and you still hold out your open hand to the next one that comes along. What does it take to get it into your head, a pounding with a lead pipe?”
Cornell Woolrich, using here the pseudonym William Irish, may be the most underrated author of the classic pulp era. He is a true master of putting his characters through mental anguish, a poet of pain and alienation who wrote from personal experience, at least according to what I read of his biography.
The crime part of the present novel is not very realistic, and the plot relies on too many convenient coincidences to make the grade, yet the emotional intensity drives the story forward at a relentless pace.
The opening scene takes place in a dance mill, where young girls have to dance with whatever stranger buys a twenty pence ticket. Neither the girl nor the boy have names in the beginning: just two anonymous cogs in a giant machinery that grinds down dreams into dust.
The city’s bad. If you’re the one out of the thousand who’s a little weaker than the rest, a little slower, needs a little extra help, a little boost over the hurdles, that’s when it jumps you, that’s when it shows you its true colours. The city’s a coward. It hits you when you’re down and only when you’re down.
The only way to cope is to become as cold-hearted and as merciless as the city, to guard your privacy and your last reserves of strength against the next hit to come your way. This is what happened to Bricky, the pretty girl who came to New York at seventeen from small town Iowa and had five years to learn her lesson before ending up as a paid partner in a dance mill. She reminds me a lot of the dancer from “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?” and not only because of the dance hall setting.
Bricky, the girl next door turned into a cynical survivor, dances with Quinn, the boy next door who turns out to have come from the same small town in Iowa, and who managed the same downward trajectory into the gutter in only one year in New York.
Quinn follows her home, despite getting plenty of signals from the girl to lay off and go on his way. And Bricky should know better by now than to show pity towards stray dogs in the big city. Yet something connects the boy next door to the girl next door, and they sit down over coffee to hear each other’s stories in the dingy one-room apartment she rents.
This was it. This was home. This. This place. This was what you’d packed your valise and come here for. This was what you looked forward to when you were seventeen. This was what you’d grown pretty for, grown graceful for, grown up for. All over the place, you could hardly move, it was littered with shards. Ankle-deep, knee-deep. You couldn’t see them. Shattered dreams, smashed hopes, busted arches.
The only dream left to them is to escape the big city and head back home to Glenn Falls, Iowa. But before they catch the bus at dawn, the boy and the girl must clean up their score in New York, in particular the dead body Quinn has left behind earlier that evening in a posh mansion uptown.
I won’t go into details about the crime and the involvement of the boy and girl into the chase for the true murderer. What’s important is that it all takes place under the recurrent image of the clock at the top of the Paramount tower, counting down the minutes until the bus is ready to depart.
It was the only thing in the whole town that gave her a break. It was the only thing in all New York that was on her side, even if only passively. It was the only thing in all the endless world of her nights that had a heart. [...]
Peering benignly at her from way up high there, with sometimes a handful of stars scattered around it further back. The stars didn’t help her any, but it did. What good were stars? What good was anything? What good was being born a girl? At least men didn’t have to peddle their feet. They could be low in their own particular ways, but they didn’t have to be low this way.
The clock, like the city of New York itself, are assigned personalities in the novel, one benevolent, the other malefic. Each chapter starts with the face of the clock, counting down the time until the bus leaves, marking the increase in urgency for the boy and the girl as they chase small clues left behind at the crime scene.
It was like the face of a friend. A funny friend for a slim, red-haired girl of twenty-two to have, but it spelled the difference between endurance and despair.
This see-saw dance between endurance and despair is what makes the novel memorable for me, despite the fabricated nature of the murder investigation. This and the fact that the city feels alive and bent on thwarting the efforts of the two innocents to escape its clutches:
“Look. Don’t it look cruel? Don’t it look sneaky and underhanded, like it was just waiting to pounce and dig its claws into someone, anyone at all ...?”
He chuckled a little, but only with moderate conviction. “All cities look like that at night, kind of shady and dim, tricky and not very friendly ...”
Will Hansel and Gretel manage to follow the white stones out of the dark forest? Previous noir novels by Woolrich and his peers make me think they are doomed from the start. But at least they deserve some recognition for pluckiness, for courage and determination in their efforts.
“It’s never too late, until the last second of the last minute of the last hour.”
May 16, 2023
January 2019:
From 1944
I have changed this from 5 stars to 4.
Reading it again, I now feel that the whole first half is pretty slow. It is just that the second half is amazing, brilliant. The suspense! Bricky (the girl) and Quinn (male) work together to solve a murder in hours, with pretty slim clues. They work together but separately, so you get double the adventure. They desperately want to leave Manhattan and go back to the Midwest.
I was struck this time by Bricky's personification of objects and fear of the City as an evil force she must fight against. An outdoor clock is her only friend. The chapter headed by a clock face reading 3:45 ends with the line "Only the city was there, lazily licking its chops."
May 2014:
Instead of numbers, each chapter is headed by the face of a clock showing the hours moving by as dawn approaches. Brilliant. Why have anything so ordinary as numbers when you can use a device intrinsic to the plot and the suspense? (granted, if someone did it now I'd probably find it schticky and pretentious).
This book, which I loved, is classic Cornell Woolrich. The middle of the night, in the city, with time running out. Literal darkness. Some of the dialogue in the beginning might be a bit stilted, but once it really begins it's sublime.
From 1944
I have changed this from 5 stars to 4.
Reading it again, I now feel that the whole first half is pretty slow. It is just that the second half is amazing, brilliant. The suspense! Bricky (the girl) and Quinn (male) work together to solve a murder in hours, with pretty slim clues. They work together but separately, so you get double the adventure. They desperately want to leave Manhattan and go back to the Midwest.
I was struck this time by Bricky's personification of objects and fear of the City as an evil force she must fight against. An outdoor clock is her only friend. The chapter headed by a clock face reading 3:45 ends with the line "Only the city was there, lazily licking its chops."
May 2014:
Instead of numbers, each chapter is headed by the face of a clock showing the hours moving by as dawn approaches. Brilliant. Why have anything so ordinary as numbers when you can use a device intrinsic to the plot and the suspense? (granted, if someone did it now I'd probably find it schticky and pretentious).
This book, which I loved, is classic Cornell Woolrich. The middle of the night, in the city, with time running out. Literal darkness. Some of the dialogue in the beginning might be a bit stilted, but once it really begins it's sublime.
November 5, 2022
Hmmmmm - wow, this is a tough one to rate and assess.
To my mind, it just ends up being too implausible, despite being wildly entertaining. The controlled, symmetrical structure, organized so precisely, actually works against the book’s plausibility as well. The events in this book come to resemble chaos that has been tamed and then sorted, planned out, formed into a perfect dance. Two strangers, suddenly linked, running around in New York in the waning dark hours before dawn, trying to solve a murder before the Sun hits one of them as the prime suspect - I would argue Woolrich in this case structures it so artfully, so beautifully, it murders reality as we know it.
I call this a 3.4 star book, rounded down. I have to recommend The Bride Wore Black, or Night Has a Thousand Eyes - by the same author - over this one…though a fun time is to be had here, that’s for sure. I also prefer other “wandering the night” Noir efforts that don’t fine-tune the suspense or plausibility out of the overall effect: The Night Watch by Thomas Walsh is a hidden gem; Knock Three-One-Two by Fredric Brown shines brighter; how about even Shoot the Piano Player by David Goodis if we widen the field a bit.
I wanna give this 4 stars, based on how much fun it was to read it, but the implausibility factor - heightened by a structure that screams “puppet master!”, not “this is life!” - stops me.
To my mind, it just ends up being too implausible, despite being wildly entertaining. The controlled, symmetrical structure, organized so precisely, actually works against the book’s plausibility as well. The events in this book come to resemble chaos that has been tamed and then sorted, planned out, formed into a perfect dance. Two strangers, suddenly linked, running around in New York in the waning dark hours before dawn, trying to solve a murder before the Sun hits one of them as the prime suspect - I would argue Woolrich in this case structures it so artfully, so beautifully, it murders reality as we know it.
I call this a 3.4 star book, rounded down. I have to recommend The Bride Wore Black, or Night Has a Thousand Eyes - by the same author - over this one…though a fun time is to be had here, that’s for sure. I also prefer other “wandering the night” Noir efforts that don’t fine-tune the suspense or plausibility out of the overall effect: The Night Watch by Thomas Walsh is a hidden gem; Knock Three-One-Two by Fredric Brown shines brighter; how about even Shoot the Piano Player by David Goodis if we widen the field a bit.
I wanna give this 4 stars, based on how much fun it was to read it, but the implausibility factor - heightened by a structure that screams “puppet master!”, not “this is life!” - stops me.
October 12, 2022
Một truyện án mạng lôi cuốn với 2 nhân vật chính khá dễ thương: một chàng phụ hồ kẹt tiền đi ăn trộm tiền rồi từ đó áy náy lo sợ, và một cô gái trẻ mơ ước làm nghệ thuật nhưng rồi phải đi làm gái nhảy.
Hai người tình cờ gặp nhau, phát hiện là đồng hương, cùng nhau đi trả lại tiền ăn trộm để lấy chuyến xe bus rời New York về quê. Thế nhưng, khi quay lại ngôi nhà giàu có để trả tiền, họ phát hiện ra chủ nhà đã bị giết chết, và họ vô tình đã thành đối tượng bị nghi vấn hàng đầu.
Lựa chọn chạy trốn, hay trở thành tình nghi hung thủ, hay như thế nào? Quyết định đã dẫn họ đi qua 1 đêm mang tính thay đổi số phận. Và thông điệp truyện khá rõ ràng: tính thiện lương là điều cứu chúng ta trong những tình huống nan giải như thế này.
Truyện khá hấp dẫn, dù đôi khi tiết tấu hơi chậm tương ứng với bối cảnh thập niên 30 của thế kỷ 20. Nhiều tình tiết bất ngờ, tính cách các nhân vật khá rõ. Truyện không đi vào tâm lý tội phạm đen tối nên không nặng nề, mà thiên về lối kể chuyện miêu tả lôi cuốn gợi hình ảnh rõ như một bộ phim.
Hai người tình cờ gặp nhau, phát hiện là đồng hương, cùng nhau đi trả lại tiền ăn trộm để lấy chuyến xe bus rời New York về quê. Thế nhưng, khi quay lại ngôi nhà giàu có để trả tiền, họ phát hiện ra chủ nhà đã bị giết chết, và họ vô tình đã thành đối tượng bị nghi vấn hàng đầu.
Lựa chọn chạy trốn, hay trở thành tình nghi hung thủ, hay như thế nào? Quyết định đã dẫn họ đi qua 1 đêm mang tính thay đổi số phận. Và thông điệp truyện khá rõ ràng: tính thiện lương là điều cứu chúng ta trong những tình huống nan giải như thế này.
Truyện khá hấp dẫn, dù đôi khi tiết tấu hơi chậm tương ứng với bối cảnh thập niên 30 của thế kỷ 20. Nhiều tình tiết bất ngờ, tính cách các nhân vật khá rõ. Truyện không đi vào tâm lý tội phạm đen tối nên không nặng nề, mà thiên về lối kể chuyện miêu tả lôi cuốn gợi hình ảnh rõ như một bộ phim.
September 19, 2021
It's not literature, but this is one of the most romantic suspense novels by Cornell Woolrich (William Irish was his most frequent pen name) from the Forties. It's also got a wonderfully gimmicky race-against-time plot. I've given it a five-star rating because it just might be Woolrich's best novel, one that triumphs over his usual fatalism and gloom.
Bricky Coleman, an aspiring showgirl in Manhattan, meets Quinn Williams at a dancehall one evening. They dance till closing, and he escorts her home. Later, she invites him up to her apartment, and they are both shocked to learn they are from the same small town in Iowa. He's the boy next door, the boy she met 2,000 miles away and five years too late.
Bricky quickly deduces that Quinn is on the run. An electrician's helper, he was doing construction work at a swanky home on the Upper East Side. One of the residents had accidentally left a latchkey in his toolbox, which he noticed later that evening. He returned to the house the following night, entered it, and then robbed a safe of $2,400 in cash. He's convinced that the police will easily connect him to the burglary, and they'll probably arrest him the next day.
Bricky makes a remarkable proposal: They'll go back to the house and return the money to the safe. After that, they'll both get on the 6 a.m. bus to Iowa, leaving Manhattan and all their disappointments behind.
When they return to the Upper East Side house, they discover that the tenant, a man named Graves, has been murdered. Quinn feels doomed. Now police will blame him for the murder, which he swears he didn't commit. Bricky, a trusting girl, tells him to cheer up:
The rest of the novel details Bricky's and Quinn's frantic amateur detective work from 2 a.m. until 6 a.m., which takes them to different parts of Manhattan. There's plenty of clever deduction, and plenty of sheer coincidence. They split apart, reunite, and split apart again. Toward the end, they both fall into perilous situations that look like certain death. Outlining the complicated plot, and its numerous characters, would make this review unnecessarily long, so I'll spare you because it hardly matters. Woolrich had me from page 73 on. I was pulling for the two protagonists: Bricky, the failed showgirl with a heart of gold, and Quinn, the hapless yet innocent boy next door.
The book is filled with wonderful details of the Forties. For instance, I learned that in 1944 a dance ticket cost 10 cents, a dancehall girl received two and a half cents commission on each dance, an all-night druggist will sell you spirits of ammonia in a half glass of water if you're shaking in fear, and the bars in Manhattan never close.
See my blog post: Cornell Woolrich: Master of Gloom and Doom.
Bricky Coleman, an aspiring showgirl in Manhattan, meets Quinn Williams at a dancehall one evening. They dance till closing, and he escorts her home. Later, she invites him up to her apartment, and they are both shocked to learn they are from the same small town in Iowa. He's the boy next door, the boy she met 2,000 miles away and five years too late.
Bricky quickly deduces that Quinn is on the run. An electrician's helper, he was doing construction work at a swanky home on the Upper East Side. One of the residents had accidentally left a latchkey in his toolbox, which he noticed later that evening. He returned to the house the following night, entered it, and then robbed a safe of $2,400 in cash. He's convinced that the police will easily connect him to the burglary, and they'll probably arrest him the next day.
Bricky makes a remarkable proposal: They'll go back to the house and return the money to the safe. After that, they'll both get on the 6 a.m. bus to Iowa, leaving Manhattan and all their disappointments behind.
When they return to the Upper East Side house, they discover that the tenant, a man named Graves, has been murdered. Quinn feels doomed. Now police will blame him for the murder, which he swears he didn't commit. Bricky, a trusting girl, tells him to cheer up:
We're not licked yet. The deadline is still good. We still have until daylight....No one knows; only us—and whoever did it. We've still got time. Somewhere in this town there's a clock that's a friend of mine. I know that it's saying right now, even if we can't see it from where we are, that we've still got a little time. Not as much as we had before, but some. Don't quit, Quinn, don't quit. It's never too late, until the last second of the last minute of the last hour.
The rest of the novel details Bricky's and Quinn's frantic amateur detective work from 2 a.m. until 6 a.m., which takes them to different parts of Manhattan. There's plenty of clever deduction, and plenty of sheer coincidence. They split apart, reunite, and split apart again. Toward the end, they both fall into perilous situations that look like certain death. Outlining the complicated plot, and its numerous characters, would make this review unnecessarily long, so I'll spare you because it hardly matters. Woolrich had me from page 73 on. I was pulling for the two protagonists: Bricky, the failed showgirl with a heart of gold, and Quinn, the hapless yet innocent boy next door.
The book is filled with wonderful details of the Forties. For instance, I learned that in 1944 a dance ticket cost 10 cents, a dancehall girl received two and a half cents commission on each dance, an all-night druggist will sell you spirits of ammonia in a half glass of water if you're shaking in fear, and the bars in Manhattan never close.
See my blog post: Cornell Woolrich: Master of Gloom and Doom.
April 27, 2024
The master of noir, indeed. My first Woolrich. See how it wears….
Having read some more CW now, I can say that this is a really fabulous piece of noir – one of the best
Having read some more CW now, I can say that this is a really fabulous piece of noir – one of the best
September 18, 2019
This is my favorite Cornell Woolrich work so far (and so far I've become rather familiar with his work). I took to it in particular for a couple of reasons...
I was not expecting such a different approach in his storytelling. I've come to expect his typical world of dread and tension - and that's here too - but there's something else going on.
In 'Deadline...', Woolrich establishes a 'meet-cute' of sorts (filled with gloom, of course): a guy and a gal who seem to be thrown into each other's lives for the ultimate purpose of romance. But not only will the plot not allow for that, it's not at all interested in that. Still... Woolrich has introduced us to two people who... well, who he seems to like as people. It's sort of unusual to sense Woolrich rooting for two people - while simultaneously throwing out tons of suspense.
It's almost a sort of tenderness that feels unique in Woolrich's work.
My understanding is that Woolrich - like Stephen King - was something of a writing machine; he just churned things out. Apparently he wasn't fond of rewriting or editing - but would latch onto an idea and run it through till he was done with it. The warts-and-all result is a little in evidence here: every once in awhile, he makes what seems an awkward writing choice, or he pushes his 'artful science of coincidence' a bit far... but for my money it doesn't matter. At least not with this particular novel. He more than delivers what he sets out to accomplish.
'Deadline...' has at least half-a-dozen marvelously tense sequences - a couple of them are real doozies (and those are saved for near the end). He also allows a sly sense of humor to slip out here and there:
"Let's see now. To write that note in the first place she needed a pencil and paper. Those are things that the average chippy of her kind doesn't carry around with her ordinarily; she sends most of her messages with her eyes and hips."
Yes, this is total B-movie territory but, unlike a lot of Woolrich stories, this one seems to have something in its tone that's showing the author as having particular fun this time out.
I was not expecting such a different approach in his storytelling. I've come to expect his typical world of dread and tension - and that's here too - but there's something else going on.
In 'Deadline...', Woolrich establishes a 'meet-cute' of sorts (filled with gloom, of course): a guy and a gal who seem to be thrown into each other's lives for the ultimate purpose of romance. But not only will the plot not allow for that, it's not at all interested in that. Still... Woolrich has introduced us to two people who... well, who he seems to like as people. It's sort of unusual to sense Woolrich rooting for two people - while simultaneously throwing out tons of suspense.
It's almost a sort of tenderness that feels unique in Woolrich's work.
My understanding is that Woolrich - like Stephen King - was something of a writing machine; he just churned things out. Apparently he wasn't fond of rewriting or editing - but would latch onto an idea and run it through till he was done with it. The warts-and-all result is a little in evidence here: every once in awhile, he makes what seems an awkward writing choice, or he pushes his 'artful science of coincidence' a bit far... but for my money it doesn't matter. At least not with this particular novel. He more than delivers what he sets out to accomplish.
'Deadline...' has at least half-a-dozen marvelously tense sequences - a couple of them are real doozies (and those are saved for near the end). He also allows a sly sense of humor to slip out here and there:
"Let's see now. To write that note in the first place she needed a pencil and paper. Those are things that the average chippy of her kind doesn't carry around with her ordinarily; she sends most of her messages with her eyes and hips."
Yes, this is total B-movie territory but, unlike a lot of Woolrich stories, this one seems to have something in its tone that's showing the author as having particular fun this time out.
February 8, 2017
This book is full of wonderful coincidences! For example, in the first chapter, two strangers (a young man on the run from a crime he did not commit, and a taxi dancer) meet for the first time in the Big Apple, and turns out they're both from the same tiny Midwest town, but due to a slight age difference, never crossed paths back home. Our two protagonists embark on some solid crime detection between midnight and dawn of their introductory night, often within plain view of the Paramount Clock (the only friendly face in a menacing city.) In fact the chapters are not numbered 1, 2, 3... Instead they're demarked by clock dial graphics, showing advancement of time with hands, big and little. Will they escape the city's deadly trap, or not - and if so, then how? In some chapters, our sleuths work together, and other chapters' events take place for them separate but simultaneously. The opening chapter or two felt slow and was not that strong, but after that the writing really engaged me. I've seen the 1946 film a couple times too, and while the film has a lot going for it (for example the opening sequence of the movie is way stronger), the book is definitely better overall because it lacks the cabbie who was so difficult to swallow as being a detective (critics and fans dislike that character to this day!) So if you dislike the movie, don't let that deter you from reading the novel, because it differs from the screenplay significantly. Written in third person.
November 15, 2019
Hai con người xa lạ gặp nhau vào một đêm tại New York, trò chuyện phát hiện là đồng hương, kết thân và cùng giải quyết một án mạng phức tạp.
Nếu hơi mệt mỏi và ám ảnh với những cuốn trước của Woolrich thì đây là sự đổi vị tốt. Truyện có diễn biến điều tra ly kì hấp dẫn với nhiều tình tiết bất ngờ nhưng cũng rất dễ thương và nhân văn. Hai nhân vật chính khá đáng yêu, nhất là Bricky -một cô gái nhân hậu nhưng cũng rất mạnh mẽ .
Nếu hơi mệt mỏi và ám ảnh với những cuốn trước của Woolrich thì đây là sự đổi vị tốt. Truyện có diễn biến điều tra ly kì hấp dẫn với nhiều tình tiết bất ngờ nhưng cũng rất dễ thương và nhân văn. Hai nhân vật chính khá đáng yêu, nhất là Bricky -một cô gái nhân hậu nhưng cũng rất mạnh mẽ .
March 5, 2023
Deadline at Dawn is part noir mystery, part hopeful romance. Bricky, a dance hall girl who barely exists anymore, a shell of her former self, just struggling to survive each night. And Quinn, a down on his luck boy next door type, who out of temptation and desperation committed a crime that embroils both of them into a night of suspense and intrigue that will determine the future of the rest of their lives. There is something lyrical about the way Woolrich writes, even though the worlds he creates are dark and claustrophobic. You cannot help but get drawn in, despite it being a world in which you'd never want to live. There are some for whom the cutesy love story might be a bit too much, and I was almost there myself. But I think what it serves to do is to provide a ray of sunshine in otherwise pitch dark atmosphere, and even if you admit that its trite, you still want to see a happy ending after all.
January 3, 2021
Đọc cũng ổn, cuốn này kiểu điều tra suy luận nhẹ nhàng xen chút hồi hộp giật gân. Không có gì nổi bật lắm so với cuốn trước của Woolrich mà mình đọc. 3.5⭐, khởi đầu tạm ổn cho 2021.
December 9, 2023
Thật là xuất sắc cho toàn bộ chuyện này. Từ quá trình điều tra phá án của những con người bth vô tình vướng vào án mạng cho đến cách tg xd nhân vật.
Cộng 0.5 cho cái kết thật tươi sáng.
Mình để 4.0
Cộng 0.5 cho cái kết thật tươi sáng.
Mình để 4.0
January 25, 2024
A jaded taxi dancer becomes entangled with a regretful thief. Upon trying to return the money he stole, they find the owner dead, and they both rush to find the murderer before the thief takes the fall.
Written in the times before fiction got sleazy, Woolrich creates a dark, dangerous, and seedy New York without being explicit or vulgar. Tension and atmosphere flow of the page without any descriptive violence or sex.
The contrivances and conveniences are off the charts. The two main characters are so naive and make the dumbest possible choices. I know forensics wasn't advanced in the 40s, but they had fingerprinting, and these two touch literally everything--the body, everything in his pockets, the doorknobs, the objects in the room, and, eventually, the murder weapon. They pretty much sign their names on the way out.
But they're sympathetic, dumb as they are. Woolrich writes decent people you really feel for and puts them on a tightrope. In this case, one with many potential paths.
I liked this less than I Married a Dead Man, which is the only other Woolrich I've read. That one was consistently tense and disorienting. Deadline spends too much time on its characters vocally working through ideas and possibilities, as though Woolrich was trying to cover any possible plot holes or what-ifs. This one is also more mystery than thriller, but not the sort you can solve. The clues are revealed too late and the red herrings are too many. Three quarters of the book are devoted to the characters chasing false leads and thinly stretched ideas. Funny thing is, one of those later clues, if turned into the police with a lie about its acquisition, would have sent the investigation on a different trail.
Not amazing, but enjoyable.
3.5, rounded up
Written in the times before fiction got sleazy, Woolrich creates a dark, dangerous, and seedy New York without being explicit or vulgar. Tension and atmosphere flow of the page without any descriptive violence or sex.
The contrivances and conveniences are off the charts. The two main characters are so naive and make the dumbest possible choices. I know forensics wasn't advanced in the 40s, but they had fingerprinting, and these two touch literally everything--the body, everything in his pockets, the doorknobs, the objects in the room, and, eventually, the murder weapon. They pretty much sign their names on the way out.
But they're sympathetic, dumb as they are. Woolrich writes decent people you really feel for and puts them on a tightrope. In this case, one with many potential paths.
I liked this less than I Married a Dead Man, which is the only other Woolrich I've read. That one was consistently tense and disorienting. Deadline spends too much time on its characters vocally working through ideas and possibilities, as though Woolrich was trying to cover any possible plot holes or what-ifs. This one is also more mystery than thriller, but not the sort you can solve. The clues are revealed too late and the red herrings are too many. Three quarters of the book are devoted to the characters chasing false leads and thinly stretched ideas. Funny thing is, one of those later clues, if turned into the police with a lie about its acquisition, would have sent the investigation on a different trail.
Not amazing, but enjoyable.
3.5, rounded up
May 9, 2023
The softer side of Cornell Woolrich, who actually published this under the pseudonym William Irish. We have a romance after a chance encounter between two small-town kids who've been knocked around and beaten by the big city and are ready to flee, but fate (and the city) conspires to stop them. She a tough as nails dime-a-dance dame, he lost, lonely, and jobless. To escape they'll have to solve the murder of a stranger, working together and separately, with a deductive brilliance worthy of Sherlock Holmes. The whole course of the novel takes place over a few hours from 12:50 a.m. to 5:45 later that same morning -- the exact time indicated at the beginning of each chapter by a changing clock face. Cheesy, but I kind of liked it. Entertaining and enjoyable if the reader is willing to make a Herculean suspension of disbelief. Woolrich is clearly unafraid of the coincidences lurking around every corner and miraculous rescues that spring up from nowhere. Just seems a little artificial, the fingerprints of the author being so obvious. Even the titular deadline is unreal, unnecessary, unconvincing. Most enjoyable for me were the clever attempts to solve the murder with minimal clues, masterminded by the female lead, which is unusual in a noir. The romance was a little too quick and easy to buy, but it was nice to see Woolrich have a story with a pot of hope at the end of the rainbow. Also a noticeably rewritten (by Clifford Odets) 1946 film with Susan Hayward.
May 25, 2021
2.5 :)))
Đây là cuốn đầu tiên mình đọc của cornell woolrich và cũng là cuốn sách khiến mình hơi ngần ngại việc đọc thêm sách của bác này vì nói thật mình khá thất vọng
Đây là một cuốn trinh thám khá nhẹ nhàng có pha chút lãng mạn, chuyện tình giữa hai nhân vật chính trong truyện khá đáng yêu. Vấn đề mình k thích trong truyện đó là những sự trùng hợp diễn ra trong truyện mình cảm thấy nó hơi ảo, không thuyết phục lắm. Cuốn sách có nhiều chỗ làm mình cảm thấy hơi rối đặc biệt là những đoạn tả cảnh đường phố, mình không thể hình dung đc là nó ntn. Nhịp truyện ở đoạn truy tìm hung thủ khá nhanh, cảm giác như đang chạy đua với thời gian cùng nhân vật vậy. Thời gian trong chuyện chỉ vỏn vẹn 6 tiếng nên chắc k có thời gian cho mấy cú plot twist khiến người đọc phải há hốc mồm, còn mấy vụ nhầm lẫn trong lúc truy tìm hung thủ k làm mình bất ngờ mà chỉ làm mình cảm thấy mệt mỏi thật sự. Lúc đọc xong cuốn này mình k hề cảm thấy thoã mãn hay phải ngẫm nghĩ như nhưng cuốn khác mà chỉ có duy nhất một cảm giác đó là:"WTF mình vừa đọc xong cái gì vậy?" cuốn sách này đối với mình nó như là một cái mớ hỗn độn vậy, sau khi đọc xong mình thật sự cảm thấy tiếc 122k và thời gian mà mình đã bỏ ra để mua và đọc nó. Mặc dù trước h mình vẫn luôn rất dễ tính đối với thể loại trinh thám nhưng thẳng thắng mà nói thì đây là tác phẩm trinh thám tệ nhất mình từng đọc
Đây là cuốn đầu tiên mình đọc của cornell woolrich và cũng là cuốn sách khiến mình hơi ngần ngại việc đọc thêm sách của bác này vì nói thật mình khá thất vọng
Đây là một cuốn trinh thám khá nhẹ nhàng có pha chút lãng mạn, chuyện tình giữa hai nhân vật chính trong truyện khá đáng yêu. Vấn đề mình k thích trong truyện đó là những sự trùng hợp diễn ra trong truyện mình cảm thấy nó hơi ảo, không thuyết phục lắm. Cuốn sách có nhiều chỗ làm mình cảm thấy hơi rối đặc biệt là những đoạn tả cảnh đường phố, mình không thể hình dung đc là nó ntn. Nhịp truyện ở đoạn truy tìm hung thủ khá nhanh, cảm giác như đang chạy đua với thời gian cùng nhân vật vậy. Thời gian trong chuyện chỉ vỏn vẹn 6 tiếng nên chắc k có thời gian cho mấy cú plot twist khiến người đọc phải há hốc mồm, còn mấy vụ nhầm lẫn trong lúc truy tìm hung thủ k làm mình bất ngờ mà chỉ làm mình cảm thấy mệt mỏi thật sự. Lúc đọc xong cuốn này mình k hề cảm thấy thoã mãn hay phải ngẫm nghĩ như nhưng cuốn khác mà chỉ có duy nhất một cảm giác đó là:"WTF mình vừa đọc xong cái gì vậy?" cuốn sách này đối với mình nó như là một cái mớ hỗn độn vậy, sau khi đọc xong mình thật sự cảm thấy tiếc 122k và thời gian mà mình đã bỏ ra để mua và đọc nó. Mặc dù trước h mình vẫn luôn rất dễ tính đối với thể loại trinh thám nhưng thẳng thắng mà nói thì đây là tác phẩm trinh thám tệ nhất mình từng đọc
November 25, 2019
"Tôi không biết nữa, có lẽ bản chất của con người chỉ có thể hoặc thành thật hoặc lươn lẹo, và người ta không thể đột ngột thay đổi từ thế này sang thế kia mà không phải trải qua đau đớn chất chồng"
#Hạn_chót_lúc_bình_minh #CornellWoolrich #Tháng_trinh_thám
- Thể loại: Trinh thám đen, trinh thám cổ điển
- Chấm điểm: 8.5/10
Hóa ra không phải cứ trinh thám cổ điển là khó đọc, và không phải cứ trinh thám đen thì không phải là một truyện trinh thám đầy logic. Mình chưa bao giờ thấy thất vọng về Cornell Woolrich. Và dù lâu không đọc nhiều trinh thám nữa, nhưng Hạn chót lúc bình minh đạt độ hay cả về tình tiết, cách giải quyết, tình cảm tính logic của trinh thám, ngay cả câu từ không thể hay hơn.
Với nội dung xoay quanh Bricky và Quinn, 2 thanh niên lạc lõng giữa thành phố NewYork, không thể tình cờ hơn, lại là đồng hương, "anh chàng nhà hàng xóm" của Bricky. Họ từ bỏ quê nhà, mang theo ước mơ tìm đến cái xa hoa, những tưởng NewYork sẽ chắp cánh cho những ước mơ của họ. Nhưng "thành phố làm người ta già đi", họ...thất bại ở NewYork, rồi họ bỗng sợ cái nhìn lạnh lẽo của thành phố này. Nửa đêm ngày hôm đó, họ gặp nhau ở vũ trường, nơi Bricky mang những bước nhảy của một giấc mơ tan vỡ tại thành phố, và Quinn - đang lo lắng với một hành động nông nổi khiến anh rơi tõm xuống vực sâu tuyệt vọng cũng do những thất bại, những ước mơ không thành ở NewYork này. Sự đồng cảm, lòng dũng cảm khi nghĩ về "quê nhà, người ta sẽ trẻ lại khi ở quê nhà" giúp họ đặt ra một lời hẹn với thời gian, lời hẹn trước lúc bình minh, để có thể làm lại tất cả ở nơi họ đã ra đi. Thế nhưng, một Bricky đã tan vỡ, đầy cảnh giác, mang nỗi sợ hãi tột cùng với thành phố này; và một Quinn với bản án lửng lơ trên đầu, một kẻ thù không rõ thông tin, những rắc rối bủa vây, những dữ kiện liều lĩnh tự quyết, liệu họ có kịp với "Hạn chót lúc bình minh" không?
Xét về tính trinh thám, Hạn chót lúc bình minh là cuốn truyện được viết với đầy đủ những yếu tố mà 1 tác phẩm trinh thám muốn thu hút đều cần. Cốt chuyện trọn vẹn từ mở đầu đến kết thúc, tình tiết đưa ra được giải quyết không xót phần nào. Dù không xây dựng nên những cảnh sát hay thần thám, Woolrich vẫn có thể đặt những con người - đã phải chịu những hoàn cảnh không bình thường, vào tình huống tột cùng bắt họ phải lựa chọn giữa sống - chết, phải vận dụng 300% năng lực, khả năng quan sát, suy luận để thoát khỏi tình huống họ đang ngày càng lún sâu vào. Những chi tiết rùng rợn khi nhân vật phải đối diện với nguy hiểm, cách xử lý từng vướng mắc, sai lầm của từng nhân vật, cách suy luận để vượt qua tình huống cũng không phải không thể - nếu 1 ngày bạn gặp phải tình huống đó. Người đọc sẽ được trải qua cảm giác hồi hộp, cảm giác như đi bên cạnh mỗi ánh nhìn, từng bước chân của nhân vật chính.
Về câu văn, không thể phủ nhận từng câu văn của Woolrich vẫn đầy hình ảnh, đầy tình như Cô dâu đen hay Ám ảnh đen, mà có khi còn hơn nhiều. Có lẽ một phần nhờ dịch giả dịch rất mượt. Có những đoạn văn thực sự chỉ cần đọc cũng đủ khiến mình hình dung cả khung cảnh lúc đó. Giả như "có những lúc cô quá mệt mỏi và kiệt quệ, thậm chí là để nói dối", hoặc như "Lối vào căn phòng chết chóc hiện lên đen ngòm và trống rỗng phía trước trong đốm sáng run rẩy của que diêm trên tay gã đàn ông". Mình nghĩ với những câu từ như này, quả thực nếu ai mạnh dạn chuyển thể thành phim tác phẩm này sẽ gặp cực nhiều khó khăn cả khâu lựa chọn diễn viên lẫn tạo khung cảnh, để có thể truyền tải trọn vẹn cảm giác hoang mang, bất lực từ thành phố, từ hoàn cảnh tác động đến từng milimet trên người mỗi nhân vật.
Dĩ nhiên, vì là trinh thám đen và thời gian viết cũng không phải khi đã có quá nhiều công nghệ phân tích, nên cũng có vài tình tiết các nhân vật hơi sơ hở, cũng như suy luận thiếu chính xác (nhưng nên nhớ tuyến nhân vật của Woolrich không phải thám tử hay cảnh sát, và họ gặp sai lầm là chuyện đương nhiên). Thêm vào đó, yếu tố thời gian và lời hẹn trước lúc bình minh nên cảm giác 2 nhân vật có những đoạn xử lý lại thông minh quá. Cái kết và việc tìm ra hung thủ cũng mang lại chút cảm giác như tác giả do chạy đua với thời gian và muốn một kết cục HE nên khá vội vàng (cái vội vàng cho đến tận lúc tiếng còi hụ đầu tiên của giới chức trách vang lên, cho đến tận lúc Quinn và Bricky chạy đua để hoàn thành mong ước cuối cùng, mục tiêu quyết tâm giải quyết vụ án của họ).
Còn lại thì mình hài lòng từ phông chữ trên bìa và trong truyện, hình ảnh chiếc đồng hồ ở mỗi chương, giấy in, nội dung, kết cục. Điều không thích nhất chắc là cái bìa truyện. Sao cứ phải vẽ hình ảnh nhân vật minh họa mang không có cảm giác của Mỹ gì cả! Nhìn cái bìa làm mình lần lữa mãi không đọc quyển này (hơi phí), đúng như trong truyện Woolrich viết: "Và nói cho cùng, hình ảnh của mọi người trong mắt bạn đều phải đi qua bộ lọc cá nhân, chứ không phải bản chất thực tế của họ"
#Hạn_chót_lúc_bình_minh #CornellWoolrich #Tháng_trinh_thám
- Thể loại: Trinh thám đen, trinh thám cổ điển
- Chấm điểm: 8.5/10
Hóa ra không phải cứ trinh thám cổ điển là khó đọc, và không phải cứ trinh thám đen thì không phải là một truyện trinh thám đầy logic. Mình chưa bao giờ thấy thất vọng về Cornell Woolrich. Và dù lâu không đọc nhiều trinh thám nữa, nhưng Hạn chót lúc bình minh đạt độ hay cả về tình tiết, cách giải quyết, tình cảm tính logic của trinh thám, ngay cả câu từ không thể hay hơn.
Với nội dung xoay quanh Bricky và Quinn, 2 thanh niên lạc lõng giữa thành phố NewYork, không thể tình cờ hơn, lại là đồng hương, "anh chàng nhà hàng xóm" của Bricky. Họ từ bỏ quê nhà, mang theo ước mơ tìm đến cái xa hoa, những tưởng NewYork sẽ chắp cánh cho những ước mơ của họ. Nhưng "thành phố làm người ta già đi", họ...thất bại ở NewYork, rồi họ bỗng sợ cái nhìn lạnh lẽo của thành phố này. Nửa đêm ngày hôm đó, họ gặp nhau ở vũ trường, nơi Bricky mang những bước nhảy của một giấc mơ tan vỡ tại thành phố, và Quinn - đang lo lắng với một hành động nông nổi khiến anh rơi tõm xuống vực sâu tuyệt vọng cũng do những thất bại, những ước mơ không thành ở NewYork này. Sự đồng cảm, lòng dũng cảm khi nghĩ về "quê nhà, người ta sẽ trẻ lại khi ở quê nhà" giúp họ đặt ra một lời hẹn với thời gian, lời hẹn trước lúc bình minh, để có thể làm lại tất cả ở nơi họ đã ra đi. Thế nhưng, một Bricky đã tan vỡ, đầy cảnh giác, mang nỗi sợ hãi tột cùng với thành phố này; và một Quinn với bản án lửng lơ trên đầu, một kẻ thù không rõ thông tin, những rắc rối bủa vây, những dữ kiện liều lĩnh tự quyết, liệu họ có kịp với "Hạn chót lúc bình minh" không?
Xét về tính trinh thám, Hạn chót lúc bình minh là cuốn truyện được viết với đầy đủ những yếu tố mà 1 tác phẩm trinh thám muốn thu hút đều cần. Cốt chuyện trọn vẹn từ mở đầu đến kết thúc, tình tiết đưa ra được giải quyết không xót phần nào. Dù không xây dựng nên những cảnh sát hay thần thám, Woolrich vẫn có thể đặt những con người - đã phải chịu những hoàn cảnh không bình thường, vào tình huống tột cùng bắt họ phải lựa chọn giữa sống - chết, phải vận dụng 300% năng lực, khả năng quan sát, suy luận để thoát khỏi tình huống họ đang ngày càng lún sâu vào. Những chi tiết rùng rợn khi nhân vật phải đối diện với nguy hiểm, cách xử lý từng vướng mắc, sai lầm của từng nhân vật, cách suy luận để vượt qua tình huống cũng không phải không thể - nếu 1 ngày bạn gặp phải tình huống đó. Người đọc sẽ được trải qua cảm giác hồi hộp, cảm giác như đi bên cạnh mỗi ánh nhìn, từng bước chân của nhân vật chính.
Về câu văn, không thể phủ nhận từng câu văn của Woolrich vẫn đầy hình ảnh, đầy tình như Cô dâu đen hay Ám ảnh đen, mà có khi còn hơn nhiều. Có lẽ một phần nhờ dịch giả dịch rất mượt. Có những đoạn văn thực sự chỉ cần đọc cũng đủ khiến mình hình dung cả khung cảnh lúc đó. Giả như "có những lúc cô quá mệt mỏi và kiệt quệ, thậm chí là để nói dối", hoặc như "Lối vào căn phòng chết chóc hiện lên đen ngòm và trống rỗng phía trước trong đốm sáng run rẩy của que diêm trên tay gã đàn ông". Mình nghĩ với những câu từ như này, quả thực nếu ai mạnh dạn chuyển thể thành phim tác phẩm này sẽ gặp cực nhiều khó khăn cả khâu lựa chọn diễn viên lẫn tạo khung cảnh, để có thể truyền tải trọn vẹn cảm giác hoang mang, bất lực từ thành phố, từ hoàn cảnh tác động đến từng milimet trên người mỗi nhân vật.
Dĩ nhiên, vì là trinh thám đen và thời gian viết cũng không phải khi đã có quá nhiều công nghệ phân tích, nên cũng có vài tình tiết các nhân vật hơi sơ hở, cũng như suy luận thiếu chính xác (nhưng nên nhớ tuyến nhân vật của Woolrich không phải thám tử hay cảnh sát, và họ gặp sai lầm là chuyện đương nhiên). Thêm vào đó, yếu tố thời gian và lời hẹn trước lúc bình minh nên cảm giác 2 nhân vật có những đoạn xử lý lại thông minh quá. Cái kết và việc tìm ra hung thủ cũng mang lại chút cảm giác như tác giả do chạy đua với thời gian và muốn một kết cục HE nên khá vội vàng (cái vội vàng cho đến tận lúc tiếng còi hụ đầu tiên của giới chức trách vang lên, cho đến tận lúc Quinn và Bricky chạy đua để hoàn thành mong ước cuối cùng, mục tiêu quyết tâm giải quyết vụ án của họ).
Còn lại thì mình hài lòng từ phông chữ trên bìa và trong truyện, hình ảnh chiếc đồng hồ ở mỗi chương, giấy in, nội dung, kết cục. Điều không thích nhất chắc là cái bìa truyện. Sao cứ phải vẽ hình ảnh nhân vật minh họa mang không có cảm giác của Mỹ gì cả! Nhìn cái bìa làm mình lần lữa mãi không đọc quyển này (hơi phí), đúng như trong truyện Woolrich viết: "Và nói cho cùng, hình ảnh của mọi người trong mắt bạn đều phải đi qua bộ lọc cá nhân, chứ không phải bản chất thực tế của họ"
May 1, 2016
Deadline at Dawn, a murder mystery set in 1930s New York, is a tale of two ordinary people lost in their lives and captive to a city which seems to have its own malicious agenda.
It is a story of two people trying to take control of their lives and flee the city before the night is over.
An original aspect of the book is that each chapter is defined by a picture of a clock ticking down to 6am, when their bus leaves the city.
I was slowly drawn in as Woolrich took me for a trip into the New York twilit streets and carved out a sense of trepidation out of what could have been any normal night for the young protagonists.
I picked out this book because of the setting and era (New York, 1930s) hoping that it would help assist me in the research for the book I am working and it was certainly worth it because it certainly made me feel like I was there.
If you are looking for an intriguing pulp fiction type New York mystery then this will be a good pick.
It gets two stars from me because some scenes felt rushed towards the end and the twist wasn't that great but still a fun read.
Adrian Maitreya
It is a story of two people trying to take control of their lives and flee the city before the night is over.
An original aspect of the book is that each chapter is defined by a picture of a clock ticking down to 6am, when their bus leaves the city.
I was slowly drawn in as Woolrich took me for a trip into the New York twilit streets and carved out a sense of trepidation out of what could have been any normal night for the young protagonists.
I picked out this book because of the setting and era (New York, 1930s) hoping that it would help assist me in the research for the book I am working and it was certainly worth it because it certainly made me feel like I was there.
If you are looking for an intriguing pulp fiction type New York mystery then this will be a good pick.
It gets two stars from me because some scenes felt rushed towards the end and the twist wasn't that great but still a fun read.
Adrian Maitreya
February 5, 2008
And the movie is almost as good!
March 30, 2023
A Twisty Romantic Suspense set in NYC
↓ Similar Reading Experiences ↓
1. Craig Rice’s Eight Faces at Three
2. Vincent Starrett’s Murder on ‘B’ Deck
3. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby
Bricky is a partner-for-hire at a dancehall whose dream to become an actress died long ago. She feels trapped by New York City with only a distant clock tower to call her friend when she first meets Quinn. He’s a man whose bad luck led him to make certain decisions that he wishes he could take back…if only he’d met Bricky 24 hours earlier. With nothing else to lose, and a midwest-bound bus scheduled to leave in the morning, the two young innocents join forces to correct Quinn’s wrongs. Before they know it, the duo finds themselves running all across the city to solve a murder before the cops arrest them for it. They have 5 hours and 25 minutes before dawn, before that bus departs. Will they find the real killer in time?
This romance-turned-nightmare is so beautifully written, it is no wonder that Cornell Woolrich, a writer who also wrote under the pseudonym of William Irish, was inspired by the likes of F. Scott Fitzgerald. This novel blends hardboiled elements with a narrative voice reminiscent of The Great Gatsby or The Last Tycoon. As someone who’s wary of hardboiled mysteries, I adored this! Much of that has to do with the relationship dynamic shared between Bricky and Quinn. The former is such a strong woman character, beaten down by the harsh realities of NYC but also methodical and determined to stop the city from licking her one last time. Oppositely, Quinn is refreshingly sensitive and loyal to Bricky, often following her lead as they investigate this murder together.
What made this narrative even more fascinating was the introduction included in the Penzler Classics edition. I was intrigued by Woolrich’s life and how it clearly influenced certain elements found in Deadline at Dawn. A twisty, breathless suspense novel that I could definitely see myself reading numerous times in my life. And I look forward to reading more by this author.
*Book received through my subscription with the Mysterious Bookshop
↓ Similar Reading Experiences ↓
1. Craig Rice’s Eight Faces at Three
2. Vincent Starrett’s Murder on ‘B’ Deck
3. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby
Bricky is a partner-for-hire at a dancehall whose dream to become an actress died long ago. She feels trapped by New York City with only a distant clock tower to call her friend when she first meets Quinn. He’s a man whose bad luck led him to make certain decisions that he wishes he could take back…if only he’d met Bricky 24 hours earlier. With nothing else to lose, and a midwest-bound bus scheduled to leave in the morning, the two young innocents join forces to correct Quinn’s wrongs. Before they know it, the duo finds themselves running all across the city to solve a murder before the cops arrest them for it. They have 5 hours and 25 minutes before dawn, before that bus departs. Will they find the real killer in time?
This romance-turned-nightmare is so beautifully written, it is no wonder that Cornell Woolrich, a writer who also wrote under the pseudonym of William Irish, was inspired by the likes of F. Scott Fitzgerald. This novel blends hardboiled elements with a narrative voice reminiscent of The Great Gatsby or The Last Tycoon. As someone who’s wary of hardboiled mysteries, I adored this! Much of that has to do with the relationship dynamic shared between Bricky and Quinn. The former is such a strong woman character, beaten down by the harsh realities of NYC but also methodical and determined to stop the city from licking her one last time. Oppositely, Quinn is refreshingly sensitive and loyal to Bricky, often following her lead as they investigate this murder together.
What made this narrative even more fascinating was the introduction included in the Penzler Classics edition. I was intrigued by Woolrich’s life and how it clearly influenced certain elements found in Deadline at Dawn. A twisty, breathless suspense novel that I could definitely see myself reading numerous times in my life. And I look forward to reading more by this author.
*Book received through my subscription with the Mysterious Bookshop
February 23, 2024
Originally published in 1944
Cornell starts with one of the most brilliant literary descriptions of a clock:
“She had only one friend in all this town. It stayed still, it didn't dance, that was one thing in its favor. And it was always on hand, night after night, seeming to say: "Buck up, kid, you've only got another hour to go. You can do it, you've done it before." And then in a little while: "Hang on tight, kid; another thirty minutes now, that's all. I'm working for you." And then finally: "Just once more around the floor, kid. Time's up now. Just one more complete turn, and your sentence has been commuted for tonight. Just once more around, you can last that long, don't cave in now; look, my minute-hand's muscling in on my hour-hand. I've done it again for you, I've gotten you off. By the time you get back this way it'll be one o'clock." It seemed to say those things to her every night. It never let her down. It was the only thing in the whole town that gave her a break. It was the only thing in all New York that was on her side, even if only passively. It was the only thing in all the endless world of her nights that had a heart.”
……
“It was pretty far-off, but her eyes were good. Glowing softly against the taffeta backdrop of the night. A luminous circle, like a hoop. With twelve luminous notches around the inside of it. And a pair of luminous hands to tell them off, that never jammed, never stopped dead and played a dirty trick on her, always kept plugging for her, kept inching ahead, to get her off and out of here. It was the clock on the tower of the Paramount, all the way across the town from here at Seventh Avenue and Forty-third. Diagonally across, and still visible in here where she was, through some curious canalization of building-tops and angle of perspective. It was like a face—all clocks are. It was like the face of a friend. A funny friend for a slim, red-haired girl of twenty-two to have, but it spelled the difference between endurance and despair.”
Cornell starts with one of the most brilliant literary descriptions of a clock:
“She had only one friend in all this town. It stayed still, it didn't dance, that was one thing in its favor. And it was always on hand, night after night, seeming to say: "Buck up, kid, you've only got another hour to go. You can do it, you've done it before." And then in a little while: "Hang on tight, kid; another thirty minutes now, that's all. I'm working for you." And then finally: "Just once more around the floor, kid. Time's up now. Just one more complete turn, and your sentence has been commuted for tonight. Just once more around, you can last that long, don't cave in now; look, my minute-hand's muscling in on my hour-hand. I've done it again for you, I've gotten you off. By the time you get back this way it'll be one o'clock." It seemed to say those things to her every night. It never let her down. It was the only thing in the whole town that gave her a break. It was the only thing in all New York that was on her side, even if only passively. It was the only thing in all the endless world of her nights that had a heart.”
……
“It was pretty far-off, but her eyes were good. Glowing softly against the taffeta backdrop of the night. A luminous circle, like a hoop. With twelve luminous notches around the inside of it. And a pair of luminous hands to tell them off, that never jammed, never stopped dead and played a dirty trick on her, always kept plugging for her, kept inching ahead, to get her off and out of here. It was the clock on the tower of the Paramount, all the way across the town from here at Seventh Avenue and Forty-third. Diagonally across, and still visible in here where she was, through some curious canalization of building-tops and angle of perspective. It was like a face—all clocks are. It was like the face of a friend. A funny friend for a slim, red-haired girl of twenty-two to have, but it spelled the difference between endurance and despair.”
July 21, 2023
"Deadline at Dawn" is billed as being written by William Irish. It wasn't. William Irish was one of the popular pseudonyms used by Cornell Woolrich during his prolific writing career spanning about sixty years around the middle of the 20th Century. Woolrich wrote short stories for various crime magazines, as well as many novels. Twenty-nine of his stories were turned into films, with Alfred Hitchock's "Rear Window," being the most well known.
In "Deadline at Dawn" Woolrich engages a small group of Manhattan losers and misfits as they rush to save themselves from The City, and from the cops. It starts around midnight with a young woman plying her trade of professional dance partner for ten cents a dance. She's come from a small town in Iowa to Manhattan to make the Big Time in the Big Apple, but wound up wearing out her feet for two and one-half cents, her cut of a dance ticket.
Nearing the end of her shift, she meets a young man of about her age who has a big fistful of dance tickets. He'd bought them without realizing the joint was closing, and the dances ending with it. As circumstances unfold, they discover they're both from the small town Iowa, but didn't know each other, there.
It's at this point that their adventure begins. I'm not going to give away the plot details, but Woolrich's story is told in real time, and our two protagonists have until dawn to solve a murder and catch the bus, together, home.
Woolrich is a great storyteller who crafts his storylines into believable tales with believable characters. The villains are villainous, and the heroes likeable, even though they aren't particularly virtuous. This is a great story, well told. The bottom line is that mystery lovers should read all of the Cornell Woolrich novels and stories we can find. Thank goodness for e-readers and electronic book stores.
In "Deadline at Dawn" Woolrich engages a small group of Manhattan losers and misfits as they rush to save themselves from The City, and from the cops. It starts around midnight with a young woman plying her trade of professional dance partner for ten cents a dance. She's come from a small town in Iowa to Manhattan to make the Big Time in the Big Apple, but wound up wearing out her feet for two and one-half cents, her cut of a dance ticket.
Nearing the end of her shift, she meets a young man of about her age who has a big fistful of dance tickets. He'd bought them without realizing the joint was closing, and the dances ending with it. As circumstances unfold, they discover they're both from the small town Iowa, but didn't know each other, there.
It's at this point that their adventure begins. I'm not going to give away the plot details, but Woolrich's story is told in real time, and our two protagonists have until dawn to solve a murder and catch the bus, together, home.
Woolrich is a great storyteller who crafts his storylines into believable tales with believable characters. The villains are villainous, and the heroes likeable, even though they aren't particularly virtuous. This is a great story, well told. The bottom line is that mystery lovers should read all of the Cornell Woolrich novels and stories we can find. Thank goodness for e-readers and electronic book stores.
January 10, 2023
C.H.Ê 🥴
Một cuốn trinh thám lãng mạn...lãng xẹt. Sở dĩ mình c.h.ê cuốn này là vì xét dưới góc độ một tác phẩm trinh thám, cuốn sách thiếu quá nhiều logic trong khi lại dư thừa sự trùng hợp và vận may. Làm thế nào mà vũ trụ lại đưa ra nhiều chỉ dẫn và trò chơi khăm chỉ trong một đêm như vậy được? Nhân lực 2 người và vật lực là đôi chân, sự dũng cảm kèm theo ít tiền lẻ. Vậy mà trong 4 tiếng đồng hồ, 2 người họ, bằng sức trẻ và niềm tin không lung lay đã phá giải một vụ án mà họ hoàn toàn mù tịt về nạn nhân lẫn hung thủ. Manh mối lúc bước ra cửa lần theo dấu hung thủ cũng gần như bằng không.
Mình đã đọc được 4 tác phẩm của tác giả Cornell Woolrich. Và đây là tác phẩm mình thấy yếu nhất. Các tác phẩm của tác giả này đậm chất điện ảnh, bối cảnh lúc nào cũng là ở New York hoa lệ. Và vì chất điện ảnh đó mà yếu tố lãng mạn được đẩy lên cao hơn cả mảnh trinh thám. Tình huống gượng ép, hành động cảm tính và lập luận nửa vời.
Điểm thu hút của câu chuyện không phải sự thông minh can trường của hai nhân vật chính mà là tình cảm họ dành cho nhau dù họ chỉ mới quen nhau vào tiếng. Nữ chính có tính cách khá ổn (trừ đoạn cô hơi có chút khinh rẻ những cô gái là đối tượng tình nghi, dù hoàn cảnh sống của cô cũng không hơn họ là bao). Có một điều hơi cá nhân xíu, vì mình có một trải nghiệm khá halo với chàng trai hàng xóm nên cho phép mình phản biện quan điểm về niềm tin nữ chính dành cho nam chính chỉ vì anh là hàng xóm nhà cô nha.
Nam chính cũng gây được nhiều thiện cảm. Tính cách lương thiện, chân thật. Tuy sự bồng bột và dại dột đưa anh ta vào hoàn cảnnh ngặt nghèo nhưng chính sự lương thiện trên đã cứu sống anh ta và cho anh ta một người bạn đồng hành đáng đồng tiền bát gạo.
2☆ for main character.
Một cuốn trinh thám lãng mạn...lãng xẹt. Sở dĩ mình c.h.ê cuốn này là vì xét dưới góc độ một tác phẩm trinh thám, cuốn sách thiếu quá nhiều logic trong khi lại dư thừa sự trùng hợp và vận may. Làm thế nào mà vũ trụ lại đưa ra nhiều chỉ dẫn và trò chơi khăm chỉ trong một đêm như vậy được? Nhân lực 2 người và vật lực là đôi chân, sự dũng cảm kèm theo ít tiền lẻ. Vậy mà trong 4 tiếng đồng hồ, 2 người họ, bằng sức trẻ và niềm tin không lung lay đã phá giải một vụ án mà họ hoàn toàn mù tịt về nạn nhân lẫn hung thủ. Manh mối lúc bước ra cửa lần theo dấu hung thủ cũng gần như bằng không.
Mình đã đọc được 4 tác phẩm của tác giả Cornell Woolrich. Và đây là tác phẩm mình thấy yếu nhất. Các tác phẩm của tác giả này đậm chất điện ảnh, bối cảnh lúc nào cũng là ở New York hoa lệ. Và vì chất điện ảnh đó mà yếu tố lãng mạn được đẩy lên cao hơn cả mảnh trinh thám. Tình huống gượng ép, hành động cảm tính và lập luận nửa vời.
Điểm thu hút của câu chuyện không phải sự thông minh can trường của hai nhân vật chính mà là tình cảm họ dành cho nhau dù họ chỉ mới quen nhau vào tiếng. Nữ chính có tính cách khá ổn (trừ đoạn cô hơi có chút khinh rẻ những cô gái là đối tượng tình nghi, dù hoàn cảnh sống của cô cũng không hơn họ là bao). Có một điều hơi cá nhân xíu, vì mình có một trải nghiệm khá halo với chàng trai hàng xóm nên cho phép mình phản biện quan điểm về niềm tin nữ chính dành cho nam chính chỉ vì anh là hàng xóm nhà cô nha.
Nam chính cũng gây được nhiều thiện cảm. Tính cách lương thiện, chân thật. Tuy sự bồng bột và dại dột đưa anh ta vào hoàn cảnnh ngặt nghèo nhưng chính sự lương thiện trên đã cứu sống anh ta và cho anh ta một người bạn đồng hành đáng đồng tiền bát gạo.
2☆ for main character.
July 14, 2022
This is the most recent release in the American Mystery Classics series. It was originally published in 1944.
It is classic mean streets of New York story. Bricky Coleman is a dime-a-dance dancer at a shabby hall in 1939 New York. She gets involved with Quinn. They are surprised when they find out that they come from the same small town. They are both struggling to barely survive in New York City.
Quinn is so desperate that he has broken into a home that night and burgled a pile of cash. Bricky and Quinn agree that they will leave New York on the 6 am bus and go back home. They decide that Quinn should return the stolen cash first. When he returns to the scene of the crime, he finds a dead body.
They spend the rest of the night trying to clear Quinn of the crime by finding out who did it.
The whole story takes place between 1:50 am and 5:45 am. Bricky and Quinn are walking and cabbing around hardscrabble New York frantically following leads. They run into a cross section of desperate, hard luck, tough city dwellers.
Woolrich was a master of the thriller. An evil New York City that won't let them go is an almost live character in the book. Each chapter begins with a clock face showing the time ticking away.
This is an exciting thriller.
It is classic mean streets of New York story. Bricky Coleman is a dime-a-dance dancer at a shabby hall in 1939 New York. She gets involved with Quinn. They are surprised when they find out that they come from the same small town. They are both struggling to barely survive in New York City.
Quinn is so desperate that he has broken into a home that night and burgled a pile of cash. Bricky and Quinn agree that they will leave New York on the 6 am bus and go back home. They decide that Quinn should return the stolen cash first. When he returns to the scene of the crime, he finds a dead body.
They spend the rest of the night trying to clear Quinn of the crime by finding out who did it.
The whole story takes place between 1:50 am and 5:45 am. Bricky and Quinn are walking and cabbing around hardscrabble New York frantically following leads. They run into a cross section of desperate, hard luck, tough city dwellers.
Woolrich was a master of the thriller. An evil New York City that won't let them go is an almost live character in the book. Each chapter begins with a clock face showing the time ticking away.
This is an exciting thriller.
February 23, 2022
3,5
Bricky trabaja en un salón de baile, bailando con los clientes a diez centavos la pieza. Un día, Quinn, su último cliente de la noche, la sigue a casa. Comienzan a hablar y descubren que son del mismo pueblo, que ambos se sienten muy infelices en Nueva York y que desearían irse, pero no se sienten con fuerzas para ello. "¡Juntemos nuestras fuerzas! ¡Vámonos juntos!", propone Bricky. Si logran coger el autobús que sale a las 6 de la madrugada, se librarán de Nueva York. Pero Quinn no puede. En un momento de debilidad, acaba de robar varios miles de dólares y seguro que la policía le estará esperando cuando se baje del autobús.
La novela sigue a Bricky y a Quinn intentando arreglar el asunto, para poder cortar con Nueva York e irse en el autobús de las 6, ya que si no lo consiguen en ese momento ya no lo lograrán nunca.
Está bien, sobre todo de ritmo, aunque claro, esto fue escrito en 1940 y se nota: los trucos se ven venir de lejos, los capítulos puestos para alargar la historia son obvios, los personajes son demasiado confiados e ingenuos... Pero oye, me ha entretenido un rato y la premisa es interesante.
Bricky trabaja en un salón de baile, bailando con los clientes a diez centavos la pieza. Un día, Quinn, su último cliente de la noche, la sigue a casa. Comienzan a hablar y descubren que son del mismo pueblo, que ambos se sienten muy infelices en Nueva York y que desearían irse, pero no se sienten con fuerzas para ello. "¡Juntemos nuestras fuerzas! ¡Vámonos juntos!", propone Bricky. Si logran coger el autobús que sale a las 6 de la madrugada, se librarán de Nueva York. Pero Quinn no puede. En un momento de debilidad, acaba de robar varios miles de dólares y seguro que la policía le estará esperando cuando se baje del autobús.
La novela sigue a Bricky y a Quinn intentando arreglar el asunto, para poder cortar con Nueva York e irse en el autobús de las 6, ya que si no lo consiguen en ese momento ya no lo lograrán nunca.
Está bien, sobre todo de ritmo, aunque claro, esto fue escrito en 1940 y se nota: los trucos se ven venir de lejos, los capítulos puestos para alargar la historia son obvios, los personajes son demasiado confiados e ingenuos... Pero oye, me ha entretenido un rato y la premisa es interesante.
October 20, 2023
Ridiculous book, but super fun in execution. Premise: Young man - back against wall- decided to rob an easily rob-able house. But he finds the owner killed when he gets there! Figures he is doomed because of some connections he had there. Goes to dime a dance place and meets up with embittered girl. He follows her home because he figures he is doomed when the next day comes. Turns out they both come from same ohio small town!! (neighbors nearly!) they both desperately want to leave the awful horrible big city (NYC) that is often castigated. They can only together the girl decides (to maker her strong enough to face the lies she told her people about her success in the city). But to go home they must find the killer. And so... we pick up various clues and cul de sacs crawling around the belly of the big city from 1 am to 7 am .... back and forth we go in cabs, dives, diners, etc. until finally.... well- you'll have to read it to see if it works out. Entertaining schmaltz from the gritty Woolrich.
September 10, 2022
This is, I think, the first Cornell Woolrich book I have read (at least, it's the first I have logged in Goodreads, although I did have a reading life pre-Goodreads). Overall, I enjoyed this book. Bricky and Quinn (our two main characters) were generally likeable. There were definitely some major coincidences/big breaks that worked in favor for the two as they tried to solve the mystery (but that can probably be said for a lot of mysteries)...and to be fair, they did both make mistakes en route to the solution.
This definitely had the feel of a classic mystery/noir (it was written in the 1940's, during WWII), mainly because the city itself (and the Paramount clock) was treated as a character, which is something that we don't always see in modern mysteries. I think a lot of current mysteries rely on big twists/reveals.
This did have one of my pet peeves, though:
This definitely had the feel of a classic mystery/noir (it was written in the 1940's, during WWII), mainly because the city itself (and the Paramount clock) was treated as a character, which is something that we don't always see in modern mysteries. I think a lot of current mysteries rely on big twists/reveals.
This did have one of my pet peeves, though:
October 17, 2023
An inside heist. A murder. A romance. This noir title starts strong with two strong characters to boot and a third character- grimy late night New York of the 1940s – that delivers the goods much of the way through the book. Bricky and Quinn are our heroes trying to clear their names, solve the murder and leave the Big Apple all in a night before daybreak and they are a generally pretty likeable duo. They get every break imaginable as they try to piece the mystery together and encounter a few false starts along the way too. As the mystery begins to unfold the plot twists and cloak and dagger action sequences get a little tiresome but it pulls out and ending in just the nick of time. Cornell Woolrich was a master of this genre.
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