Joe Nicholl's Reviews > Ride the Pink Horse

Another classic by Dorothy Hughes...having said that, of her big three, In a Lonely Place, The Expendable Man and Ride the Pink Horse, I'd put Pink Horse in 3rd...Why? Well written, a solid plot, prose is very interesting...but...the action to suspense ratio is low...too much wandering around town thinking about the past & future while dealing with the now, which is the Fiesta crowds, extorting cash, and dealing with a calm but pesky Detective...together you keep expecting something to happen but you end up with more suspense...The ending pays-off though...-I've noticed Hughes defines settings...time & place...so exact...and then repeats them...that the settings become a character of it's own...that would the dark foggy streets of San Francisco in the hours of 7:00 pm to midnight with occasional city buses gliding byefor In A Lonely Place, the daytime intense sun & blue sky of AZ in The Expendable Man and the loud, hot, dusty New Mexico border town in Ride the Pink Horse...-I liked Pink Horse but marked it down a little because I can't recommend to the casual reader due to the constant suspense but very little pay-off...except for the last couple of pages...3.5 outta 5.0...