This image is the cover for the book Cross-Eyed Bear Murders

Cross-Eyed Bear Murders

Alone in New York City, a young actress becomes entangled in an international caper
Lizanne Steffasson used to dream of life on the Broadway stage—that is, until she came crashing down to Earth. Having decided to aim lower, she dreams simply of being able to pay her rent—which is why she responds to a strange ad in the newspaper: “Wanted: A beautiful girl. One not afraid to look on danger’s bright face.” Lizanne is neither beautiful nor fearless, and she’s about to come face-to-face with a most fearful danger indeed. When the Swedish billionaire known as the Cross-Eyed Bear died, he left his three sons’ inheritance in a trust, to be collected when the youngest turned twenty-one. But just before his birthday, the youngest son disappeared into the wilds of New York. Now, the estate lawyer wants Lizanne’s help finding him. Lizanne knows more of the story than her new employer realizes—and she cannot trust anyone if she is to come through the mission alive.

Dorothy B. Hughes

Dorothy B. Hughes (1904–1993) was a mystery author and literary critic. Born in Kansas City, she studied at Columbia University, and won an award from the Yale Series of Younger Poets for her first book, the poetry collection Dark Certainty (1931). After writing several unsuccessful manuscripts, she published The So Blue Marble in 1940. A New York–based mystery, it won praise for its hardboiled prose, which was due, in part, to Hughes’s editor, who demanded she cut 25,000 words from the book. Hughes published thirteen more novels, the best known of which are In a Lonely Place (1947) and Ride the Pink Horse (1946). Both were made into successful films. In the early fifties, Hughes largely stopped writing fiction, preferring to focus on criticism, for which she would go on to win an Edgar Award. In 1978, the Mystery Writers of America presented Hughes with the Grand Master Award for literary achievement     

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