The Hanged Man: A Romance of 1947

By Hilda Dunn

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• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0887393241
• ISBN13: 9780887393242
• Release Date: July 2001
• Publisher: Creative Arts Book Co
• Length: 190 Pages
• Weight: 0.63 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.5" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

An Intelligent Entertainment

Hilda Dunn's The Hanged Man is a clever and entertaining mystery that should be read by everyone who admires the novels of Jane Austen and Barbara Pym. With great skill, Dunn presents an exciting story (one that makes unobtrusive references to works by such writers as T.S. Eliot and Graham Greene among others)while presenting a view of post-World War 2 England that is as good as anything in the novels of Pym. The reader needn't have read these earlier writers to enjoy Dunn's novel, but if one has some familiarity with with them, the enjoyment is increased, and the reader sees that Dunn is an extrordinarily clever writer.But,more important, The Hanged Man is an entertainment. It is fun to read, and the final pages are as exciting as any other mystery story I know. Don't miss out on this treat.

DELIGHTFUL, INTELLIGENT PERIOD MYSTERY

THE HANGED MAN offers the enjoyment of meeting a well-furnished mind through an enthralling story, with highly evocative period details that bring daily life in the 1940s to the page. The author's wit and intelligence shine through and ensure the reader's pleasure.

A fun and intelligent book

Reading "The Hanged Man" was a thoroughly enjoyable experience for me. The plot has more twists than a Celtic knot, something I usually don't go for since in most twist-and-turn detective novels the cast are not much more than pawns in the author's effort to concoct a surprise-filled puzzle. In this book, however, the players were all alive and interesting, each with its own funny and loveable idiosyncrasies. Every character in this book was vivid and fascinating to me, even the secondary ones. In fact it seemed each one had enough "juice" in it to merit being a protagonist in a book of its own.The language in the book is rich, sometimes almost too rich for someone like me for whom English is not a native tongue. I'm sure I missed most of the interesting (and funny) homages to (and parodies of) classic works of literature. It comes across very vividly that Ms. Dunn was in love with the English language and literature, and the book is virtually fizzling with this love affair.With suspense hitting you right on page 1 without relenting till the last chapter, "The Hanged Man" manages a truly unique tight-wire act in my eyes: It somehow manages to be fun and yet deep at the same time. A spoiled reader like me is thus provided with everything he could possibly wish for: Instant gratification AND an intellectually worthwhile adventure...Isaac Orr, Israel.

contemporary Jane Austen

This novella is a gem, a comedy of manners written with gentle wit and intelligence.There is a mystery to hang the plot on, but Dunn shines best in the scenes and the verbal sparring of characters. It's the kind of book that makes a reader hope to get a bad cold, just for an excuse to stay in bed and slowly reread it.

Why it is such a pleasure to read

THE HANGED MAN is a masterpiece of the thriller genre, every page pulsing with energy and interest. Dunn treats her characters generously but with clear-eyed understanding, and, as in the great realists' novels, each character has the complexity and instability of a living thing.. The speech of the characters is quicker, racier, wittier, more richly evocative of personality than actual speech, and it is precisely for that reason that it seems to ring so true. It is when Dunn ties together all of the novel's various strands at the end of the novel that the extent of her artistry is revealed: even as one is overcome by the surprise ending, one feels that the novel could not have ended any other way.