FOOTSTEPS IN THE NIGHTThe Southern California land had been in Dronk’s family for years, but he sold most of it to developers, and that’s how Dellwood came to be. Once a few new houses went up, they flocked to buy... Miss Silverter, the repressed spinster with a hidden passion. The brash, young Arthur family, including their stubborn old grandfather. The Holdens, a curious couple who feed off each other’s weaknesses. And the tightly-wound Bartletts, with their beautiful young daughter, who immediately befriends Dronk’s crippled teenage son. When she disappears one evening, the Bartletts naturally assume that the son is involved. But Dellwood is so full of secrets that the son is only one of Sheriff Ferguson’s suspects. They’re all guilty of something… BEAT BACK THE TIDEGlazer hires Francesca Warne as governess to his young son without realizing that she has a history with his cliff house. Her husband Adam had been shot to death on the beach below, back before Glazer bought it. Now she is asking Glazer to help her find out what really happened two years ago. So Glazer begins questioning the people involved: lovely, sensuous Mary Shelton, who married one of the men who used to own his house; the sadistic cop, Byronson, who still thinks Francesca was involved; pugnacious Conway, the other former owner, who knows more than he is telling; and Tremaine, Adam’s only friend. Glazer quickly learns that Adam Warne was a self-hating drunk who had been despised by most of the town—but who hated him enough to have killed him? Mrs. Hitchens weaves an ever-interesting story of life in a small Californian subdivision, in which each family has a secret that the murder forces into the open all shrewdly and compassionately observed. --Anthony Boucher, New York Times The atmosphere in this one is especially good, and the character of the widower, Glazer, is incisively drawn. --Ruth Hard Bonner, The Brattleboro Reformer Dolores Hitchens was a terribly underrated writer who was capable of writing both in the hard-boiled vein and in a softer, cozier style. --Jim Doherty, Rara-avis FOOTSTEPS IN THE NIGHT The Southern California land had been in Dronk’s family for years, but he sold most of it to developers, and that’s how Dellwood came to be. Once a few new houses went up, they flocked to buy... Miss Silverter, the repressed spinster with a hidden passion. The brash, young Arthur family, including their stubborn old grandfather. The Holdens, a curious couple who feed off each other’s weaknesses. And the tightly-wound Bartletts, with their beautiful young daughter, who immediately befriends Dronk’s crippled teenage son. When she disappears one evening, the Bartletts naturally assume that the son is involved. But Dellwood is so full of secrets that the son is only one of Sheriff Ferguson’s suspects. They’re all guilty of something… BEAT BACK THE TIDE Glazer hires Francesca Warne as governess to his young son without realizing that she has a history with his cliff house. Her husband Adam had been shot to death on the beach below, back before Glazer bought it. Now she is asking Glazer to help her find out what really happened two years ago. So Glazer begins questioning the people involved: lovely, sensuous Mary Shelton, who married one of the men who used to own his house; the sadistic cop, Byronson, who still thinks Francesca was involved; pugnacious Conway, the other former owner, who knows more than he is telling; and Tremaine, Adam’s only friend. Glazer quickly learns that Adam Warne was a self-hating drunk who had been despised by most of the town—but who hated him enough to have killed him? Julia Clara Catherine Maria Dolores Robins Norton Birk Olsen Hitchens, better known to mystery fans as Dolores Hitchens, was born December 25, 1907 in San Antonio, Texas. She married Beverley S. Olsen, a radio operator on a merchant vessel, around 1934. Beginning in 1938, Dolores wrote a series of mysteries as D. B. Olsen. After a second marriage in the early 1940s to Hubert Bert Hitchens who was a railway detective they collaborated on a series of five railroad mysteries from 1957 to 1964. Dolores also wrote an excellent group of standalone mysteries, including Fool s Gold which was filmed by Jean-Luc Godard as Band of Outsiders in 1964, as well as the critically applauded Sleep With Strangers and Sleep With Slander. She passed away on August 1, 1973 in Orange County, California.