Who wrote the novel In a Lonely Place, adapted into the 1950 noir?

The novel In a Lonely Place, adapted into the 1950 noir, was written by Dorothy B. Hughes.

Hughes published the mystery novel in 1947. It follows Dix Steele, an ex-airman living in postwar Los Angeles who appears to help his police-friend Brub investigate a series of murders. The novel’s central tension comes from the gap between Steele’s charming social presence and his hidden identity as a killer.

Nicholas Ray’s 1950 film keeps the title and several character names but changes the story substantially. Humphrey Bogart’s Dix Steele is not the novel’s serial murderer; instead, the film makes him a volatile screenwriter suspected of violence. Gloria Grahame plays Laurel Gray, whose relationship with him becomes increasingly dangerous.

Hughes was a major American crime writer whose work often combined hard-boiled suspense with psychological unease. Other writers in the answer choices, including Margaret Millar and Vera Caspary, were also important women crime novelists, which can make this question tricky. They did not write In a Lonely Place.