Fools' Gold

Description

Two teenagers fresh out of stir set their sights on what looks like easy money in this classic thriller from 1958, only to get a painful education in how quickly and drastically a simple plan can spin out of control. Dolores Hitchens wrote crime novels that were both tough and compassionate, with a sharp eye for the emotional scars that violence leaves. The basis for Jean-Luc Godard's film Band of Outsiders, Fools' Gold is a swift and unadorned tale of three young people--two boys just released after being incarcerated for a juvenile offense, and an orphaned girl living in a house full of secrets--whose lives are rapidly torn apart by what starts as a simple plan of robbery. It echoes other classic American narratives of youth astray and on the run, and with its headlong pace catches the rhythm of adolescent crisis, as Hitchens's protagonists find themselves caught up in a situation spiraling beyond their control.

Dolores Hitchens (1907-1973) was a highly prolific author of novels and a play who wrote under several names, best known for a number of detective series incuding the "Cat" novels featuring eaturing elderly amateur sleuth Rachel Murdock- The Cat Saw Murder (1939), The Alarm of the Black Cat (1942), Catspaw for Murder (1943), The Cat Wears a Noose (1944), Cats Don't Smile (1945), Cats Don't Need Coffins (1946), Cats Have Tall Shadows (1948), The Cat Wears a Mask (1949), Death Wears Cat's Eyes (1950), Cat and Capricorn (1951), The Cat Walk (1953), and Death Walks on Cat Feet (1956). Duane Swierczynski is the author of Canary and eight other novels, including the Edgar-nominated and Anthony Award-winning Expiration Date and the Shamus Award-winning Charlie Hardie series. He's also written over two hundred comic books for Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, IDW, Valiant and Archie.