The Desperate Hours
by Joseph Hayes
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Description
Three escaped convicts break into a suburban home and hold the family hostage.Tags
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Member Reviews
Well... the idea for this book is pretty sound - three guys break outta jail and hole up in the house of the all American family, the Hilliards. Mom, Dad, daughter, and son are terrorized. But really, it's pretty tame stuff. Sort of like a "Leave It To Beaver" version of a home invasion/family kidnapping. The characters think and think, what they could do, what they should do, and what they may have missed out on. And I didn't like the daughter, son, or Chuck, and I didn't care if something bad happened to any of them. It's a short book, but it seems long. The copyright in 1954, so maybe this is what the world looked like to this author back then. But it's just so sanitized, that I didn't enjoy it much.
Despite the fact that this was written 70 years ago, the writer keeps the suspense coming. Well developed charaters
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Author Information
23+ Works 363 Members
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Is contained in
Has the adaptation
Is abridged in
Reader's Digest Condensed Books 1954 v03: The Desperate Hours / General Dean's Story / Mr Hobbs' Vacation / The Power & the Prize / The Duchess & the Smugs / Tomorrow! by Reader's Digest
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title*
- An einem Tag wie jeder andere
- Original title
- The Desperate Hours
- Original publication date
- 1954
- People/Characters*
- Glenn Griffin; Hank Griffin; Robish; Jesse Webb; Dan Hilliard; Eleanor Hilliard (show all 12); Cynthia 'Cindy' Hilliard; Ralph Hilliard; Charles 'Chuck' Wright; Tom Winston; Kathleen Webb; Helen Lamar
- Important places*
- Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
- Important events*
- Geiselnahme einer Familie
- Related movies
- The Desperate Hours (1955 | IMDb); Desperate Hours (1990 | IMDb)
- First words
- The emerged from the woods a few minutes after dawn, a cold, moist dawn with a mist billowing up from the fields.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Ralph Hilliard, embarrassed, stared out the window.
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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Statistics
- Members
- 127
- Popularity
- 257,189
- Reviews
- 3
- Rating
- (3.41)
- Languages
- 8 — Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Swedish
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 19
- UPCs
- 1
- ASINs
- 17
