Classic crime and mystery fiction

Book Synopsis''The new crime and espionage series from Penguin Classics makes for a mouth-watering prospect'' Daily TelegraphLos Angeles, the late 1940''s. A serial killer stalks the foggy streets at night ...Dix Steele, a former fighter pilot, moved to L.A. after the war, looking for a new life. But the city is gripped by fear of a murderer in its midst. Dix, however, is not scared. And when he bumps into his old friend Brub, now a detective on the trail of the culprit, he is excited to follow the police''s progress. A dark and terrible truth is revealed, in a noir novel like no other.Trade ReviewDorothy B. Hughes was in a class of her own. To be a female author of hard-boiled fiction back in the 1940s was unusual enough, but to write a first-person narrative from the viewpoint of a male serial killer was breaking new ground by anybody's standards. She marked out this territory years before most other writers even knew it existed. -- Max Decharne, author of Hardboiled Hollywood: The Origins of Great Crime Films

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Book Synopsis''The new crime and espionage series from Penguin Classics makes for a mouth-watering prospect'' Daily TelegraphMaude Slocum is in trouble. But luckily trouble is Investigator Lew Archer''s business.A well-dressed, wealthy woman has arrived at Archer''s L.A. office, having intercepted a poison pen letter accusing her of adultery. Reluctantly agreeing to help her find the culprit, he dives into the Slocums'' moneyed, oil-rich California world. But when Maude''s mother-in-law is found dead in the swimming pool, secrets come to the surface too. For the urbane, world-weary Archer, a case of blackmail soon becomes murder.

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Book Synopsis''The new crime and espionage series from Penguin Classics makes for a mouth-watering prospect'' Daily TelegraphTwo young children hold the key to a secret stash of money - and a relentless psychopath is on their trail...Harry ''Preacher'' Powell, his fingers tattooed with LOVE and HATE, is out of prison and doing the Devil''s work. He knows his ex-cellmate hid $10,000 somewhere. He knows how to charm his way into unsuspecting lives. And he knows where the man''s family lives. As he hunts them down, a terrifying game of cat and mouse begins. One of the great chase novels, The Night of the Hunter is a savage tale of innocence and evil in the Depression-era South.Trade ReviewDavis Grubb's The Night of the Hunter remains the gold standard of southern noir. Grubb's unforgettably charismatic and psychopathic villain, Harry Powell, still has the power to flood your twenty-first century dreams with terror. -- Richard PriceA thriller which commands one's frozen attention. It is also a work of beauty and power and astonishing verbal magic. * New York Times *

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Book SynopsisDiscover the new Penguin Crime and Espionage seriesA master criminal and a master detective are locked in battle. Who will win?They call her the ''Dark Angel''. Queen of Tokyo''s underworld, Mme Midorikawa is famed for her beauty, her jewels and the tattoo of a black lizard on her arm. Crime is so easy for her that she warns her victims in advance. When a wealthy jewel merchant receives letters saying his precious daughter Sanae is about to be kidnapped, he entrusts the renowned detective Akechi Kogoro to protect her. But he may have met his deadliest adversary yet...

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Book SynopsisA new selection of the much-loved Father Brown stories, now part of the Penguin English Library''No man''s really any good till he knows how bad he is, or might be''With his round, unassuming face, his pipe and umbrella, the bumbling priest Father Brown makes for an improbable detective. Yet his innocent air hides a piercing understanding of the criminal mind, and a boundless knowledge of human nature. This selection brings together some of the best of G. K. Chesterton's beloved stories, in which we see the clerical sleuth foiling a jewel thief in London, solving a macabre mystery in a Scottish castle and unravelling dark deeds in a sleepy English suburb. With a beautiful new cover design by award-winning designer Coralie Bickford-Smith and presented in the delightful Penguin English Library series, this new selection brings together the very best of the Father Brown stories, inviting new readers to discover one of the most unforgettable characters in literature.

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewRaymond Chandler invented a new way of talking about America, and America has never looked the same to us since. -- Paul AusterOne of the greatest crime writers, who set standards that others still try to attain. * Sunday Times *

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Book Synopsis''The new crime and espionage series from Penguin Classics makes for a mouth-watering prospect'' Daily TelegraphA mystery writer turns detective to protect the woman he loves. But is he hunter or hunted?The chance meeting between a crime novelist and a married woman blossoms into friendship. When she confides to him that she has been receiving threatening and sadistic letters from an ex-lover, who says he is watching her in the shadows, he knows he must help her. But the trail unexpectedly leads to another writer, Oe Shundei, the mysterious and secretive author of works of grotesque violence. Suddenly nothing is as it seems, and nobody is safe.

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Book SynopsisDiscover the new Penguin Crime and Espionage seriesFor two secret agents, there''s no such thing as a quiet life in the countryside...In a peaceful Kent village, Mr Behrens lives with his aunt at the Old Rectory, where he plays chess and keeps bees. His friend Mr Calder lives nearby with Rasselas, a golden deerhound of unnatural intelligence. No one would suspect that they are in fact working for British Intelligence, carrying out the jobs that are too dangerous for anyone else to handle - whether it''s wiping out traitors, Soviet spies or old Nazis - in these gloriously entertaining stories.

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Book SynopsisDiscover the new Penguin Crime and Espionage seriesA stolen weapon. A troubled young man. A race against time...Inspector Maigret receives a call from his wife to say he has a visitor at their apartment. But when he gets home, the young man has already gone, along with Maigret''s prized Smith and Wesson .45. The trail to find the culprit - and the woman who may become his victim - takes Maigret across Paris and all the way to the Savoy Hotel in London. But getting to the truth may be even more complicated than he had first imagined.Trade ReviewOne of the greatest writers of the twentieth century . . . Simenon was unequalled at making us look inside, though the ability was masked by his brilliance at absorbing us obsessively in his stories. -- GuardianA supreme writer . . . unforgettable vividness. * Independent *

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Book SynopsisIs Carl Andersen innocent of murder, or a very good liar?Detective Chief Inspector Maigret has been interrogating the enigmatic Danish aristocrat for seventeen hours. A diamond merchant was found dead, shot at point-blank range, in the garage of Andersen's mansion, yet he will not confess to the crime. To get to the truth, Maigret must delve into the secrets of Three Widows Crossroads, the isolated neighbourhood where he lives with his mysterious, reclusive sister Else and where, it seems, everyone has something to hide.

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Book SynopsisWho stole George Matthews' life?Doctor, I think I'm losing my mind'When a wealthy young man turns up at respected psychiatrist Dr George Matthews' office uttering these words, it changes his safe existence forever. Suddenly Matthews finds himself dragged into a strange, surreal world where nothing is certain. And when an actress is found murdered, a horse tied up outside her apartment, Matthews loses his memory and must find it in a nightmarish urban jungle of mistaken identities, secrets and insanity.

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Book SynopsisCan an ace detective outwit a thief with many faces?They call him Gold Mask': a fiendishly clever master of disguise whose crime spree has shocked Tokyo. The dogged detective Akechi Kogoro is on the trail, and soon the two become locked in a frenzied battle of wits as his seemingly superhuman nemesis leads a chase across Japan, gleefully tricking the police at every turn. Will this ingenious villain's true identity be revealed and will he, eventually, make a mistake?

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Book SynopsisA missing plane resurfaces and so do long-submerged secretsAn RAF Dakota, presumed lost at sea during World War Two, has just been discovered at the bottom of a drained lake over twenty years later complete with the skeletal remains of the pilot and a strange cargo of rubble. Why are the Soviets so interested in it, even attending the dead man's funeral? Why has unassuming civil servant David Audley been tasked with leading the investigation and what was the plane carrying that some will kill for?

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Book SynopsisThe searing debut novel by Chester Himes, written with youthful panache and a bellyful of anger' (Observer)Robert Bob' Jones crew leader, shipyard worker, educated, employed is finding life impossible. Though he's recently been promoted to supervisor, he is disrespected and resented by white colleagues; and despite his relationship with the high-class Alice, he is crudely baited by the manipulative Madge. Over the course of four fraught days in Los Angeles, he is plagued with increasingly violent urges as the bigotry and cruelty he faces day-in-day-out become unbearable. Chester Himes's shattering debut is a masterful reckoning with the poisonous effects of racism, and a monumental protest novel. A relentless, gripping, classic novel, one of the most powerful exposés of what it is like to be black in America' LA Times

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Book SynopsisThe final novel in the trailblazing Harlem Detective series, set in a New York City at boiling pointBawdy and tough-talking, wickedly funny and wantonly sensual, Blind Man With a Pistol is a surreal joyride through Harlem in a heatwave. Detectives Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson are side-tracked from investigating a series of organised race riots when a white man with a cut throat and no trousers falls dead at their feet. Told in a thrilling chaos of impressions over the course of one day and one night, this case will take Jones and Johnson into the pounding heart of Harlem.

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Book SynopsisFast-paced and hard-boiled, this Harlem Detectives novel follows a pile of stolen money or it would if anyone could find it Alberta Wright drops dead on the street during a sermon by the charismatic con man Sweet Prophet. Her partner rushes home to avoid the cops, only to find her apartment looted by someone looking for her stash of cash. But soon it becomes apparent that there are number of players in the race for Alberta's dough. Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones are called in to investigate, but they know full well the bodies haven't stopped dropping yet.

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Book SynopsisA classic thriller from the Harlem Detective series, where love, jealousy and many-peopled mayhem aboundBig Joe Pullen is dead and his wake is getting boozy. When the opium-addicted Reverend Short falls out of a window trying to see a thief fleeing the robbed store opposite, his life is saved when he lands in a bread basket, cushioned by the corpse of Valentine Haines. It's up to detectives Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson to find out who stabbed Valentine though no one at the wake is keen to say much to the police. Shot through with dry, dark humour, this is Chester Himes at his hardboiled noir best.

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Book Synopsis'A stark depiction of the alligator pond of prison life Rage tempered with compassion [its] emotional core continues to smoulder' The New York Times Book ReviewThrill-seeking teenager Jimmy Monroe is serving a twenty-year sentence for robbery in the state penitentiary, where terror and chaos reign, corrupt guards inflict casual violence, and men try to preserve their dignity amid isolation and inhumanity. When a fire breaks out, setting hell and mayhem loose, it seems Jimmy's entire world is unravelling. But as he develops a tender relationship with fellow convict Rico, hope begins to glimmer, and, through his eventual foray into writing, something resembling redemption. Originally published in 1952, in an expurgated version, as Cast the First Stone, Yesterday Will Make You Cry draws on Chester Himes's own youthful experiences of imprisonment to face down the scouring truths of harm and love. Himes at the top of his game what an amazing book it is' Melvin Van Peebles

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Book SynopsisWhat if you woke up to discover everyone thought you were somebody else?Pregnant and abandoned, all Helen Georgesson has is five dollars and a one-way ticket to San Francisco. Then she is involved in a train crash, and regains consciousness only to discover that she has given birth and, in a bizarre twist of fate, has been mistaken for somebody else. Helen decides to claim this opportunity to make a new life for herself and her son. But eventually her past will catch up with her, in terrible ways

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Book SynopsisJudge Dee is about to step into the shoes of a dead manMost people would refuse the job of Magistrate at the lonely port town of Peng-lai especially as the last occupant of the post has been found poisoned in his library, his papers missing. But Judge Dee is not most men. He arrives ready to get to the truth, only to find his life complicated even further by a missing bride, a vanished artisan, a man-eating tiger and an evil conspiracy.

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Book SynopsisA thrillingly dark novel from 'Japan's Agatha Christie' (Sunday Times) While on a business trip to Kobe, Tsuneo Asai receives the news that his wife Eiko has died of a heart attack. Eiko had a heart condition so the news of her death wasn't totally unexpected. But the circumstances of her demise left Tsuneo, a softly spoken government bureaucrat, perplexed. How did it come about that his wife, who was shy and withdrawn, and only left their house twice a week to go to haiku meetings ended up dead in a small shop in a shady Tokyo neighbourhood?When Tsuneo goes to apologize to the boutique owner for the trouble caused by his wife's death he discovers the villa Tachibana near by, a house known to be a meeting place for secret lovers. As he digs deeper into his wife's recent past, he must eventually conclude that she led a double life...

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Book SynopsisA lean and mean thriller about one man and the Mob from 'the crime laureate' INDEPENDENTThe last time Florida motel owner George Moran was in the Dominican Republic he was in a uniform and people were shooting at him. Years later he's back looking for a girl he lost - and finding one he'd be better off without. Mary de Boya may be beautiful, but she's also the wife of a former death squad general in exile with mob connections. So much for the trip down memory lane - now Moran finds himself in a cat's cradle of drug deals, swindles, vengeance and murder.

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Book SynopsisFrom the bestselling author of GET SHORTY and JACKIE BROWN a thriller spiced with blackmail and revenge Detroit businessman Harry Mitchell is a self-made man, happily married for over twenty-two years and a pillar of the community. But then he slips - he meets a young 'model' and begins an affair. One night he arrives at his girlfriend's apartment and finds more than he bargained for. Two masked men have caught his misdemeanours on camera and now they want a cool hundred grand. But they've picked the wrong man, because Harry Mitchell doesn't get mad - he gets even.

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Book Synopsis'As gritty and hard-driving a thriller as you'll find . . . The action never stops, the language sings and stings' Washington Post Clement Mansell knows how easy it is to get away with murder. The crazed killer is back on the Detroit streets - thanks to some nifty courtroom moves by his lawyer - and this time he's feeling invincible enough to execute a crooked Motown judge. Homicide Detective Raymond Cruz thinks the 'Oklahoma Wildman' crossed the line long before this latest outrage, and he's determined to see that the psycho does not slip through the legal system's loopholes a second time. But that means a good cop is going to have to play somewhat fast and loose with the rules - in order to manoeuvre Mansell into a showdown that he won't be walking away from.

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Book SynopsisFrom America''s top writer of hardboiled crime, the novel that became Tarantino''s hit film JACKIE BROWNJackie, a flight attendant with a serious side hustle, is about to get grounded...She's just got busted smuggling large amounts of hot money on the Caribbean-Florida run, and now the Feds are pressuring her to turn informant but Ordell Robbie, the highly dysfunctional arms-dealer she works for, is not getting any more functional. With the help of disillusioned bail bondsman Max Cherry, could she outsmart her pursuers and walk away from the whole wreckage, happy and rich in the process? In a high-stakes game of risk, whose rum has the hardest punch?

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Book SynopsisA rollicking tale of the 1970s Detroit criminal underworld from legendary crime writer Elmore LeonardTo get ahead in armed robbery, you just need to find the perfect business partner...When auto thief Stick steals a maroon '73 Camaro from Frank's used car lot, Frank spies an unexpected opportunity. He suggests' they combine forces, and soon they're embarking on a crime spree across Detroit, holding up liquor stores and supermarkets and causing mayhem wherever they go. As long as they keep sticking to their Ten Golden Rules for Successful Armed Robbery, the cash keeps rolling in. But what happens when you start bending your own rules?

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Book SynopsisA rip-roaring caper novel by bestselling crime author Elmore Leonard'This chaotic, blackly comic story is carried aloft on Leonard's cool, easy prose' - The ObserverOrdell and Louis have picked the wrong woman to kidnapThey thought it would be easy money. Snatch the wife of a rich Detroit businessman and demand a nice big ransom. What they didn't reckon on was the fact that her husband has a secret mistress and doesn't want his wife back at all. Or that their victim, Margaret Mickey' Dawson, is more than a little tired of playing the perfect housewife. So tired, in fact, that she's out for revenge, and willing to turn the tables on everyone to get it.

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Book Synopsis''Mr. Holmes, they were the footprints of a gigantic hound!''The death, quite suddenly, of Sir Charles Baskerville in mysterious circumstances is the trigger for one of the most extraordinary cases ever to challenge the brilliant analytical mind of Sherlock Holmes. As rumours of a legendary hound said to haunt the Baskerville family circulate, Holmes and Watson are asked to ensure the protection of Sir Charles'' only heir, Sir Henry - who has travelled all the way from America to reside at Baskerville Hall in Devon. And it is there, in an isolated mansion surrounded by mile after mile of wild moor, that Holmes and Watson come face to face with a terrifying evil that reaches out from centuries past . . .Trade ReviewSherlock Holmes's best ... remains a classic -- Marcel Berlins * The Times *

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Book Synopsis''When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.''In this, the final collection of Sherlock Holmes adventures, the intrepid detective and his faithful companion Dr Watson examine and solve twelve cases that puzzle clients, baffle the police and provide readers with the thrill of the chase.These mysteries - involving an illustrious client and a Sussex vampire; the problems of Thor Bridge and of the Lions Mane; a creeping man and the three-gabled house - all test the bravery of Dr Watson and the brilliant mind of Mr Sherlock Homes, the greatest detective we have ever known.Trade ReviewThe world's greatest detective * Independent *

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Book Synopsis''Holmes,'' I cried.''Is it really you? Can it indeed be that you are alive? Is it possible that you succeeded in climbing out of that awful abyss?'' Missing, presumed dead, for three years, Sherlock Holmes returns triumphantly to his dear companion Dr Watson. And not before time! London has never been in more need of his extraordinary services: a murderous individual with an air gun stalks the city. Among thirteen further brilliant tales of mystery, detection and deduction, Sherlock Holmes investigates the problem of the Norwood Builder, deciphers the message of the Dancing Men, and cracks the case of the Six Napoleons.Trade ReviewThis quintessentially English literary invention [is] unequalled in popular literature * The Times *

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Book Synopsis''You are a wronged woman and shall have justice. Do not bring police. If you do, all will be in vain. Your unknown friend.''When a beautiful young woman is sent a letter inviting her to a sinister assignation, she immediately seeks the advice of the consulting detective Sherlock Holmes. For this is not the first mysterious item Mary Marston has received in the post. Every year for the last six years an anonymous benefactor has sent her a large lustrous pearl. Now it appears the sender of the pearls would like to meet her to right a wrong. But when Sherlock Holmes and his faithful sidekick Watson, aiding Miss Marston, attend the assignation, they embark on a dark and mysterious adventure involving a one-legged ruffian, some hidden treasure, deadly poison darts and a thrilling race along the River Thames.Trade ReviewPerhaps the greatest of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries is this: that when we talk of him we invariably fall into the fancy of his existence -- T. S. Eliot

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Book Synopsis''So you need help. What''s your name and trouble?''Private Investigator Philip Marlowe''s latest client is Orfamay Quest. She''s come all the way from Manhattan, Kansas, to find her missing brother Orrin. Or at least that''s what she tells Marlowe, offering him just twenty dollars for his trouble. Feeling charitable, Marlowe accepts - though it''s not long before he wishes he hadn''t. Soon the trail leads to a succession of Hollywood starlets, uppity gangsters, suspicious cops and corpses with ice picks jammed into their necks . . .The Little Sister is Raymond Chandler''s fifth novel featuring laconic PI Philip Marlowe.''Marlowe remains the quintessential urban private eye'' Los Angeles Times''Chandler grips the mind from the first sentence'' Daily Telegraph ''One of the greatest crime writers, who set standards others still try to attain'' Sunday Times''Chandler is an original stylist, creator of a char

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Book SynopsisPlayback is Raymond Chandler''s gripping last full-length novel featuring laconic PI Philip Marlowe.''Chandler invented a new way of talking about America, and America has never looked the same to us since'' Paul AusterLos Angeles PI Philip Marlowe is mixing business with pleasure - he''s getting paid to follow a lovely mysterious redhead called Eleanor King. And wherever Miss King goes, trouble is sure to follow. But she''s easy on the eye and Marlowe''s happy to do as he''s told. But one dead body later and what started out as a lazy afternoon''s snooping soon becomes a deadly cocktail of blackmail, lies, mistaken identity - and murder . . .''Chandler grips the mind from the first sentence'' Daily Telegraph ''One of the greatest crime writers, who set standards others still try to attain'' Sunday Times''Chandler is an original stylist, creator of a character as immortal as Sherlock Holmes'' Anthony Burgess

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Book Synopsis''I was neat, clean, shaved and sober, and I didn''t care who knew it. I was everything the well-dressed private detective ought to be. I was calling on four million dollars.''Los Angeles Private Investigator Philip Marlowe is hired by wheelchair-bound General Sternwood to discover who is blackmailing him. A broken, weary old man, Sternwood just wants Marlowe to make the problem go away. However, with Sternwood''s two wild, devil-may-care daughters prowling LA''s seedy backstreets, Marlowe''s got his work cut out. And that''s before he stumbles over the first corpse.The Big Sleep is Raymond Chandler''s first novel featuring laconic PI Philip Marlowe.''One of the greatest crime writers, who set standards others still try to attain'' Sunday Times''Chandler grips the mind from the first sentence'' Daily Telegraph ''One of the greatest crime writers, who set standards others still try to attain'' Sunday TimesTrade ReviewChandler seems to have created the culminating American hero: wised up, hopeful, thoughtful, adventurous, sentimental, cynical and rebellious -- Robert B. Parker * The New York Times Book Review *Raymond Chandler invented a new way of talking about America, and America has never looked the same to us since -- Paul AusterRaymond Chandler is a star of the first magnitude -- Erle Stanley Gardner[T]he prose rises to heights of unselfconscious eloquence, and we realize with a jolt of excitement that we are in the presence of not a mere action tale teller, but a stylist, a writer with a vision -- Joyce Carol Oates * New York Review of Books *Raymond Chandler is a master * New York Times *Philip Marlowe remains the quintessential urban private eye * Los Angeles Times *Nobody can write like Chandler on his home turf, not even Faulkner. . . A great artist * The Boston Book Review *Anything Chandler writes about grips the mind from the first sentence * Daily Telegraph *

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Book Synopsis''I need a man good-looking enough to pick up a dame who has a sense of class, but he''s got to be tough enough to swap punches with a power shovel.'' In the first of the four cases in Trouble is My Business, Los Angeles PI Philip Marlowe is offered a job that leaves a bad taste in the mouth: smearing a girl who''s ''got her hooks into a rich man''s pup''. Before too long Marlowe''s up to his neck in corpses and cops and he''s taken pity on the girl. There''s nothing like making trouble out of your business . . .The four novellas collected here are quintessential Raymond Chandler: slick, crystal-clear writing that pins the reader to the seat and won''t let go until the last page is turned.''Age does not wither Chandler''s prose'' Literary Review''Chandler''s prose flies off the pages like a burst from a Tommy gun. Chandler was perhaps the finest exponent of the fledgling genre now known as pulp fiction'' Scottish Field

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Book SynopsisBest-known as the creator of the original private eye, Philip Marlowe, Raymond Chandler was born in Chicago in 1888 and died in 1959. Many of his books have been adapted for the screen, and he is widely regarded as one of the very greatest writers of detective fiction.Trade ReviewRaymond Chandler is a star of the first magnitude -- Erle Stanley Gardner[T]he prose rises to heights of unselfconscious eloquence, and we realize with a jolt of excitement that we are in the presence of not a mere action tale teller, but a stylist, a writer with a vision -- Joyce Carol Oates * New York Review of Books *Raymond Chandler is a master * New York Times *Anything Chandler writes about grips the mind from the first sentence * Daily Telegraph *Nobody can write like Chandler on his home turf, not even Faulkner. . . A great artist * The Boston Book Review *

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