The Chinese Gold Murders
Judge Dee is about to step into the shoes of a dead man…
Most 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.
Most 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.
The Deadly Percheron
Who 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.
With its unique atmosphere of threat, secrets and madness, The Deadly Percheron is a great New York noir novel. The extraordinary climax — in an abandoned Coney Island Fun House — has to be read to be believed.
‘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.
With its unique atmosphere of threat, secrets and madness, The Deadly Percheron is a great New York noir novel. The extraordinary climax — in an abandoned Coney Island Fun House — has to be read to be believed.
From Russia With Love
'It is not just a question of blowing up a building or shooting a prime minister. Such bourgeois horseplay is not contemplated. Our operation must be delicate, refined and aimed at the heart of the Intelligence apparat of the West.'
Deep inside the Soviet Union a plot to ruin the British secret service takes shape. Under the guidance of the appalling Rosa Klebb, the spy-killing agency SMERSH come up with a trap which will not only assassinate the formidable James Bond but discredit everything he seemed to stand for. The trap is set in Istanbul: a beautiful girl, an invaluable Soviet coding machine – and lurking in the shadows the psychopath, Grant.
Deep inside the Soviet Union a plot to ruin the British secret service takes shape. Under the guidance of the appalling Rosa Klebb, the spy-killing agency SMERSH come up with a trap which will not only assassinate the formidable James Bond but discredit everything he seemed to stand for. The trap is set in Istanbul: a beautiful girl, an invaluable Soviet coding machine – and lurking in the shadows the psychopath, Grant.
Gold Mask
A frenzied test of wits between ace detective Akechi Kogoro and the seemingly superhuman and fiendishly clever villain known only as Gold Mask, this is one of Edogawa Rampo’s most enjoyable and witty novels. The anonymous fiend, lurking imperturbably behind his glittering mask, leads a frenzied chase across Japan, gleefully using every imaginable trick to outwit his pursuers. But sooner or later he surely has to make a mistake?
Gold Mask is Rampo at his most gleeful and ingenious. It is also a wonderful picture of interwar Japan, mixing new technology and ancient sleights of hand.
Gold Mask is Rampo at his most gleeful and ingenious. It is also a wonderful picture of interwar Japan, mixing new technology and ancient sleights of hand.
I Married A Dead Man
What 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…
I Married a Dead Man is a miraculous noir novel by the absolute master of the genre. Extravagant, histrionic, maze-like, the plot keeps you imprisoned in Woolrich’s surreal, agonized world.
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…
I Married a Dead Man is a miraculous noir novel by the absolute master of the genre. Extravagant, histrionic, maze-like, the plot keeps you imprisoned in Woolrich’s surreal, agonized world.
The Labyrinth Makers
A missing plane resurfaces – and so do long-submerged secrets…
An 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?
An 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?
Night at the Crossroads
Maigret has been interrogating Carl Andersen for seventeen hours without a confession. He's either innocent or a very good liar. So why was the body of a diamond merchant found at his isolated mansion? Why is his sister always shut away in her room? And why does everyone at Three Widows Crossroads have something to hide?
The Night Manager
At the start of it all, Jonathan Pine is merely the night manager at a luxury hotel. But when a single attempt to pass on information to the British authorities - about an international businessman at the hotel with suspicious dealings - backfires terribly, and people close to Pine begin to die, he commits himself to a battle against powerful forces he cannot begin to imagine.
In a chilling tale of corrupt intelligence agencies, billion-dollar price tags and the truth of the brutal arms trade, John le Carré creates a claustrophobic world in which no one can be trusted.
In a chilling tale of corrupt intelligence agencies, billion-dollar price tags and the truth of the brutal arms trade, John le Carré creates a claustrophobic world in which no one can be trusted.
The Underground Man
Private Detective Lew Archer doesn’t believe in coincidences…
A forest fire has mysteriously broken out in the hills above southern California. Meanwhile, Lew Archer has been asked by a desperate mother to find her six-year-old son. Instead, he discovers the boy’s wealthy father, murdered, and buried in a hole in the ground. The mystery will lead Archer to unearth a tragic, years-old history of abandonment, obsession and illusion, where the past won’t let go of the present – and everything is connected.
A forest fire has mysteriously broken out in the hills above southern California. Meanwhile, Lew Archer has been asked by a desperate mother to find her six-year-old son. Instead, he discovers the boy’s wealthy father, murdered, and buried in a hole in the ground. The mystery will lead Archer to unearth a tragic, years-old history of abandonment, obsession and illusion, where the past won’t let go of the present – and everything is connected.
We Have Always Lived in the Castle
Eighteen-year-old Merricat may, or may not be, a mass murderer
Six years ago everyone in the Blackwood family was poisoned by sugar laced with arsenic – everyone, that is, apart from Merricat and her elder sister Constance. They live in peaceful, ordered isolation, away from prying eyes in the nearby village, until one day boorish cousin Charles arrives with designs on their father’s fortune. Whether by practical or magical means, Merricat will do whatever is necessary to protect their home.
Six years ago everyone in the Blackwood family was poisoned by sugar laced with arsenic – everyone, that is, apart from Merricat and her elder sister Constance. They live in peaceful, ordered isolation, away from prying eyes in the nearby village, until one day boorish cousin Charles arrives with designs on their father’s fortune. Whether by practical or magical means, Merricat will do whatever is necessary to protect their home.
The Big Sleep & Farewell, My Lovely
Raymond Chandler created the fast talking, trouble seeking Californian private eye Philip Marlowe for his first great novel The Big Sleep in 1939. Marlowe's entanglement with the Sternwood family - and an attendant cast of colourful underworld figures - is the background to a story reflecting all the tarnished glitter of the great American Dream. The hard-boiled detective's iconic image burns just as brightly in Farewell My Lovely, on the trail of a missing nightclub crooner.
The Black Lizard
A super-criminal - as deadly as she is beautiful - wagers all in an epic battle with a master detective, Akechi Kogoro. No trick is too elaborate, no disguise too fantastic as the two perfectly matched antagonists take turns to outwit each other.
Brat Farrar
A stranger enters the Ashby family home posing as Patrick Ashby, the heir to the family's sizeable fortune. The stranger, Brat Farrar, has been carefully coached on Patrick's mannerisms, appearance and every significant detail of Patrick's early life, up to his thirteenth year when he disappeared and was thought to have drowned himself.
It seems as if Brat is going to pull off this most incredible deception - until old secrets emerge that threaten to jeopardise the imposter's plan and his very life...
It seems as if Brat is going to pull off this most incredible deception - until old secrets emerge that threaten to jeopardise the imposter's plan and his very life...
Game Without Rules
Behrens and Calder are two secret agents living in the English countryside, desperately seeking a quiet life. But despite their best efforts, they find themselves repeatedly obliged to wipe out a host of brutal and ingenious traitors, Soviet spies and old Nazis.
Maigret's Revolver
When Maigret's prized gun goes missing, he must travel to London on the trail of a troubled young man on the run. Maigret's Revolver is a wonderful picture of both London and Paris and one of Simenon's most ingenious and satisfying stories.
The Mask of Dimitrios
English crime novelist Charles Latimer is travelling in Istanbul when he makes the acquaintance of Turkish police inspector Colonel Haki. It is from him that he first hears of the mysterious Dimitrios - an infamous master criminal, long wanted by the law, whose body has just been fished out of the Bosphorus. Fascinated by the story, Latimer decides to retrace Dimitrios' steps across Europe to gather material for a new book. But, as he gradually discovers more about his subject's shadowy history, fascination tips over into obsession. And, in entering Dimitrios' criminal underworld, Latimer realizes that his own life may be on the line.