The Detective Club returns with our November Crime Club picks, starting with one of the earliest and most original psychological crime novels which is now impossible to find secondhand: Nightmare by Lynn Brock (such a fantastically creepy cover!). In this unique novel, a young novelist sets about taking murderous revenge having been driven to madness by the cruelty of a small group of people…
Simon Whalley is an unsuccessful novelist who is gradually going to pieces under the strain of successive setbacks. Brooding over his troubles, and driven to despair by the cruelty of his neighbours, he decides to take his revenge in the only way he knows how – by planning to murder them . . .
In the 1920s and 30s Lynn Brock wrote the very popular ‘Colonel Gore’ mysteries, winning praise from fans and critics including Dorothy L. Sayers and T. S. Eliot. In 1932, however, Brock adopted a new kind of narrative, a ‘psychological thriller’ in the vein of Francis Iles’ recent sensation, Malice Aforethought.
This novel has been hailed as one of the most remarkable books that Collins ever published’, the unconventional and doom-laden Nightmare gives a disturbing portrayal of what it might take to turn a normal man into a cold-blooded murderer.
Nightmare is out now!
Our second October choice is Design for Murder by Francis Durbridge.
In print for the first time since 1951, Design for Murder is the long-lost novelisation of the radio serial ‘Paul Temple and the Gregory Affair’.
The Assistant Commissioner of Scotland Yard visits retired Detective Lionel Wyatt with the chilling news that an old adversary they never caught has struck again, strangling an innocent girl. Wyatt is reluctant to return to police work, but then another body is found – this time at his own home, with a personal message: ‘With the compliments of Mr Rossiter’.
This was Francis Durbridge’s longest serial and contains all the best elements of the thrilling radio episodes but, in a newtwist, he renamed the main characters! Reprinted for the first time in over 60 years and with the addition of the exclusive 1946 Radio Times short story, ‘Paul Temple’s White Christmas’ – this is one you won’t want to miss!
Design for Murder is out now!
Finally, we give you The Rynox Mystery by Philip MacDonald – a classic Golden Age crime novel, and the first time Philips wrote a crime novel without a detective!
An engrossing murder mystery set in the business world, Rynox is a subtle and exciting novel by one of the greatest masters of the mystery story.
‘Rynox’ is at that point where one injudicious move, one failure of judgement, one coincidental piece of bad luck will wreck it. So why would anyone send more than a million pounds in one-pound notes to Mr Salisbury of the Naval, Military and Cosmopolitan Assurance Corporation? Who would shoot F.X. Benedik, the senior partner of the firm, through the head in his study? And where is the choleric Mr Marsh, who had an appointment with F.X. on the night of his death? Rynox is on the edge of big things. But the edge of big things is a narrow edge. And narrow edges are slippery . . .
Design for Murder came out on 30th November!
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