uxe edition of unforgettable crime thrillers of the 1960s
Here in two volumes are 9 timeless novels, including 4 lost classics now restored to print
In the 1960s a number of gifted writers--some at the peak of their careers, others newcomers--reimagined American crime fiction. Here are nine novels of astonishing variety and inventiveness that pulse with the energies of that turbulent, transformative decade:
- Fredric Brown's The Murderers (1961), a darkly comic look at a murderous plot hatched on the hip fringes of Hollywood.
- Dan J. Marlowe's terrifying The Name of the Game Is Death (1962), about a nihilistic career criminal on the run
- Charles Williams's Dead Calm (1963), a masterful novel of natural peril and human evil on the high seas.
- Dorothy B. Hughes's The Expendable Man (1963), an unsettling tale of racism and wrongful accusation in the American Southwest.
- Richard Stark's taut The Score (1964), in which the master thief Parker plots the looting of an entire city with the cool precision of an expert mechanic.
- The Fiend (1964), in which Margaret Millar maps the interlocking anxieties of a seemingly tranquil California suburb through the rippling effects of a child's disappearance.
- Ed McBain's classic police procedural Doll (1965), a breakneck story that mixes murder, drugs, fashion models, and psychotherapy with the everyday professionalism of the 87th Precinct.
- Run Man Run (1966), Chester Himes's nightmarish tale of racism and police violence that follows a desperate young man seeking safe haven in New York City while being hunted by the law.
- Patricia Highsmith's ultimate meta-thriller, The Tremor of Forgery (1969), a novel in which a displaced traveler finds his own personality collapsing as he attempts to write a novel about a man coming undone.
Each volume features an introduction by editor
Geoffrey O'Brien (
Hardboiled America), newly researched biographies of the writers and helpful notes, and an essay on textual selection.