The Detective Club returns this month with your February Crime Club picks, starting with Raymond Chandler’s favourite detective novel: Mr Bowling Buys a Newspaper by Donald Henders. In this chilling novel, Mr Bowling buys the newspapers only to find out what the latest is on the murders he’s just committed…
Mr Bowling is getting away with murder. On each occasion, he buys a newspaper to see whether anyone suspects him. But there is a war on, and the clues he leaves are going unnoticed. Which is a shame, because Mr Bowling is not a conventional serial killer: he wants to get caught so that his torment can end. How many more newspapers must he buy before the police finally catch up with him?
This classic has been out of print for 60 years but returns with a new introduction by award-winning novelist Martin Edwards, author of The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books, who reveals new information about Donald Henderson’s often troubled life and writing career.
Mr Bowling Buys a Newspaper is out now!
Our second February choice is Invisible Weapons by John Rhode
The murder of old Mr Fransham while washing his hands in his niece’s cloakroom was one of the most astounding problems that ever confronted Scotland Yard. Not only was there a policeman in the house at the time, but there was an ugly wound in the victim’s forehead and nothing in the locked room that could have inflicted it. Only after a second baffling murder is committed can Dr Lancelot Priestly start to piece together this extraordinary case. Sporting its original cover design (considered one of the best designs ever to grace a crime novel), Invisible Weapons is a classic by one of the most highly regarded crime authors of all time, and is now being brought back into print for the first time in 50 years.
Invisible Weapons was published on the 8th February!
Our final pick for this month is the first original novel by Francis Durbridge: Back Room Girl.
Retiring to No Man’s Cove in Cornwall to write his memoirs, crime reporter Roy Benton discovers that a disused tin mine has become a research station for a secret weapons project. Karen Silvers, in charge of operations, reluctantly accepts that Benton’s experience could help her fight a sinister organisation intent on stealing their plans.
Back Room Girl is an outlandish mixture of mystery, glamour and suspense. First published in 1950, it has never been reprinted and so has remained an enigma to Durbridge’s many fans… until now!
Back Room Girl is out now!
