Best of
Crime

1969

The Godfather


Mario Puzo - 1969
    A searing portrayal of the Mafia underworld, The Godfather introduced readers to the first family of American crime fiction, the Corleones, and their powerful legacy of tradition, blood, and honor. The seduction of power, the pitfalls of greed, and the allegiance to family—these are the themes that have resonated with millions of readers around the world and made The Godfather the definitive novel of the violent subculture that, steeped in intrigue and controversy, remains indelibly etched in our collective consciousness.~penguin.com

Trick Baby


Iceberg Slim - 1969
    Blue-eyed, light-haired and white-skinned, White Folks was a successful con man, a hustler in the jungle of Southside Chicago where only the sharpest survived.

Three Complete Novels: The Postman Always Rings Twice/Mildred Pierce/Double Indemnity


James M. Cain - 1969
    Three of the best novels of James M Cain, all in one volume, stories that encompass suspense, human lust, greed, and self-absorption, they are The Postman Always Rings Twice, Mildred Pierce, and Double Indemnity.

Agatha Christie Crime Collection: Appointment with Death / Crooked House / Sad cypress


Agatha Christie - 1969
    A tiny puncture mark on her wrist was the only sign of the fatal injection that had killed her. With only 24 hours available to solve the mystery, Hercule Poirot recalled a chance remark he�9;d overheard back in Jerusalem: 'You see, don't you, that she's got to be killed?' Mrs Boynton was, indeed, the most detestable woman he'd ever metCROOKED HOUSEWhen Aristide Leonides dies at Three Gables, his young wife and her lover are suspects for murder.SAD CYPRESS (Hercule Poirot, Bk 20)Beautiful young Elinor Carlisle stood serenely in the dock, accused of the murder of Mary Gerrard, her rival in love. The evidence was damning: only Elinor had the motive, the opportunity and the means to administer the fatal poison. Yet, inside the hostile courtroom, only one man still presumed Elinor was innocent until proven guilty: Hercule Poirot was all that stood between Elinor and the gallows

King Dido


Alexander Baron - 1969
    The police collaborate with racketeers to keep an uneasy peace, periodically broken by violent gang wars. Dido Peach comes to prominence by breaking the unwritten rules of the street. For a brief time he rules the underworld. His fall is sudden and spectacular, shaking even the callous and vicious neighbourhood in which he is trapped. This new edition is introduced by Ken Worpole, author of Dockers and Detectives (Five Leaves), which rekindled interest in Baron and many other important yet overlooked British writers of the 20th century.

Martin Beck Mysteries: The Man Who Went Up in Smoke & Roseanna


Maj Sjöwall - 1969
    The Man Who Went Up in Smoke and Roseanna.

Agatha Christie Crime Collection: Murder on the Orient Express / Death in the Clouds / Why Didn't They Ask Evans?


Agatha Christie - 1969
    A woman is slain in, of all places, the cabin of an airliner in mid flight. A dozen potential witnesses, including the sharply observant Hercule Poirot, are present when the deed is done; yet nobody notices anything amiss until the victim is discovered not to be asleep, as the steward had thought, but cleverly murdered.One great point about Poirot is his ability to judge the true significance of trivia in the light of his special brand of imaginative logic. In no case of Poirot's has his gift been more valuable. Somewhere, among the trifling and apparently inconsequential actions of the passengers, or among the odd assortment of belongings that a search of their baggage reveals, is the key that will begin to make everything clear.Why didn't they ask Evans?People had fallen over cliffs before, and at first there seemed to be nothing extraordinary about the accident at Marchbolt. The man was a stranger, and presumably unaware of the perils of the cliff path.There was nothing Bobby could do except wait with him for the help that would surely arrive too late. As he waited, the dying man suddenly spoke. "Why didn't they ask Evans?"That was all he said; and the words seemed so inconsequential that Bobby did not even mention then at the inquest. Later, when he did report them to mysterious Mr. Cayman, strange and disturbing things began to happen and it began to seem that somebody had powerful reasons for wanting Bobby out of his way. In trying to discover why, Bobby and his friends find themselves involved in something very much more than a simple matter of accidental death.Murder on the Orient ExpressWith one mystery successfully concluded, Hercule Poirot is en route from Aleppo to London where his aid on another case is eagerly awaited. but on this occasion the Orient Express does not run strictly according to the international timetable.In the middle of the night, in the heart of Yugoslavia, the train comes to a halt - and next morning it is still halted. A snowdrift is blocking the line ahead; the passengers, with one exception, face the prospect of a wait which could amount to days.The exception lies dead; stabbed not once but over and over again by an apparently frenzied killer. Or was it two killers? That, like the sleeping compartment bolted from the inside, is part of the puzzle Poirot is asked to solve.

The Sour Lemon Score and Deadly Edge


Richard Stark - 1969
    

Forfeit


Dick Francis - 1969
    But there's no such thing as a sure thing.

The Twisting Lane: Some Sex Offenders


Tony Parker - 1969
    Each man offers, in his own words, his personal story and self-perception.'A remarkable achievement... almost every paragraph is poignant and revealing.' New Statesman

The Victims: the Wylie-Hoffert Murder Case and Its Strange Aftermath


Bernard Lefkowitz - 1969
    An account of one of the most sensational murder cases in the annals of American crime—the brutal slayings of Janice Wylie and Emily Hoffert—and of the strange events of the investigation that followed.

The Deputies


J.T. Edison - 1969
    

Curtain Calls: Three Great Mysteries (Enter a Murderer / Night at the Vulcan / Killer Dolphin)


Ngaio Marsh - 1969
    

Fools' Parade


Davis Grubb - 1969
    A fine book, written for the hell of it, which is a splendid reason.”—TimeSet in the Appalachian backcountry in the midst of the Great Depression, Fools’ Parade traces the adventures of three ex-convicts who become involved in a wild and woolly chase along the Ohio River.Convicted murderer Mattie Appleyard has just served forty-seven years in Glory Penitentiary. His release puts him in possession of a check for $25,452.32—the result of his having salted away his meager earnings in the Prisoner’s Work-and-Hope Savings Plan of the local bank. With his friends Johnny Jesus and Lee Cottrill, he plans to open a general store that will compete with the company store in Stonecoal, West Virginia. Unfortunately, banker Homer Grindstaff, prison guard Uncle Doc Council, and Sheriff Duane Ewing have no intention of allowing Mattie to realize his ambitions. Mattie’s efforts to cash his check set a deadly pursuit in motion and introduce the reader to a host of colorful characters and a vividly recreated regional and historical background. Good and evil meet head-on in this novel that is, by turns, warm and humorous, rousing and tumultuous.The Author: Davis Grubb (1919–1980) was the author of ten published novels, the most famous of which was Night of the Hunter. Both that book and Fools’ Parade, originally published in 1969, were made into motion pictures.

Men Behaving Badly


John E. Goldingay - 1969
    With lively writing and gentle humor, Men Behaving Badly illuminates the timeless foibles and phobias of the human condition. Goldingay focuses on the way the stories talk about the pressures that come on a series of men, their motives and emotions, the mistakes and achievements that characterize their lives, and the way God relates to all of these.

How to Succeed at Business Spying by Trying: A Novel About Industrial Espionage


Shepherd Mead - 1969
    His exploits as he goes about exposing a monstrous conspiracy against the industrial heart of America are at once wild, hilarious, and deadly serious. Along the way he tangles with an assortment of zany characters, including a trio of engagingly odd and highly sexed charmers and a patriarchal embodiment of the American Dream, before his ingenious sleuthing culminates in a shattering climax in the best comic tradition of the Marx brothers.How to Succeed at Business Spying by Trying is bugged with all the newest electronic hardware and people who have no scruples about using them. Mead brings to his latest book all the wit, humor, and know-how that made his earlier expose of corporate skulduggery, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, one of the biggest money makers of all the books on business ever written.

Juvenile Offenders for a Thousand Years: Selected Readings from Anglo-Saxon Times to 1900


Wiley B. Sanders - 1969
    A collection of readings on juvenile crime and 'delinquency' from Anglo-Saxon times to 1900, includes material on lewd ballads, prostitution, murder, sale of obscene books to juveniles and really all kinds of material you've probably never even thought of pertaining to children and their corruption!