Best of
Detective

1939

The Big Sleep and Other Novels


Raymond Chandler - 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 detective's iconic image burns just as brightly in 'Farewell My Lovely', on the trail of a missing nightclub crooner. And the inimitable Marlowe is able to prove that trouble really is his business in Raymond Chandler's brilliant epitaph, 'The Long Goodbye'.

The Big Sleep / Farewell, My Lovely


Raymond Chandler - 1939
    Higgins wrote:  "Chandler is fun to read.  He's as bleak as tundra, and his dirtbag characters far outnumber his stellar citizens, but Philip Marlowe is a laconic tour guide through a zoo of truly interesting animals."

1930s Omnibus (The Sittaford Mystery, Why didn't they ask Evans?, And then there were none, Murder is Easy)


Agatha Christie - 1939
    The Sittaford MysteryWhy didn't they ask Evans?And then there were noneMurder is Easy

Double for Death


Rex Stout - 1939
    Tecumseh Fox thinks that he is seeing double when financier Ridley Thorpe is shot twice, two gorgeous suspects appear, two very good motives are revealed, and two murder weapons surface.

The Adventures of Hiram Holliday


Paul Gallico - 1939