{"product_id":"9781598537376","title":"Crime Novels: Five Classic Thrillers 1961-1964 (LOA #370)","description":"\u003cb\u003eIn the 1960s the masters of crime fiction expanded the genre’s literary and psychological possibilities with audacious new themes, forms, and subject matter—here are five of their finest works\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis is the first of two volumes gathering the best American crime fiction of the 1960s, nine novels of astonishing variety and inventiveness that pulse with the energies of that turbulent, transformative decade.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Murderers\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e (1961) by Fredric Brown, an out-of-work actor, hanging out with Beat drifters on the fringes of Hollywood, concocts a murder scheme that devolves into nightmare. This late work by a master in many genres is one of his darkest and most ingenious.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDan J. Marlowe’s \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Name of the Game Is Death\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e(1962) channels the inner life of a violent criminal who freely acknowledges the truth of a prison psychiatrist’s diagnosis: “Your values are not civilized values.” Written with unnerving emotional authenticity, the story hurtles toward an annihilating climax.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCharles Williams drew on his experience in the merchant marine for his thriller \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eDead Calm\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e (1963). A newlywed couple alone on a small yacht find themselves at the mercy of the mysterious survivor they have rescued from a sinking ship, in a suspenseful story that chillingly evokes the perils of the open ocean.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the beautifully told and sharply observant\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e The Expendable Man\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e (1963), Dorothy B. Hughes’s final masterpiece of suspense, a young man in the American Southwest runs afoul of racial assumptions after he picks up a hitchhiker who soon turns up dead.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn twenty-four brilliantly constructed novels, Richard Stark (a pen name of Donald Westlake) charted the career of Parker, a hard-nosed professional thief, with rigorous clarity. \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Score\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e (1964), a stand-out in the series, finds Parker and his criminal associates hatching a plot to rob simultaneously all the jewelry stores, payroll offices, and banks in a remote Western mining town, only to come up against the human limits of even the most intricate planning.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eVolume features include an introduction by editor \u003cb\u003eGeoffrey O'Brien\u003c\/b\u003e (\u003ci\u003eHardboiled America\u003c\/i\u003e), newly researched biographies of the writers and helpful notes, and an essay on textual selection.","brand":"Geoffrey O'Brien","offers":[{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":45894889078996,"sku":"9781598537376","price":54.0,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1000\/9208\/files\/BNCImageAPI_f886cb36-efc7-4f3e-9908-cc97399031f8.jpg?v=1732467903","url":"https:\/\/penguinshop.ca\/products\/9781598537376","provider":"Penguin Shop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}