Penguin Classics: Crime & Thriller

A handpicked selection of novels featuring Simenon's legendary literary detective, Inspector Maigret, with striking new covers. The Carter of La Providence opens with Inspector Maigret standing in the pouring rain by a canal near the town of Épernay. A well-dressed woman, Mary Lampson, has been found strangled in a stable nearby. Why did her glamorous, hedonistic life come to such...

A wild and wildly compelling noir novel about a train crash and a case of mistaken identity. What if you woke up to discover everyone thought you were somebody else? Pregnant and abandoned, all Helen Georgesson has is five dollars and a one-way ticket to San Francisco. Then she is involved in a train crash, and regains consciousness only to...

A handpicked selection of novels featuring Simenon's legendary literary detective, Inspector Maigret, with striking new covers. Inspector Maigret finds himself back on Paris's Rue des Acacias just ten days after cracking another case there. This time it is the murder of a gangster he has known for over twenty years—one he always suspected was behind a string of jewellery robberies...

A handpicked selection of novels featuring Simenon's legendary literary detective, Inspector Maigret, with striking new covers. Maigret's Holiday begins with Inspector Maigret's wife falling ill during their seaside holiday at Les Sables-d'Olonne. When he visits her in the hospital, he receives a strange note instructing him to see a patient in another ward. Soon, he finds himself unexpectedly drawn into...

A handpicked selection of novels featuring Simenon's legendary literary detective, Inspector Maigret, with striking new covers. Inspector Maigret is known for his infallible instinct, for getting at the truth no matter how complex the case. However, when someone starts killing women on the streets of Montmartre, he finds himself confounded. In the sweltering Paris summer heat, with the city in...

A handpicked selection of novels featuring Simenon's legendary literary detective, Inspector Maigret, with striking new covers. Xavier Manto, a mild-mannered toy salesman from a Paris department store, has come to confide his secret fears to Inspector Maigret—he suspects his wife is plotting to poison him. Then when Maigret receives a visit from Madame Manton on the same day, he is...

A handpicked selection of novels featuring Simenon's legendary literary detective, Inspector Maigret, with striking new covers. It seems like a hoax when Inspector Maigret receives a series of strange phone calls from a terrified man claiming he is being followed - and that his life is at risk. But that night, the man is found dead in the Place de...

A handpicked selection of novels featuring Simenon's legendary literary detective, Inspector Maigret, with striking new covers. Inspector Maigret and his wife take a much-needed rest cure in the spa town of Vichy, where they quickly become used to the leisurely pace of life. But when a woman whom they regularly pass by on their daily strolls is murdered, Maigret can't...

A handpicked selection of novels featuring Simenon's legendary literary detective, Inspector Maigret, with striking new covers. For the first time in his career, Inspector Maigret receives a written summons to the Prefect's office, where he is shocked to discover himself accused of a crime. With his career and reputation on the line, Maigret must fight to prove his innocence. Has...

A handpicked selection of novels featuring Simenon's legendary literary detective, Inspector Maigret, with striking new covers. Maigret and the Old People follows Inspector Maigret as he is called to the home of the Comte de Saint-Hilaire, a highly respected official who has been found shot dead in the study of his elegant Parisian home. The violent death of this distinguished...

A handpicked selection of novels featuring Simenon's legendary literary detective, Inspector Maigret, with striking new covers. Inspector Maigret is supposed to be working to stop the gangs of robbers terrorising Paris, but then a body is found, dumped in the Bois de Boulogne. It turns out to be a quiet, likeable burglar he has known for years, and for whom...

A gripping tale of adultery and murder served hard-boiled. When Maude Slocum—beautiful, frightened and angry—comes to Lew Archer's office with a poison pen letter intended for her husband, he reluctantly agrees to help her. As he follows the Slocums around, Archer finds that Mrs. Slocum might have the least of the family's troubles—her teenage daughter is desolate, her husband is...

SS-GB is a chilling alternative history in which the Nazis have conquered Britain, now featured in the iconic Penguin Crime series. It is 1941, and Germany has won the war. Britain is occupied, Churchill executed, and the King imprisoned in the Tower of London. At Scotland Yard, Detective Inspector Archer tries to do his job and keep his head down....

Inspector Maigret investigates a case of deception in an isolated community. Maigret has been interrogating Carl Andersen for seventeen hours without a confession. He's either innocent or a very good liar. So why was the body of a diamond merchant found at his isolated mansion? Why is his sister always shut away in her room? And why does everyone at...

One of the great chase stories—Nazi agents will stop at nothing to kill a British weapons expert on his long, fraught journey home from Istanbul. It is 1940 and Mr Graham, a quietly-spoken engineer and arms expert, has just finished high-level talks with the Turkish government. And now somebody wants him dead. The previous night, three shots were fired at...

A chilling, stylish piece of LA noir After the war, cynical veteran Dix Steele has moved to L.A., a city terrified by a strangler preying on young women. Bumping into an old friend, now a detective working on the case, Dix is thrilled by closely following the progress of the police. Meeting his new neighbour, sultry and beautiful actress Laurel...

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy finds George Smiley facing his greatest challenge yet: unmasking a Soviet double agent at the heart of the British establishment. George Smiley, a troubled man of infinite compassion, is also a single-mindedly ruthless adversary as a spy. The scene he enters is a Cold War landscape of moles and lamplighters, scalp-hunters and pavement artists, where men...

Penguin Classics relaunch The Moonstone, a priceless yellow diamond, is looted from an Indian temple and maliciously bequeathed to Rachel Verinder. On her eighteenth birthday, her friend and suitor Franklin Blake brings the gift to her. That very night, it is stolen again. No one is above suspicion, as the idiosyncratic Sergeant Cuff and Franklin piece together a puzzling series...

An English novelist uncovers a trail of crime in Istanbul - and all roads lead to the mysterious master criminal Dimitrios. English crime novelist Charles Latimer is travelling in Istanbul when he makes the acquaintance of Turkish police inspector Colonel Haki. It is from him that he first hears of the mysterious Dimitrios - an infamous master criminal, long wanted...

Beautifully designed, clothbound edition Part of Penguin's beautiful hardback Clothbound Classics series, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith, these delectable and collectible editions are bound in high-quality colourful, tactile cloth with foil stamped into the design. The terrible spectacle of the beast, the fog of the moor, the discovery of a body — this classic horror story pits detective against...

As we publish all of le Carré's work for the first time, a special look for the books featuring his iconic character, George Smiley. The Honourable Schoolboy is the sixth Smiley novel, where George Smiley, now chief of the battered British Secret Service, seeks revenge for the betrayals of a Soviet double agent.

One of the great country house detective novels, entertaining and ingenious. Marion Sharpe and her mother are quiet and ordinary villagers, enjoying a peaceful life in their country home, the Franchise. Everything changes when a local schoolgirl accuses them of kidnap and abuse, describing the attic room of the house as her prison. Scotland Yard inspector Alan Grant is called...

A new selection of the much-loved Father Brown stories, now part of the Penguin English Library. 'No man's really any good till he knows how bad he is, or might be' Shabby and lumbering, with a face like a Norfolk dumpling, Father Brown makes for an improbable super-sleuth. But his innocence is the secret of his success – refusing the...

An imposter has a fortune to win and his life to lose in this gripping country house mystery. A stranger enters the Ashby family home posing as Patrick Ashby, the heir to the family's sizeable fortune. The stranger, Brat Farrar, has been carefully coached on Patrick's mannerisms, appearance, and every significant detail of Patrick's early life, up to his thirteenth...

Arsène Lupin, Gentleman-Thief is the inspiration for the new Netflix series, Lupin, starring Omar Sy. A curated collection of the very best adventures of Arsène Lupin, France's most famous gentleman thief. The poor and the innocent have nothing to fear from Lupin; often they profit from his spontaneous generosity. The rich and powerful, and the detective who tries to spoil...

A hardback series for le Carré collectors. Stella Rode has twice disturbed the ancient cloisters of Carne School—firstly by being the wrong sort, with her doyleys and china ducks, and secondly by being murdered. George Smiley, who has his own connection with the school, is asked by an old Service friend to investigate. As Smiley probes further beneath Carne's respectable...

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books Maigret moved slowly, edging his bulky frame through the throng in Rue Saint-Antoine, which burst into life every morning, the sunshine streaming down from a clear sky onto the little barrows piled high with fruit and vegetables. In these three tales of deception, set in and around Paris, Simenon's celebrated detective...

A detective novelist searches for an elusive rival writer, in this classic work of Japanese crime fiction. A reclusive writer of detective stories, Oe Shundei, has gone missing, leaving behind a suspicious trail of blackmailing letters to a former lover. Another detective novelist, his rival, is the only one who can find him. A sequence of macabre and appalling events...

The final novel featuring Bernard Samson, one of Deighton's most enduring characters, who must return to Berlin for one last case. Bernard Samson returns to Berlin in the final novel in the classic spy trilogy, Faith, Hope and Charity. Bernard continues to chip away at the mystery of his sister-in-law Tessa Kosinski's death in Berlin on the crucial night when...

A rediscovered diabolical slice of great American noir. The Night of the Hunter is one of the great chase novels, centred on the ferocious, unforgettable figure of Preacher, a psychopath who relentlessly pursues two children who may or may not know the secret of where the money from a bank raid is hidden. Set in a brilliantly rendered Depression-era American...

Controversial and compelling, In Cold Blood reconstructs the murder in 1959 of a Kansas farmer, his wife and both their children. Truman Capote's comprehensive study of the killings and subsequent investigation explores the circumstances surrounding this terrible crime and the effect it had on those involved. At the centre of his study are the amoral young killers Perry Smith and...

A beautiful clothbound edition featuring some of the famous detective's most famous cases. Part of Penguin's beautiful hardback Clothbound Classics series, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith, these delectable and collectible editions are bound in high-quality, colourful, tactile cloth with foil stamped into the design. This collection includes many of the famous cases - and great strokes of brilliance -...

A perfectly plotted, cosy detective story from Seicho Matsumoto, Japan's master of mystery. In a rocky cove in the bay of Hakata, the bodies of a young and beautiful couple are discovered. Standing in the coast's wind and cold, the police see nothing to investigate—the flush of the couple's cheeks speaks clearly of cyanide, of a lovers' suicide. But in...

A beautifully designed new Clothbound Classic of le Carré's masterpiece, published to celebrate the novel's 50th anniversary. A mole, implanted by Moscow Centre, has infiltrated the highest ranks of the British Intelligence Service, almost destroying it in the process. And so former spymaster George Smiley has been brought out of retirement in order to hunt down the traitor at the...

From the best-selling author of Tokyo Express, a chilling tale where Japanese tradition and Western crime collide - now available in English for the first time. Musashino, 1959. A young Japanese flight attendant is found strangled on the icy banks of the river. The police suspect foul play - but the deeper they dig, the more they collide with a...

Penguin Modern Hardbacks — a new series of iconic works from the Modern Classics list with bold, mid-century-inspired cover designs. Controversial and compelling, In Cold Blood reconstructs the murder in 1959 of a Kansas farmer, his wife and both their children. Truman Capote's comprehensive study of the killings and subsequent investigation explores the circumstances surrounding this terrible crime and the...

A biting psychological thriller from the best-selling author of Tokyo Express, now available in English for the first time Onizuka Kumako is a fierce woman- tall, beautiful, and not afraid to speak her mind. In Tokyo bars, she seduces customers and commits petty crime, using her connections to the local yakuza to get by. When she meets Shirakawa Fukutaro, a...

Maigret is confronted with the full hostility of the petite bourgeoisie in book twenty-six of the series. All that was still unclear, for sure. Ernest Malik had been right when he had looked at Maigret with a smile that was a mixture of sarcasm and contempt. This wasn't a case for him. He was out of his depth. This world...

A Quiet Place, described as a thrillingly dark novel from 'Japan's Agatha Christie' by The Sunday Times, unravels a mysterious and unsettling tale. While on a business trip to Kobe, Tsuneo Asai receives the distressing news that his wife Eiko has died of a heart attack. Despite Eiko's known heart condition, which made her death somewhat expectable, the circumstances leave...

The British Secret Service turns its attention to a linguistic prodigy in the Congo in this espionage thriller, now available in a giftable hardback series. At a top-secret meeting between Western financiers and Congolese warlords, an interpreter finds his conscience re-awakening. Bruno Salvador has worked on clandestine missions before. A highly skilled interpreter, he is no stranger to the Official...

A complex, psychological novel about familial loyalty, now publishing in gift hardback. A corporate lawyer from the House of Single & Single is shot dead in cold blood on a Turkish hillside. A children's entertainer in Devon is hauled to his local bank late at night to explain a monumental influx of cash. A Russian freighter is arrested in the...

As we publish all of le Carré's work for the first time, a special look for the books featuring his iconic character, George Smiley. A department of ageing British spies will break any rule for the glory of launching a secret agent into communist East Germany, in the fourth novel featuring George Smiley. The Looking Glass War dives into the...

A special look for the books featuring his iconic character, George Smiley. After a routine security check by George Smiley, civil servant Samuel Fennan apparently kills himself. When Smiley finds Circus head Maston is trying to blame him for the man's death, he begins his own investigation, meeting with Fennan's widow to find out what could have led him to...

A beautiful 60th anniversary special edition of the novel that introduced the world to George Smiley, now with a new introduction by John le Carré. After a routine security check by George Smiley, civil servant Samuel Fennan apparently kills himself. When Smiley finds Circus head Maston is trying to blame him for the man's death, he begins his own investigation,...

First paperback publication of the legendary collaboration between William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, a hard-boiled crime novel about a shocking murder at the dawn of the Beat Generation. In 1944, Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs were charged as accessories to murder. One of their friends, Lucien Carr, had stabbed another, David Kammerer. Carr had come to each of...

A new translation of this atmospheric novel set in the squalid streets of Paris, part of the new Maigret series. The Czech was warming up, though in a quiet, almost dull way that was characteristic of the man. Out of the corner of his eye, Maigret noticed his hands, long hands, astonishingly white and slightly freckled. They seemed to warm...

A thrilling crime classic, from the bestselling author of Tokyo Express. Tokyo, 1960. As the first rays of morning light hit the rails at Kamata Station, a man's body is found on the tracks. With only two leads - a distinctive accent and a single word, 'kameda' - senior inspector Imanishi Eitaro is called in to solve the puzzle. Setting...

Maigret's Memoirs takes over as author and gives a rare glimpse into the legendary character's psyche. I can still see Simenon coming into my office the next day, pleased with himself, displaying even more self-confidence, if possible, than before, but nevertheless with a touch of anxiety in his eyes . . . He trumpeted these last words as if they...

Maigret's Failure delves into a complex intertwining of duty and personal history as Maigret's integrity is put to the test. Charged with the protection of a wealthy butcher named Fumal, Maigret finds himself conflicted between his professional duty and a childhood grudge that resurfaces unexpectedly. The tension escalates when Fumal is viciously murdered, compelling Maigret to set aside his personal...

The final spy novel featuring the unnamed hero of The IPCRESS File series finds him up against a Texan billionaire with an all-powerful computer. Texan billionaire General Midwinter will stop at nothing to bring down the USSR—even if it puts the whole world at risk. The fourth and final novel featuring the cynical, insolent narrator of The IPCRESS File sees...

In Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, John le Carré masterfully crafts a tale of espionage and intrigue set against the dark and shadowy backdrop of the Cold War. With unparalleled skill, le Carré draws readers into the labyrinthine world of British Intelligence, known as "The Circus." The seasoned and much-revered intelligence officer George Smiley is called out of bitter retirement for...

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le Carré is a gripping, intense novel set against the backdrop of the Cold War. The story follows Alec Leamas, a British intelligence officer, who has just witnessed the collapse of his East Berlin espionage network. Facing the demoralising prospect of being pulled back from the field, Leamas is given...