The Fifth Key
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Chipped and worn with some minor damage
Pages: Tanning and foxing
In the shadowy world of post-war America, The Fifth Key plunges readers into a taut mystery where nothing is as it seems and every clue leads deeper into danger. George Harmon Coxe's seasoned protagonist, photographer-detective Jack Fenner, is drawn into a labyrinthine web of deception, murder, and hidden identities when a seemingly straightforward case spirals into a deadly pursuit across a city riddled with secrets. With sharp, hard-boiled prose and a pace that never relents, Coxe constructs a plot where five keys hold the answer to a crime that powerful people will kill to keep buried. Coxe was one of the great craftsmen of mid-century American crime fiction, and The Fifth Key stands as a masterclass in the genre — a lean, atmospheric thriller that captures the moral ambiguity and gritty realism of the noir tradition. His writing draws on the traditions of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler while forging a distinct voice that is both cinematic and deeply character-driven. Fans of classic detective fiction will find themselves gripped to the very last page, wondering which door the fifth key was ever meant to open.
Author: George Harmon Coxe
Format: Hardback
Genre: Crime fiction
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Chipped and worn with some minor damage
Pages: Tanning and foxing
In the shadowy world of post-war America, The Fifth Key plunges readers into a taut mystery where nothing is as it seems and every clue leads deeper into danger. George Harmon Coxe's seasoned protagonist, photographer-detective Jack Fenner, is drawn into a labyrinthine web of deception, murder, and hidden identities when a seemingly straightforward case spirals into a deadly pursuit across a city riddled with secrets. With sharp, hard-boiled prose and a pace that never relents, Coxe constructs a plot where five keys hold the answer to a crime that powerful people will kill to keep buried. Coxe was one of the great craftsmen of mid-century American crime fiction, and The Fifth Key stands as a masterclass in the genre — a lean, atmospheric thriller that captures the moral ambiguity and gritty realism of the noir tradition. His writing draws on the traditions of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler while forging a distinct voice that is both cinematic and deeply character-driven. Fans of classic detective fiction will find themselves gripped to the very last page, wondering which door the fifth key was ever meant to open.