Secondhand Crime & Thriller Fiction Bargain Book Box SP2934

Secondhand Crime & Thriller Fiction Bargain Book Box SP2934

This box opens with six Perry Mason cases from Erle Stanley Gardner — the Golden Age courtroom whodunit machine at full tilt — before widening into Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series, le Carré's Cold War espionage, Fleming's Bond, and Forsyth at his tightest. A box for readers who like their crime fast, their plots ingenious, and their heroes unflappable.

1. Psycho — Robert Bloch — The original novel behind Hitchcock's most iconic film: a shy motel keeper, his domineering mother, and a traveller who should never have stopped for the night.
2. The Case of the Hesitant Hostess — Erle Stanley Gardner — Perry Mason defends a hostess whose reluctance to explain herself is masking a secret that could get her killed before the verdict is reached.
3. The Case of the Horrified Heirs — Erle Stanley Gardner — A contested will, heirs who seem more relieved than grief-stricken, and Mason pulling apart the prosecution's logic piece by piece in the courtroom.
4. The Case of the Silent Partner — Erle Stanley Gardner — A business partnership turns deadly, and the one partner no one will discuss becomes the key to Mason's entire defence.
5. The Case of the Negligent Nymph — Erle Stanley Gardner — A woman swims ashore from a burning yacht and refuses to explain why — Mason's instinct that she's protecting someone proves correct in the worst possible way.
6. The Case of the Shapely Shadow — Erle Stanley Gardner — A silhouette on a window blind is the only witness testimony available; Mason has to build an entire defence from a single shadow.
7. The Case of the Calendar Girl — Erle Stanley Gardner — A model, a missing appointment, and a murder that only makes sense once Mason unravels what was on the calendar.
8. Hard News — James Long — A journalist uncovers a conspiracy that reaches far higher than any editor would dare publish — a tense political thriller with real teeth.
9. Borrowed Time — Robert Goddard — A man investigating his friend's apparent suicide finds himself unwinding a decades-old deception that was never meant to surface. Goddard's intricate plotting at its best.
10. Shadows in the Cotswolds — Rebecca Tope — An unassuming sheep farmer is found dead in a village that seems far too peaceful for coincidence — Tope's Cotswolds series at its most understated and unsettling.
11. Three to Get Deadly — Janet Evanovich — Stephanie Plum is chasing a saintly old candy-store owner who's skipped bail — until bodies start turning up and the case gets considerably less sweet.
12. Two for the Dough — Janet Evanovich — Stephanie's second outing: a dead body, a missing shipment of coffins, and a dangerous skip who makes everyone around him regret answering the phone.
13. Killer Smile — Lisa Scottoline — A lawyer investigating a WWII-era Italian-American internment case uncovers a connection to a present-day murder. Scottoline at her most historically grounded.
14. The Shepherd / The Odessa File — Frederick Forsyth — Two Forsyth classics bound together: the eerie Cold War aviation ghost story "The Shepherd," and the relentless hunt for a Nazi war criminal in post-war Germany.
15. Power Failure — Alex Thurstan Kray — A plot to destabilise Britain from within, and only one man standing between the conspirators and a revolution.
16. Force 10 from Navarone — Alistair MacLean — The sequel sends Mallory and Miller behind enemy lines in Yugoslavia on a mission that seems impossible even by their own ruthless standards.
17. Smiley's People — John le Carré — George Smiley comes out of retirement for one final operation against Karla, the Soviet spymaster who has haunted him for a decade. One of le Carré's finest.
18. No Comebacks — Frederick Forsyth — Ten short stories, each built on a twist of fate: men who plan perfectly and lose anyway. Forsyth's darkest irony, concentrated into a short form.
19. The Spy Who Loved Me — Ian Fleming — Bond narrated entirely through the eyes of Vivienne Michel, a young woman who encounters him during a dangerous night in an Adirondacks motel. The most unconventional novel in the series.
20. Octopussy — Ian Fleming — Two Bond novellas: "Octopussy," in which Bond confronts a retired soldier living off stolen Nazi gold, and "The Living Daylights," a quiet, tense story built around a single sniper shot.
21. Sea Lord — Bernard Cornwell — Described by the Sunday Express as "a rip-roaring force-nine thriller": Cornwell applies his talent for pace and suspense to a maritime setting, where a race at sea conceals a secret worth killing for.