The Second Murderer: Journey through the shadowy underbelly of 1940s LA in this new murder mystery

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Denise Mina reimagines Raymond Chandler's famed and troubled detective Philip Marlowe in this gritty thriller set in 1940s Los Angeles "This is Marlowe." "Mr. Philip Marlowe" She asked. I glanced at the clock. It was exactly eleven am, as if she had been waiting by the phone for an appointed hour, following someone else's orders to the letter. "What, d'you think we're a troupe of brothers There is only me." It's mid-September, a heatwave has descended on the parched hills of LA and Private Detective Philip Marlowe is called to the Montgomery estate, an almost mythic place sitting high on top of Beverly Hills. Wealthy twenty-two-year-old Chrissie Montgomery, set to inherit an enormous fortune, is missing. She's a walking target, ripe for someone to get their claws into. Her dying father, along with his sultry bottle blonde girlfriend, wants her found before that happens. They've hired Anna Riorden, Marlowe's nemesis, too. The search takes them to the roughest neighbourhoods of LA through dive bars and Skid Row. And that's before he finds the body at The Brody Hotel. Who will get to her first, Marlowe, Anne, or the men chasing her fortune And does she want to be found Discover the rest of the inimitable Philip Marlowe series - nine classic Chandler adventures, from The Big Sleep to The Long Goodbye, available now in paperback and eBook from Penguin Books.

Reviews

Denise Mina is an even better writer than Raymond Chandler. She's also a one-of-a-kind storyteller. I'll leave it at that * James Patterson *
Denise Mina is crime writing royalty * Val McDermid *
Mina successfully emulates the language and tone of Raymond Chandler's hard-boiled novels featuring P.I. Marlowe in this terrific pastiche. Mina delivers a truly surprising plot. Noir fans will hope Mina returns to the mean streets of L.A. again soon * Publishers Weekly *
Denise Mina is the cream of the crop, an author who pushes the crime novel in new and exciting directions * Ian Rankin *
Denise Mina gets to the heart of what crime really is. You feel like you are right there, in all the dark nooks and crannies that her characters inhabit * Karin Slaughter *

Author Bio

Denise Mina is the author of the Garnethill trilogy, the Paddy Meehan series and the Alex Morrow series, as well as historical novels Rizzio and Three Fires. She has won the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award twice and was inducted into the Crime Writers' Association Hall of Fame in 2014. The Long Drop won the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Book of the Year 2017 as well as the Gordon Burn Prize and was named by The Times as one of the top ten crime novels of the decade. Conviction was the co-winner of the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Book of the Year 2019 and was selected for Reese Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine Book Club. Denise has also written plays and graphic novels, and presented television and radio programmes. She lives and works in Glasgow.