The Second Murderer
  • Published: 9 July 2024
  • ISBN: 9781529920079
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 256
  • RRP: $26.00

The Second Murderer

Journey through the shadowy underbelly of 1940s LA in this new murder mystery

Formats & editions
Paperback
9 Jul 2024
Tr. Paperback
11 Jul 2023
Hardback
13 Aug 2023
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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.
  • Published: 9 July 2024
  • ISBN: 9781529920079
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 256
  • RRP: $26.00
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About the author

Denise Mina

Denise Mina is the author of the Garnethill trilogy, the Paddy Meehan series and the Alex Morrow series. 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.

portrait photo of Denise Mina

Also by Denise Mina

Garnethill
Confidence
The Less Dead
Conviction
The Long Drop
Resolution
The Dead Hour
See all

Praise for The Second Murderer

Denise Mina is crime writing royalty

Val McDermid

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

Denise Mina brilliantly manages to be funny, heart-wrenching, gut-punching and addictive all at once

Nicci French

One of the most talented, most daring, most humane writers of the past twenty years

A.J. Finn

Mina's storytelling is always vivid and exciting

Spectator

The Second Murderer, is a pitch perfect, cinematic homage to the master of noir crime fiction, Raymond Chandler, and his timeless hero, Philip Marlowe. Using whip-smart dialogue, and lush, sensual descriptions of the City of Angels, from Skid Row to the mansions of Beverly Hills, Mina's Marlowe faces danger at every turn, with wit, compassion, and bourbon-proof smarts. I loved this book!

Kathleen Kent, author of The Dime

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 an even better writer than Raymond Chandler. She's also a one-of-a-kind storyteller. I'll leave it at that

James Patterson

What a pleasure to read my beloved Philip Marlowe as imagined by one of my favourite working crime writers. Denise Mina has the vision, wit, and soul to bring Marlowe and the Los Angeles of our noir dreams glimmering darkly to life

Steph Cha, author of Your House Will Pay

A gripping and slick detective thriller

Sunday Express

Gives us the LA gumshow at the height of his powers. There are sizzling one-liners, hard-boiled philosophy via the bottom of a bottle of rye and a seen-it-all humanity that expands on the original

The Oldie

Mina remains true to Chandler's tone and to Marlowe's character... highly recommended

Guardian

The plot, tone and characterisation are pitch perfect

Critic

The one-liners zing, the plot is satisfyingly bamboozling

Daily Express, *Books of the Year*

Denise Mina is crime writing royalty

Val McDermid