Pretty Sinister Books

THE STORY: One evening a singer and her piano playing lover have an argument with the singer's composer husband ending in the piano p...

The crime novel plot motif of losing a corpse is often the basis for a black comedy romp. Craig Rice used this gimmick repeatedly in her nov...

True 1st US edition (Henry Holt, 1940) Every now and then a writer not primarily known for his work in crime fiction will try his or her...

Here's a book that has a unique history. It started as a French mystery called Le Repos Bacchus (1938) written by Pierre Boileau (whose...

"Love's not all that beautiful. It's a grotesque business." -- Gervais Larauch from The Prisoner Sometimes I come ...

In the opening pages of The Evil Eye nineteen year old Remy Vauberet discovers he can move his legs. A big surprise for Remy since he...

Originally published in France as Les Visages de l'Ombre (1952) translated by Geoffrey Sainsbury for Hutchinson (1955) For decades i...