Reeled In Southend

Crossing the Lines

Following The Soldier’s Return, heralded as “a novel written in fine steel sentences and granite paragraphs” by the Washington Post, and the equally brilliant A Son of War, Melvyn Bragg brings “one of the finest sagas of postwar Britain” (London Sunday Telegraph) to a stunning conclusion. Set in the 1950s, this absorbing novel follows the intertwined fates of people crossing boundaries in their lives. Alive with a wide cast of characters, Crossing the Lines vividly portrays the spirit and atmosphere of the mid-century and the profound changes taking place at the time, in morals, religion, music, and social class. Moving and evocative, this masterly novel and the two that have preceded it are rightfully hailed as contemporary classics.

The Big Book of Reel Murders

Edgar Award-winning editor Otto Penzler's new anthology rolls out the red carpet for the stories that Hollywood is made of. A Vintage Crime/Black Lizard Original. Lights! Camera! Action! The latest book in the Big Book series takes us behind the curtain to uncover the stories that became some of the greatest films of the silver screen. There's the W. Somerset Maugham short story that inspired Hitchcock's Secret Agent; Robert Louis Stevenson's horrifying tale that was later turned into the iconic movie The Body Snatcher, starring Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff; Sir Ian Fleming's "From a View to a Kill," later one of Roger Moore's greatest Bond films; and "Cyclists' Raid," the short story that formed the basis for the legendary Brando film The Wild One. Otto Penzler delivers the director's cut on these classic short stories and the films they gave rise to. So grab your Sno-Caps and a jumbo box of popcorn and curl up with these cinematic tales from the likes of Agatha Christie, Dennis Lehane, Joyce Carol Oates, Dashiell Hammett, O. Henry, Edgar Allan Poe, and Arthur Conan Doyle.

The Foursome Reel, and Other Dances