Crime Novels: Four Classic Thrillers 1964-1969 (Loa #371): The Fiend / Doll / Run Man Run / The Tremor of Forgery

In the 1960s the masters of crime fiction expanded the genre’s literary and psychological possibilities with audacious new themes, forms, and subject matter--here are four of their finest works

This is the second of two volumes gathering the best American crime fiction of the 1960s, nine novels of astonishing variety and inventiveness that pulse with the energies of that turbulent, transformative decade.

In Margaret Millar’s The Fiend (1964) a nine-year-old girl disappears and a local sex offender comes under suspicion. So begins a suspenseful investigation of an apparently tranquil California suburb which will expose a hidden tangle of fear and animosity, jealousy and desperation.

Ed McBain (a pen name of Evan Hunter) pioneered the multi-protagonist police procedural in his long-running series of 87th Precinct novels, set in a parallel Manhattan called Isola. Doll (1965) opens at a pitch of extreme violence and careens with breakneck speed through a tale that mixes murder, drugs, the modeling business, and psychotherapy with the everyday professionalism of McBain’s harried cops.

The racial paranoia of a drunken police detective in Run Man Run(1966) leads to a double murder and the relentless pursuit of the young Black college student who witnessed it. In Chester Himes’s breathless narrative, New York City is a place with no safe havens for a fugitive whom no one wants to believe.

In Patricia Highsmith’s The Tremor of Forgery (1969) a man whose personality is disintegrating is writing a book called The Tremor of Forgery about a man whose personality is disintegrating, ＂like a mountain collapsing from within.＂ Stranded unexpectedly in Tunisia, Howard Ingham struggles to hold on to himself in a strange locale, while a slightly damaged typewriter may be the only trace of a killing committed almost by accident.

Volume features include an introduction by editor Geoffrey O’Brien (Hardboiled America), newly researched biographies of the writers and helpful notes, and an essay on textual selection.

Margaret Millar (1915-1994) was an American-Canadian novelist known for her suspense and mystery novels. Her work was adapted for Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Thriller. In 1965, she won the Los Angeles Times’ Woman of the Year Award; she was later named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America.

Ed McBain (1926-2005) was the pseudonym used by Evan Hunter to publish his acclaimed series of police procedure novels, the 87th Precinct series. Blackboard Jungle, a novel based on his experience teaching in at Bronx Vocational High School, became a film of the same name in 1954, and his screenplay was used for Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 film The Birds. He was nominated for multiple Edgar Allan Poe Awards and was named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America.

Chester Himes (1909-1984) was known for his hard-boiled crime fiction, most notably the nine novels in his Harlem Detective series. In addition to his crime fiction, he strongly criticized racism in America in novels like If He Hollers Let Him Go and Lonely Crusade. Born in Missouri and settling in Ohio, he began writing and publishing short stories in prison; they started to appear in Esquire by 1934. In the 1950s, he moved to Paris, where he won France’s Grand Prix de Littérature Policière in 1958.

Patricia Highsmith (1921-1995) wrote over twenty highly acclaimed novels and many short stories. Born to artists in Texas, she moved to New York City in 1927, where she later attended Barnard College. She is best known for her psychological thrillers, most notably Strangers on a Train and The Talented Mr. Ripley. Her work has been adapted numerous times, including Alfred Hitchcock’s 1951 Strangers on a Train. In 1952, she published the groundbreaking lesbian novel The Price of Salt (later retitled Carol) under the pseudonym Claire Morgan.

Geoffrey O’Brien, editor, is a poet, a widely published critic, and the author of books on crime fiction, film, music, and cultural history, including Hardboiled America, The Phantom Empire, Sonata for Jukebox, Where Did Poetry Come From: Some Early Encounters, and Arabian Nights of 1934. He was for many years editor-in-chief of Library of America.