Houghton: 1009 books

A “gripping” collection of crime stories from the author of the acclaimed 87th Precinct novels (People).   Ed McBain’s 87th Precinct is “perhaps the finest police procedural series of all time” (Publishers Weekly). But before he turned to novels, McBain wrote short crime fiction under various...

A police detective hunts for a pattern in a puzzling murder spree in this mystery by “a master” (Time).   A blind violinist taking a smoke break. A cosmetics sales rep cooking an omelet in her own kitchen. A college professor trudging home from class. A priest contemplating retirement in the...

“A taut, elegant mystery” set against the historical backdrop of nineteenth-century Madrid (St. Louis Post-Dispatch). It is 1868; Spain teeters on the brink of revolution. Jaime Astarloa is a master fencer of the old school, priding himself on the precision, dignity, and honor of his ancient...

A mystery that offers “a gripping and richly atmospheric glimpse into the literal underworld of Victorian England—the labyrinthine London sewer system” (Publishers Weekly, starred review). Clare Clark’s critically acclaimed The Great Stink “reeks of talent” as it vividly brings...

A Russian gangster’s death draws a Spanish police detective into danger in this “exciting, morally complex series” by the author of A Small Death in Lisbon (The Washington Post). As a sweltering Seville recovers from the shock of a terrorist attack, Inspector Jefe Javier Falcón is struggling...

A Spanish detective investigates a series of grisly killings in a crime thriller that maintains “an almost unbearable pitch of excitement” (Booklist). Called to a gruesome crime scene, Inspector Javier Falcón is shocked and sickened by what he finds there. Strewn like flower petals on...

A man investigates the deaths of his fellow veterans in this “haunting and beautifully written” novel of post–World War I England (C. S. Harris, author of the Sebastian St. Cyr Mysteries). London, 1920. In the aftermath of the Great War and a devastating family tragedy, Laurence Bartram...

An inventively twisted psychological thriller from “a master of the slow build, the controlled burn” (Chicago Tribune). In the middle of the night, a man breaks into a woman’s house, finds her bedroom, and wakes her up. She’s the author who could save his soul by telling his story....

Set in a near-future Bolivia, this “hybrid of cyberpunk and political thrillers [is] sleek, brisk, and clever” (Entertainment Weekly). Set against a backdrop of advancing globalization, this award-winning, “fast-paced” literary thriller puts a cutting-edge digital spin on the age-old...

“A compelling thriller” set against the historical backdrop of Edwardian England’s railway system (Daily Mail). Assigned to drive holidaymakers to the seaside resort of Blackpool in the hot summer of 1905, Jim Stringer is happy to have left behind the grime and danger of life in London....

Winner of the National Award for Arts Writing: “If there were a course in Chelsea Hotel-iana, this would be the textbook” (The New York Times).   It’s where Dylan Thomas lived his last days, Bob Dylan wrote Blonde on Blonde, and Arthur C. Clarke wrote 2001: A Space Odyssey. It is memorialized...

This portrait of poverty-stricken Southern tenant farmers during the Great Depression has become one of the most influential books of the past century. In the summer of 1936, Pulitzer Prize–winning writer James Agee and photographer Walker Evans set out on assignment for Fortune magazine...

Learn how the crisis over digital privacy and manipulation evolved in this “utterly fascinating” look at the growth of data mining and analysis (Seattle Post-Intelligencer). Award-winning journalist Stephen Baker traces the rise of the “global math elite”: computer scientists who invent...

“Impishly witty and ingeniously irreverent” essays on topics from cell phones to librarians, by the author of The Name of the Rose and Foucault’s Pendulum (The Atlantic Monthly). A cosmopolitan curmudgeon the Los Angeles Times called “the Andy Rooney of academia”—known for both...