The Second Murderer

A Philip Marlowe Novel

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By Denise Mina

Read by Scott Brick

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$24.99

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This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around August 1, 2023. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.

Philip Marlowe is on the hunt for a missing heiressand up against a rival PIin this smart and atmospheric authorized mystery from acclaimed crime writer and "one-of-a-kind storyteller" Denise Mina (James Patterson), the first woman to recreate Raymond Chandler’s infamous detective.

Has Philip Marlowe finally met his match?

It’s early fall when a heatwave descends on Los Angeles. Private Detective Philip Marlowe is called to the Montgomery estate, an almost mythic place sitting high on top of Beverly Hills. Wealthy socialite Chrissie Montgomery is missing. Young, naïve, and set to inherit an enormous fortune, she’s a walking target, ripe for someone to get their claws into. Her dying father and his sultry bottle-blonde girlfriend want her found before that happens. To make sure, they’ve got Anne Riordan—now head of her own all-female detective agency—on the case, too.
 
The search for Chrissie takes the two investigators from the Montgomery mansion to the roughest neighborhoods of LA, through dive bars and boarding houses and out to Skid Row. And that’s all before they find the body at The Brody Hotel. Who will get to Chrissie first? And what happens when a woman doesn’t want to be found?

In The Second Murderer, Denise Mina becomes the first woman to recreate Raymond Chandler’s infamous detective, delivering a clever and timely new take on Philip Marlowe, as well as a propulsive, dark, and witty mystery all its own.

  • “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 favorite 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
  • “Terrific . . . On top of nailing Chandler’s atmospherics, Mina delivers a truly surprising plot. Noir fans will hope Mina returns to the mean streets of L.A. again soon.”
    Publishers Weekly (starred review)
  • “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 and Black Wolf
  • "Playful in its early stages, as Mina cheekily piles on Marlowe’s trademark similes . . . Female-forward in all sorts of ways—quite a change of pace for the legendary gumshoe."
    Kirkus Reviews

On Sale
Aug 1, 2023
Publisher
Hachette Audio
ISBN-13
9781668625804

Denise Mina

About the Author

Denise Mina is the author of sixteen novels, including the Reese Witherspoon x Hello Sunshine Book Club pick Conviction and its sequel Confidence, as well as The Less DeadThe Long Drop—winner of the 2017 McIlvanney Prize for Scottish crime book of the year—and the Garnethill trilogy, the first installment of which won the John Creasey Memorial Award for best first crime novel, among others. Mina has twice received the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award. She lives in Glasgow.

Learn more about this author