Books like 'Phantom Lady'
Readers who enjoyed Phantom Lady by William Irish & Cornell Woolrich also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical mystery 20th century thriller noir crime classics suspense whodunit investigator
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Later Novels and Other Writings: The Lady in the Lake / The Little Sister / The Long Goodbye / Playback / Double Indemnity (screenplay) / Selected Essays and Letters by Raymond Chandler
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsWith humor, along with an unerring sense of dialogue and the telling details of dress and behavior, Raymond Chandler created a distinctive fictional universe out of the dark side of sunlit Los Angeles. In the process, he transformed both crime writing and the American language.Written during the war, The Lady in the Lake (1943) takes Philip Marlowe out of the seamy L.A... -
![Complete Novels: Red Harvest / The Dain Curse / The Maltese Falcon / The Glass Key / The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett]()
Complete Novels: Red Harvest / The Dain Curse / The Maltese Falcon / The Glass Key / The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsComplete in one volume, the five books that created the modern American crime novelIn a few years of extraordinary creative energy, Dashiell Hammett invented the modern American crime novel... -
![Lord Peter by Dorothy L. Sayers]()
Lord Peter by Dorothy L. Sayers
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsAll the Lord Peter Wimsey stories are here, in a single volume, including the one about Harriet, Peter and their three... -
![The Maltese Falcon, The Thin Man, Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett]()
The Maltese Falcon, The Thin Man, Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratings(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed)The three classic novels published here in one volume are rich with the crisp prose, subtle characters, and intricate plots that made Dashiell Hammett one of the most admired writers of the twentieth century. A one-time detective and a master of deft understatement, Hammett virtually invented the hard-boiled crime novel... -
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![The Doorbell Rang by Rex Stout]()
The Doorbell Rang by Rex Stout
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsHired to help society widow Rachel Bruner foil bothersome Feds, Nero Wolfe and his able assistant Archie get in over their heads with highly trained G-men who are adept at bugs, tails, and threats... -
![The Nero Wolfe Mystery Series: The Zeck Trilogy: And Be a Villain, The Second Confession, In the Best Families by Rex Stout]()
The Nero Wolfe Mystery Series: The Zeck Trilogy: And Be a Villain, The Second Confession, In the Best Families by Rex Stout
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe perfect introduction to crime fiction’s greatest armchair detective: three mysteries featuring Nero Wolfe and his nemesis, gangland kingpin Arnold Zeck . . .AND BE A VILLAINTHE SECOND CONFESSIONIN THE BEST FAMILIES A guest on a radio talk show drops dead on-air after drinking a glass of a sponsor’s beverage... -
![Sunset Express by Robert Crais]()
Sunset Express by Robert Crais
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsProminent restaurateur Teddy Martin is facing charges in his wife’s brutal murder. But he’s not going down without spending a bundle of cash on his defense. So his hotshot attorney hires P.I. Elvis Cole to find proof that Detective Angela Rossi tampered with the evidence. Rossi needs a way back to the fast track after falling hard during an internal investigation five years ago... -
![The Big Knockover: Selected Stories and Short Novels by Dashiell Hammett]()
The Big Knockover: Selected Stories and Short Novels by Dashiell Hammett
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsHammett's continental op - tough, tired, intelligent, a snap-brimmed Sir Galahad with a Browning - was the prototype for a whole new tradition of private eye thrillers.Here are ten of his classic suspense stories from the twenties and thirties - selected and introduced by Lillian Hellman... -
![The Simple Art of Murder by Raymond Chandler]()
The Simple Art of Murder by Raymond Chandler
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsContains Chandler's essay on the art of detective stories and a collection of 8 classic Chandler mysteries... -
![The Continental Op by Dashiell Hammett]()
The Continental Op by Dashiell Hammett
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsDashiell Hammett is the true inventor of modern detective fiction and the creator of the private eye, the isolated hero in a world where treachery is the norm... -
![A Family Affair by Rex Stout]()
A Family Affair by Rex Stout
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWhen a bomb kills his favorite waiter from his favorite restaurant, sedentary sleuth and gourmand Nero Wolfe is determined to go to any length to find the killer... -
![Prisoner's Base by Rex Stout]()
Prisoner's Base by Rex Stout
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsHours after Priscilla Eads pleads with him to take her case, Nero Wolfe is shocked to find out that she was murdered, and soon he is investigating her fortune-hunting husband and greedy business associates... -
![And Be a Villain by Rex Stout]()
And Be a Villain by Rex Stout
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsRadio talk show host Madeline Fraser's worst nightmare comes true when one of her on-air guests collapses at the mike after drinking a glass of the sponsor's beverage... -
![Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler]()
Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsMarlowe's about to give up on a completely routine case when he finds himself in the wrong place at the right time to get caught up in a murder that leads to a ring of jewel thieves, another murder, a fortune-teller, a couple more murders, and more corruption than your average graveyard... -
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![Selected Novels and Short Stories by Patricia Highsmith]()
Selected Novels and Short Stories by Patricia Highsmith
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsPatricia Highsmith's dark talents, obsessive interest in love and murder, and macabre sensibility produced some of the most influential and deeply unsettling fiction of the twentieth century. For the reader uninitiated in the deadly world of her canon, this collection offers the first serious introduction to her remarkable range and psychological insight... -
![Deadly Pleasure by Brenda Joyce]()
Deadly Pleasure by Brenda Joyce
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsBrenda Joyce has enthralled millions of readers with her New York Times bestselling novels. Now, join us in the next chapter of her unforgettable storytelling: the Francesca Cahill novels. Step into the glittering world of New York City's high society at the turn of the last century, where murder and pleasure are one and the same, and love becomes the ultimate weapon.. -
![Three for the Chair by Rex Stout]()
Three for the Chair by Rex Stout
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAn alternate cover of this ISBN can be found here.One thing is certain to distract Nero Wolfe from his culinary and horticultural pursuits: murder. This time Wolfe and his able assistant, Archie Goodwin, are put in the hot seat when they are called upon to investigate three different murders... -
![The Zebra-Striped Hearse by Ross Macdonald]()
The Zebra-Striped Hearse by Ross Macdonald
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsStrictly speaking, Lew Archer is only supposed to dig up the dirt on a rich man's suspicious soon-to-be son-in-law. But in no time at all Archer is following a trail of corpses from the citrus belt to Mazatlan... -
![Three at Wolfe's Door by Rex Stout, Michael Prichard]()
Three at Wolfe's Door by Rex Stout, Michael Prichard
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsDeath comes a-calling not once but three times in this murderous collection of cases from the files of the world's greatest detective. First there is the exclusive dinner party where the guests are gourmets, arsenic is the appetizer, and the suspects are five of the most gorgeous gals in New York. Next, a wandering cab pulls up to Wolfe's door, containing a lady driver who doesn't belong.. -
![The Best American Noir Of The Century by Otto Penzler, James Ellroy]()
The Best American Noir Of The Century by Otto Penzler, James Ellroy
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIn his introduction, James Ellroy writes, "Noir is the most scrutinized offshoot of the hard-boiled school of fiction…It's the nightmare of flawed souls with big dreams and the precise how and why of the all-time sure thing that goes bad."Ellroy & Penzler mined the past century to find this treasure trove of thirty-nine stories... -
![Bright Orange for the Shroud by John D. MacDonald]()
Bright Orange for the Shroud by John D. MacDonald
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsTravis McGee is looking forward to a "slob summer," spending his days as far away from danger as possible. But trouble has a way of finding him, no matter where he hides. An old friend, conned out of his life savings by his ex-wife, has tracked him down and is desperate for help... -
![The Galton Case by Ross Macdonald]()
The Galton Case by Ross Macdonald
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsAlmost twenty years have passed since Anthony Galton disappeared, along with a suspiciously streetwise bride and several thousand dollars of his family's fortune. Now Anthony's mother wants him back and has hired Lew Archer to find him. What turns up is a headless skeleton, a boy who claims to be Galton's son, and a con game whose stakes are so high that someone is still willing to kill for them... -
![The Rubber Band by Rex Stout]()
The Rubber Band by Rex Stout
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsWhat do a Wild West lynching and a respected English nobleman have in common? On the surface, absolutely nothing. But when a young woman hires his services, it becomes Nero Wolfe’s job to look deeper and find the connection... -
![The Chill by Ross Macdonald]()
The Chill by Ross Macdonald
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIn The Chill a distraught young man hires Archer to track down his runaway bride. But no sooner has he found Dolly Kincaid than Archer finds himself entangled in two murders, one twenty years old, the other so recent that the blood is still wet... -
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![A Tan and Sandy Silence by John D. MacDonald]()
A Tan and Sandy Silence by John D. MacDonald
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsBeing accused at gunpoint of hiding another man's wife is a rude shock. But it's an even bigger shock when Travis McGee discovers that the woman in question is Mary Broll, a dear old friend. Now she's disappeared, vanished without a word to anyone... -
![Too Many Women by Rex Stout]()
Too Many Women by Rex Stout
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsCelebrated sleuth Nero Wolfe is renowned for cracking tough cases -- and never leaving his New York apartment, where he quaffs beer and cultivates orchids. For legwork, Wolfe employs a fast-talking, wisecracking assistant named Archie, who also serves as our narrator.In Too Many Women, Wolfe and Archie are charged with investigating the mysterious goings-on at a big engineering supply company... -
![The Expendable Man by Dorothy B. Hughes]()
The Expendable Man by Dorothy B. Hughes
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratings“It was surprising what old experiences remembered could do to a presumably educated, civilized man.” And Hugh Denismore, a young doctor driving his mother’s Cadillac from Los Angeles to Phoenix, is eminently educated and civilized. He is privileged, would seem to have the world at his feet, even... -
![The Girl in the Plain Brown Wrapper by John D. MacDonald]()
The Girl in the Plain Brown Wrapper by John D. MacDonald
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsWith an introduction by CARL HIAASENJOHN D. MacDONALD."..the great entertainer of our age, and a mesmerizing storyteller." --STEPHEN KING."..a master storyteller, a masterful suspense writer."--MARY HIGGINS CLARK."..a dominant influence on writers crafting the continuing series character."--SUE GRAFTON."..my favorite novelist of all time."--DEAN KOONTZ.". -
![Island of the Mad by Laurie R. King]()
Island of the Mad by Laurie R. King
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsMary Russell and Sherlock Holmes are back in the New York Times bestselling series that Lee Child called "the most sustained feat of imagination in mystery fiction today."A June summer's evening, on the Sussex Downs, in 1925... -
![Over My Dead Body by Rex Stout]()
Over My Dead Body by Rex Stout
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsWhen a Balkan beauty gets in trouble over some missing diamonds, whom else can she turn to but the world-famous Nero Wolfe? Especially since she claims to be Wolfe's long lost daughter! The stakes are suddenly raised when a student at this woman's fencing school ends up dead after a pointed lesson... -
![The League of Frightened Men by Rex Stout, Robert Goldsborough]()
The League of Frightened Men by Rex Stout, Robert Goldsborough
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA summary from the back cover:Paul Chapin's college cronies never forgave themselves for the prank that crippled their friend. Yet with Harvard days long behind them, they thought they were forgiven -- until a class reunion ends in a fatal fall (for one of them). Now this league of frightened men is desperate for Nero Wolfe's help... -
![The Golden Spiders by Rex Stout]()
The Golden Spiders by Rex Stout
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsNero Wolfe was almost as famous for his wealthy clients and extravagant fees as for his genius at detection. So why has he accepted a case for $4.30? And why have the last two people to hire him been ruthlessly murdered? Wolfe suspects the answers may lie in the story of a twelve-year-old boy who turns up at the door of his West Thirty-fifth Street Brownstone... -
![Advise and Consent by Allen Drury]()
Advise and Consent by Allen Drury
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsADVISE AND CONSENT is a study of political animals in their natural habitat and is universally recognized as THE Washington novel. It begins with Senate confirmation hearings for a liberal Secretary of State and concludes two weeks later, after debate and controversy have exploded this issue into a major crisis... -
![Trouble Is My Business by Raymond Chandler]()
Trouble Is My Business by Raymond Chandler
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsIn the four long stories in this collection, Marlowe is hired to protect a rich old guy from a gold digger, runs afoul of crooked politicos, gets a line on some stolen jewels with a reward attached, and stumbles across a murder victim who may have been an extortionist... -
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![The Lady in the Lake by Raymond Chandler]()
The Lady in the Lake by Raymond Chandler
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsA beautiful, historically accurate edition of the modern classic first published in 1943 reproduces the original and offers an alternative for those who love great old books and want to relive Philip Marlowe's strange and puzzling search for the missing woman... -
![Poirot quitte la scène by Agatha Christie]()
Poirot quitte la scène by Agatha Christie
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsArthritic and immobilized, Poirot calls on his old friend Captain Hastings to join him at Styles to be the eyes and ears that will feed observations to Poirot's still razor sharp mind. Though aware of the criminal's identity, Poirot will not reveal it to the frustrated Hastings, and dubs the nameless personage 'X'... -
![The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L. Sayers]()
The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L. Sayers
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsWhen a disfigured corpse is discovered in a country parish, the local rector pleads with Lord Peter to take on what will become one of his most brilliant and complicated cases... -
![Shadows in Bronze by Lindsey Davis]()
Shadows in Bronze by Lindsey Davis
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsCan the hero of Silver Pigs satisfy the emperor he works for and the woman he pines for without getting himself killed? With readers and critics hungry for his further adventures, Ancient Roman gumshoe Marcus Didius Falco really has no choice... -
![To Love and Be Wise by Josephine Tey]()
To Love and Be Wise by Josephine Tey
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsWhen a young strikingly handsome photographer mysteriously disappears, it's up to Inspector Alan Grant to discover whether he accidentally drowned, committed suicide, or met his death at the hands of one of his many female admirers... -
![The Singing Sands by Josephine Tey]()
The Singing Sands by Josephine Tey
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsOn sick leave from Scotland Yard, Inspector Alan Grant is planning a quiet holiday with an old school chum to recover from overwork and mental fatigue... -
![The Abominable Man by Maj Sjöwall, Per Wahlöö]()
The Abominable Man by Maj Sjöwall, Per Wahlöö
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe striking seventh novel in the Martin Beck mystery series by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, finds Beck facing one of the greatest challenges in his professional career.The gruesome murder of a police captain in his hospital room reveals the unsavory history of a man who spent forty years practicing a horrible blend of strong-arm police work and shear brutality... -
![Cop Killer by Maj Sjöwall, Per Wahlöö]()
Cop Killer by Maj Sjöwall, Per Wahlöö
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe shocking ninth novel in the Martin Beck mystery series by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö finds Beck investigating parallel cases that have shocked a small rural community. In a country town, a woman is brutally murdered and left buried in a swamp. There are two main suspects: her closest neighbor and her ex-husband... -
![The Big Blowdown by George P. Pelecanos]()
The Big Blowdown by George P. Pelecanos
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsWashington DC, 1946. For two local young men, Pete Karras and Joey Recevo, the easiest way to find work after the war is by providing a little muscle for a local boss who runs a protection racket with the Mafia. The trouble with Pete Karras is that he is just too soft on his fellow immigrants, and the last thing the boss wants is for his mob to get soft... -
![Shoot the Piano Player by David Goodis]()
Shoot the Piano Player by David Goodis
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsOnce upon a time Eddie played concert piano to reverent audiences at Carnegie Hall. Now he bangs out honky-tonk for drunks in a dive in Philadelphia. But then two people walk into Eddie's life--the first promising Eddie a future, the other dragging him back into a treacherous past... -
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![The Way Some People Die by Ross Macdonald]()
The Way Some People Die by Ross Macdonald
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIn a rundown house in Santa Monica, Mrs. Samuel Lawrence presses fifty crumpled bills into Lew Archer's hand and asks him to find her wandering daughter, Galatea. Described as ‘crazy for men’ and without discrimination, she was last seen driving off with small-time gangster Joe Tarantine, a hophead hood with a rep for violence... -
![El Martillo Azul by Ross Macdonald]()
El Martillo Azul by Ross Macdonald
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe desert air is hot with sex and betrayal, death and madness and only Archer can make sense of a killer who makes murder a work of art. Finding a purloined portrait of a leggy blonde was supposed to be an easy paycheck for Detective Lew Archer, but that was before the bodies began piling up... -
![Death Times Three by Rex Stout]()
Death Times Three by Rex Stout
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThis collection showcases Nero Wolfe’s uncanny crime-solving ability—as well as his incredible appetite—when he tackles murder three times over. Features an introduction by Rex Stout biographer John J. McAleer... -
![Ladies' Bane by Patricia Wentworth]()
Ladies' Bane by Patricia Wentworth
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsMiss Silver travels to the country to investigate a young man who may be deceiving his wifeNo one has seen Allegra Trent since she got married. Her husband swept her off her feet and out of London, to a faraway town called Bleake. She has stopped writing letters, and her family has begun to worry... -
![Safe House by Andrew Vachss]()
Safe House by Andrew Vachss
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIn Burke, Vachss gave readers of crime fiction a hero they could believe in, an avenger whose sense of justice was forged behind bars and tempered on New York's meanest streets. In this blistering new thriller, Burke is drawn into his ugliest case yet, one that involves an underground network of abused women and the sleekly ingenious stalkers who've marked them as their personal victims... -
![Poirot Investigates by Agatha Christie]()
Poirot Investigates by Agatha Christie
Rated: 3.98 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsHere is a sparkling collection of mystery gems, polished puzzlers from the pen of Agatha Christie starring the vain, eccentric and utterly brilliant Hercule Poirot.Hercule Poirot grapples with a chain of mysteries that challenge his ingenuity and display the author's wide-ranging imagination to fine effect...Categorized as:
classics crime investigator suspense whodunit thriller 20th-century action-adventure
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