The Big Sleep was an instant success when first published in 1939. It centers around a paralyzed California millionaire with two psychopathic daughters; he involves Marlowe in a case of blackmail that turns into...
Charteris's own stay in the Canary Isles and his command of Spanish allow him to portray this romp around pre-war Tenerife with a wealth of entertaining detail and local colour.
Following, from Madrid via Cádiz, the lead of some stolen...
A top-ranking Iranian military official is blown up while trying to defect to the West. An investigative journalist is arrested and imprisoned for writing an article critical of the Turkish government. An Iranian nuclear scientist is assassinated...