Five Winter Reads for 2025

Selected and described by Jane McArthur

Part of our wider reading series inspired by our programme.

15 Reads series

This small selection of detective novels reflects the classic themes of influential twentieth century noir fiction writers such as Dashiell Hammett and Georges Simenon, Chester Himes, Josephine Tey and Eric Ambler, Patricia Highsmith and Maj Sjöwall & Per Wahlöö. Here too, with these five reads, the reader follows the dogged detective with a hunch, sees innocence triumph (mostly) over evil and becomes absorbed in the seedy side of the buzzing metropolis. Inspired by Fredric Jameson’s essays on Raymond Chandler, these reads have been selected not only for their literary and narrative merits but to offer different voices and cultural perspectives, reflecting the rich genre of which they are a part, whilst putting their own unique twist on the form.

A smoky black book cover with the title, “In a Lonely Place”, and author’s name, “Dorothy B. Hughes” displayed at the top. An image of a black car with lime green headlights emerges from the dark background.

Dorothy B. Hughes, In a Lonely Place, Penguin, (1947), 2023

Dix Steele, a former fighter pilot hooks up with his wartime friend Brub, now a detective on the trail of a serial killer who haunts the foggy streets, lonely beaches and movie theatres of Los Angeles in the late 1940s.

The narrative tracks the killer’s psychological state as he drifts through the city, increasingly angered by his failure to attain the wealth or possess the women he so desires and feels are his due. An indictment of the post-war promise of ease and prosperity, Hughes inverts the classic noir thriller, writing a novel that epitomises the genre, but as seen through the looking glass.

Read by Ruby, one of our Young Assistants.

A book cover with a sketched charcoal drawing as the background, depicting a shadowed man at a distance walking away out of frame, and a tall ambiguous building. White text in the top right reads, “RAYMOND CHANDLER”, “The Detections of Totality”. Lower down, the name, “FREDRIC JAMESON” is displayed.

Fredric Jameson, Raymond Chandler, The Detections of Totality, Verso Books, 2016

Fredric Jameson describes his collection of essays as ‘stereoscopic’, as the ‘essence’ of his writings on Raymond Chandler. They form a rigorous investigation or ‘detection’ of Chandler’s use of language, the role of the passing glance, the influence of radio and film upon the structure of the novels, the interplay between the objective and subjective, and Jameson’s main concern, the significance of spaces as ‘coded contexts’ by which to read the actions and attributes of his characters. Jameson discusses how these spaces reveal the boundaries between those occupied by the underclass and the privileged territories of the wealthy, and how their temporal mutation within the frame of the detective novel exposes the inequalities of the America Dream which is fuelled by this social structure.

Read by Hania, one of our Young Assistants.

A book cover with a painting of a warm-coloured interior wall with a large crack in it as the background. Large title text in the top center reads, “A Crack in the Wall”, and underneath smaller text reads, “An angry man, a body on a building site, secrets and lies in Buenos Aires are about to crack wide open…”. The author’s name, “CLAUDIA PIÑEIRO” is displayed at the bottom of the cover.

Claudia Piñeiro, A Crack in the Wall, (2009), trans. Miranda France, Bitter Lemon Press, 2013.

The problem to solve is not who or why, but rather how. How the protagonist Pablo Simó lives with the murder in which he inadvertently became entangled three years earlier. Now approaching middle age, in a stale marriage and enduring a job that is mere drudgery rather than the creative architectural practice he had envisaged as a student, Simó loses himself in his fantasies until a young woman appears asking for the whereabouts of the murder victim. Set in Buenos Aires this is a story shaped by greed and extortion in which jaded innocence finally turns the tables in a most unexpected way.

Read by Jane McArthur.

For young readers
A bright yellow book cover with a cartoon-style detective and a group of children, some peeking out from the letters of the title. The title, "EMIL AND THE DETECTIVES" is displayed in bold black letters at the top of the cover, with the name "ERICH KÄSTNER" above it.

Erich Kästner, Emil and the Detectives, trans. Eileen Hall, illustrations Walter Trier (1929), Puffin, 2015.

Emil’s grandmother and cousin wait for him as arranged beside the flower stall in Friedrichstraße railway station, but misfortune has befallen Emil during his journey from the country to Berlin and so they wait in vain. Determined to resolve his plight on his own, Emil sets out into the unknown city. Encapsulating all the elements of a good detective story: false identity, a stake out, a car chase and capture, this is a heartwarming tale of evildoing outwitted by innocence.

Read by Matthew, one of our Young Assistants.

A light grey book cover with the title, “Tokyo Express”, and author’s name, “Seichō Matsumoto” displayed at the top. In the lower centre of the cover, there is a moody black and white image of a woman gazing out a window onto train tracks.

Seicho Matsumoto, Tokyo Express (1958), trans. Jesse Kirkwood, Penguin Modern Classics, 2023.

Superficially, the evidence suggests a lovers’ suicide by cyanide on a deserted beach, yet the aging local police inspector Torigai Jutaro believes that there is more to the deaths of a businessman and his waitress companion than meets the eye.

A Tokyo police inspector investigating a government scandal follows up Jutaro’s hunch leading him to finally unravel the mysteries of the train dining car receipt for one and the significance of an eleven-minute walk between train stations as he delves into the intricacies of Japan’s railway timetables to resolve the crime.

Read by Matthew, one of our Young Assistants.