When a middle-aged alcoholic is found brutally battered to death on a roadside in West London, the case is assigned to a tough-talking cynic from the Department of Unexplained Deaths. Our narrator must piece together the history of his blighted existence and discover the agents of its cruel end. What he doesn’t expect is that digging for the truth will demand plenty of lying.

A man’s corpse is discovered in a London warehouse, bundled into five shopping bags. Our nameless narrator from the Unexplained Deaths division of the Met is put on the case. As he probes a world of horror in South London, a terrible secret from his own past emerges, and he uncovers much more than the murderer. Derek Raymond is the father of British noir and much admired by a new generation of crime writers. He died in 1994.

“A sulphurous mixture of ferocious violence and high-fl own philosophy.”— Prospect The third novel in the acclaimed Factory crime series sees Derek Raymond’s nameless detective leave London for a remote village, where he’s meant to be investigating the disappearance of a local doctor’s wife. A fitting successor to classic noir writers such as Jim Thompson and David Goodis, with an introduction by Will Self. High-profile fans include Ian Rankin and James Sallis. Robin Cook was born in 1931. He reinvented himself as Derek Raymond and died in London in 1994.

First edition hardcover with unclipped dust jacket, in very good condition. Light shelf wear to the jacket and page block, otherwise as unread. LW

Never before available in the U.S., the final episode in the Factory Series is another unrelenting investigation with the nameless detective into the black soul of Thatcher’s England. The fifth and final book in the author’s acclaimed Factory Series was published just after Derek Raymond’s death, and so didn’t get the kind of adulatory attention the previous four titles in the series got. The book has been unavailable for so long that many of Derek Raymond’s rabid fans aren’t even aware there is a fifth book. But Dead Man Upright may be the most psychologically probing book in the series. Unlike the others, it’s not so much an investigation into the identity of a killer, but a chase to catch him before he kills again. Meanwhile, the series’ hero—the nameless Sargent from the “Unexplained Deaths” department—is facing more obstacles in the department, due to severe budget cutbacks, than he’s ever faced before. However, this time, the Sargent knows the identity of the next victim of the serial killer in question. But even the Sargent’s brutally blunt way of speaking can’t convince the besotted victim, and he’s got to convince a colleague to go against orders and join him in the attempt to catch the killer... before it’s too late. From the Trade Paperback edition.