Penguin Classics Crime and Espionage for 2026

Publishing through 2026, the Penguin Classics Crime and Espionage series brings together landmark works of fiction from across the twentieth century and beyond. Highlights include Robert van Gulik’s Judge Dee mystery The Chinese Nail Murders, Dorothy B. Hughes’s noir classic Ride the Pink Horse, Robert Littell’s Cold War thriller The Amateur, and Mai Jia’s international bestseller Decoded. The list also features Giorgio Scerbanenco’s Italian noir Traitors to All, alongside Rear Window and Other Stories, a newly curated Penguin Classics selection of suspense stories by Cornell Woolrich, originally published in the 1930s and 1940s. 

The Chinese Nail Murders by Robert van Gulik (9 July 2026) First published in 1961

Judge Dee returns in one of Robert van Gulik’s strangest and most atmospheric mysteries, set far from the courtly intrigue of Tang China and deep into a ferocious northern wilderness. In a remote, freezing region, a young girl vanishes, jewels are stolen and a brutal beheading shocks the local community. As Dee pulls at the threads, the case begins to circle an unsettling local obsession, the “Seven Board”, a popular game that may be more than a harmless pastime. With its locked room ingenuity and mounting dread, the novel offers all the pleasures of classic puzzle crime while using the harsh landscape and tight knit settlements to heighten the tension. Van Gulik’s Judge Dee novels are celebrated for their vivid historical texture, and this instalment is a particularly rich example, blending clue driven plotting with an immersive sense of place and period.

About the author: Robert van Gulik (1910 to 1967) was a Dutch diplomat and a leading authority on Chinese history and culture, who lived much of his life in the Far East. He wrote sixteen Judge Dee mysteries alongside influential studies of Chinese art and music.

Ride the Pink Horse by Dorothy B. Hughes (9 July 2026) First published in 1946

A heat hazed, high pressure noir that shifts the genre out of shadowy alleyways and into the bright glare of the American Southwest. Sailor, a former gangster’s muscle, arrives from Chicago in Santa Fe during Fiesta season with revenge and money on his mind. But the city is packed, the temperature is punishing, and the forces ranged against him are both organised and unpredictable. With nowhere to stay and danger in every crowd, Sailor is pushed into a tightening web of corruption and violence, where survival depends on reading people quickly and striking first. Dorothy B. Hughes turns the usual noir palette inside out, using vivid colour and sunlight to make paranoia feel even sharper. The result is a lean, propulsive thriller that builds dread through constant motion, chance encounters and the sense that the whole town is watching.

About the author: Hughes (born Kansas City, later based in New Mexico) was a journalist and poet who became one of the key voices of American hard-boiled fiction. Several novels were adapted for film, and she was named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America.

The Amateur by Robert Littell (23 July 2026) First published in 1981

A classic Cold War thriller built on a deliciously unnerving premise: what happens when an ordinary man decides to do an extraordinary, violent thing and refuses to be stopped. Charlie Heller is a CIA cryptographer, a quiet specialist in codes and patterns, not fieldcraft. When his beloved fiancée is murdered by terrorists and his superiors choose not to pursue the killers, Heller turns his grief into purpose. He forces his way into the role of avenger, following the trail behind the Iron Curtain and stepping into a world he understands only on paper. Littell’s brilliance is in making Heller’s “amateur” status an advantage as well as a vulnerability. He does not know the rules, but he can see structures others miss, and his enemies underestimate him until it is too late. The novel moves with pace and bite, balancing tradecraft detail with mounting moral stakes, and it remains a sharp, unsettling meditation on bureaucratic cynicism and personal justice.

About the author: Robert Littell (born 1935) is a major American novelist of espionage and Cold War fiction, also known for The Company. The Amateur has been filmed twice, most recently as a major film released in April 2025.

Decoded by Mai Jia (13 August 2026) First published in China in 2002

An international bestselling spy novel that plunges into the secretive world of cryptology and the psychological cost of genius. Rong Jinzhen is a mathematical prodigy, recruited into China’s clandestine Unit 701 to crack “Code Purple”, an enemy cipher so elusive it becomes an obsession. As Jinzhen’s reputation rises, so does the pressure: the work is isolating, the stakes are national, and the line between brilliance and breakdown begins to blur. What starts as a triumph narrative becomes something darker, a descent into paranoia and mental unravelling as the act of decoding becomes a metaphor for power, secrecy and the limits of the human mind. Mai Jia writes from intimate knowledge of intelligence culture, giving the novel an unusual authenticity and a strong sense of Chinese social texture across decades. The result is both a gripping thriller and a portrait of a man consumed by the very talent that makes him indispensable. Decoded was first published in China in 2002 and became a phenomenon.

About the author: Mai Jia (pseudonym of Jiang Benhu) is one of China’s most awarded and bestselling writers, often credited as a key moderniser of Chinese espionage fiction.

Traitors to All by Giorgio Scerbanenco (3 September 2026) Originally published in Italian in 1966

A landmark of Italian noir and a defining case for Duca Lamberti, Scerbanenco’s doctor turned detective with a hard-earned moral core. One spring evening outside Milan, a Fiat carrying two passengers plunges into a canal. The deaths are initially filed as an accident, but Lamberti notices the pattern: the canal has claimed others, and the circumstances feel staged. His investigation points to a respectable lawyer with a murky history stretching back to the Second World War, and to an uncomfortable personal link, the man once shared a prison cell with Lamberti. Winner of the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière in 1968, the novel is both a razor tight mystery and a social portrait of “swinging sixties” Milan, where prosperity sits uneasily atop old wounds, compromised loyalties and opportunism. Scerbanenco’s writing is brisk, street level and unsentimental, exposing how violence and betrayal thread through every class. It is a gripping, morally charged thriller that helps explain why Scerbanenco is often called the father of Italian noir.

About the author: Born in Kiev in 1911, Scerbanenco moved to Italy young and settled in Milan as a teenager. After early romance fiction, he pioneered a distinctly Italian crime style, with many adaptations for film. He is best known for the Milan Quartet.

Rear Window and Other Stories by Cornell Woolrich (1 October 2026) Stories first appeared individually in the 1930s–1940s.

Nine superb crime stories from one of the twentieth century’s great masters of suspense and the lethal plot twist. The collection includes the tale that inspired Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window, in which an injured, housebound man becomes convinced he has witnessed a murder and must investigate without ever leaving his apartment. Elsewhere, Woolrich pushes ordinary people into extraordinary corners: an accidental killer improvises a grotesque hiding place for a body just as the landlord starts showing the room to prospective tenants; an innocent youth accused of murder flees, only to discover an unnerving talent for crime. Woolrich’s gift is acceleration: he takes a simple premise, tightens the screws with plausible obstacles, and then swivels the reader into a new, darker understanding at exactly the right moment. These stories show why he was so influential on film and fiction alike, and why his work remains a touchstone for psychological suspense. This selection follows the success of the Crime and Espionage edition of his novel I Married a Dead Man and offers an ideal entry point for new readers, while giving collectors a concentrated dose of his best short form work.

About the author: Cornell Woolrich (1903 to 1968) was a hugely admired American crime writer whose work inspired numerous films including Rear Window, Phantom Lady and The Bride Wore Black. He lived a notoriously difficult life and became a recluse in later years.

Just A Girl With a Gun Q & A with Jakubowski

AO:- Your latest book sees the return of Cornelia a hit woman whom we first encountered in a short story that was published in PARIS NOIR What made you decide to bring Cornelia back?

MJ:- Somehow Cornelia imposed herself as a haunting presence in so much of the crime fiction I have been writing since that particular anthology. On one hand I liked the character and, on the other, I paradoxically identified with her. In the words of Madame Bovary and Flaubert, ‘Cornelia, c’est moi’, even though I am naturally neither a woman or a hired killer, but I did give her traits that I have… Maniac book collecting, a complicated attitude to sex and relationships, a certain detachment that conceals a turmoil inside, tastes in music.... So she kept on reappearing in some of my other novels as a minor character several times and I pursued her ‘adventures’ in over a handful of short stories. Readers also appeared to enjoy her, so I felt it was time to ‘give’ her a book of her own.

AO:- It is pretty much clear that she is named after Cornell Woolrich whom (I know if I am not mistaken) is your favourite writer. How big an influence was Cornell Woolrich on Cornelia as a character aside from her name?

MJ:- Yes, that is indeed the case. Unlike the majority of Woolrich’s characters she is very much proactive, but she navigates in the same waters, streets and nights in a zone where doom is ever on the horizon and fate plays a large part, a demi-monde of noir and fatalism. I had to reverse engineer some of the stories in which she had appeared to avoid repetitions or contradictions and also cannibalised a few in the process, which was an interesting process.

AO:- One of the great things about Cornelia is the fact that she is a collector of books. All book collectors have at least one prized novel in their collection. Does Cornelia have one and if so which book is it and also do you

MJ:- Many of the titles she collects with the proceeds of her hits are books I either have or covet. I’ve never actually asked her if she has any favourites, but I’m sure they would align with mine. This would include first edition F. Scott Fitzgerald titles, a notorious first state advance proof of John Le Carré’s THE NIGHT MANAGER and many more. I don’t think she’s ever collected Woolrich titles, though, as that might have been incestuous, but I, of course, do. Where we do part ways is she doesn’t appear to collect crime and mystery titles like me, but I do make a reference to her owning some books I actually wrote under a pseudonym; all part of my pulling the strings behind the curtains and setting up my customary hall of mirrors. In addition, there is an anonymous writer she comes across in the interests of the plot who might or might not bear similarities to me!

AO:- Is this really Cornelia's last hurrah?

MJ:- It will be. I’ve exhausted her; I’ve exhausted myself. But I hope I’ve done her proud and over the course of JUST A GIRL WITH A GUN I’ve filled in some of the missing gaps, given her an extra human dimension although her motivations and inner life still remain shrouded in mystery and questions, which I feel is true to real life where I find it impossible to ever understand certain people/characters fully. She’s complicated, certainly not evil;, she’s both strong and weak, a mass of paradoxes. 

AO:- Where did the title JUST A GIRL WITH A GUN come from?

MJ:- It came to me out of the blue. It felt right; like the title of a song. And, ironically, gave me a chance to use the word ‘girl’ in a title, years after the time when it was so much in vogue. I enjoy being out of sync with fashion, although in this instance I also happened to be years ahead of the trend in introducing a female hitwoman, decades before Villanelle, of KILLING EVE! Also, JUST A WOMAN WITH A GUN doesn’t sound right, no?

AO:- The book cover for JUST A GIRL WITH A GUN reminds me of Edward Hopper paintings specifically the 1927 painting Automat. How important is Edward Hopper to you?

MJ:- The world of Woolrich, which Cornelia and her hapless companions inhabits is one I’ve always identified with and is very much part and parcel of Hopper’s art and its liminality; a territory of fixed characters in a city landscape at night, where colours and stances determine their fate, like flies caught in a spider’s web. I had suggested a Hopper sort of mood to the publishers when they canvased me for cover ideas, and they tried to use an actual Hopper painting, but that particular one was still in copyright and therefore financially out of reach – unlike earlier Hopper work before he moved into the waters of noir – so they came up with the clever suggestion to commission Martin Baines to do a variation on a Hopper figure in a book-ish context, which I think works very well.

AO:- Is this the end of your writing novels or will you still continue to write even if it is solely short stories? 

MJ:- Without giving away a double spoiler, it might well be. I have always found writing novels agonising, even though I’ve now given birth to 21 of the bastards. I fear age is catching up with me and neither energy nor the will is there any longer. I’m unsure if I can face writing another, with all the inner pain, sleepless nights, doubts and all that entails. Despite my deep immersion into the world of crime and mystery, my novels in the genre have always been marginal. I have no interest in whodunnits, puzzles, police procedure (indeed I have NEVER had a cop as a character, even minor…). I suppose you could call them psychological thrillers but even then, my novels have been on the outer margins of that category; they’ve never fitted in. I prefer to label them twisted love stories. And I’m not likely to change anymore! My previous two novels, respectively THE LOUISIANA REPUBLIC and THE PIPER’S DANCE were actually a dystopia (albeit with a futuristic PI) and a magical realist fantasy about the Pied Piper of Hamelin and castrating mermaids, and harked back to my early years as a writer in science fiction and fantasy, so I felt as I was about to stand down as Chair of the Crime Writers’ Association that surely what might turn out to be my final novel should be a thriller. Who knows what the future might bring? There has always been a strong element of metafiction or autofiction in my books and I’m unsure whether I could sustain another novel. I will certainly keep on writing and reviewing; in fact since completing JUST A GIRL I have penned a half dozen short stories, albeit mostly in the supernatural genre. I love writing short stories and, frankly, I think they are my best work, and it would be nice to accumulate enough new ones to fill a whole collection; all my previously uncollected ones appeared in 2022 in DEATH HAS A THOUSAND FACES, so another such volume would be great if I could come up with sufficient new material. Prior to embarking on JUST A GIRL I consulted with my agent as to which novel I should then write next as I had two other ideas, one for a mainstream historical novel about British expatriates in Paris in the 1950s, and another for a major, and also quite final, ‘big’ erotica opus. She suggested there was possibly more demand for a thriller, but should I find the courage, the time and the will to write another novel, I would opt for the latter project although both she and my own inner voice are sadly aware there is no likely demand for such a book right now, which is sad. Having said that, despite my past and reputation as a literary ‘pornographer’, I don’t think I could ever go out in public again should I ever write ‘that’ erotic book, but what a way to go! Who knows?

AO:- If any of the answers to my previous question is yes, then what are you working on at the moment that we can look forward to reading.

MJ:- A bunch of short stories are all appearing over the next few months: ‘On Our Way to the Shore’ in TERROR TALES OF THE MEDITERRANEAN, edited by Paul Finch; ‘The Book Collector’ in SOMETHING PECULIAR, GREAT BRITISH HORROR 8, edited by Steve Shaw and ‘Springtime in New Orleans’ in a limited edition collection of new stories inspired by the wonderful French writer Boris Vian from Raphus Press.

AO:- What next for Maxim Jakubowski?

MJ:- You tell me!

Just a Girl With a Gun by Maxim Jakuboswski (Telos Publishing) 1 November 2023

In the neon-lit world of seduction and secrets, Cornelia, a mesmerizing stripper, finds herself pulled into a sinister web spun by the enigmatic organization known only as ‘The Bureau’. Recruited for her hidden talents, she becomes an unlikely assassin, caught between the dance floor and a life of deadly precision. But Cornelia harbours a secret passion that sets her apart from the other killers – she has a penchant for rare books. With each mission she completes, Cornelia indulges her obsession, using her ill-gotten gains to amass a collection that becomes both her refuge and her escape. Amidst the chaos and danger, Cornelia’s path intertwines with Hopley, a fellow assassin haunted by his past. Unwittingly drawn together by their shared world of shadows, they navigate a treacherous landscape where trust is scarce, and survival is paramount. As their forbidden romance blooms amidst the darkness, Cornelia and Hopley find solace in each other’s arms, their connection a fragile thread of love against a backdrop of deceit and danger. Yet, as they delve deeper into the heart of The Bureau, they discover a haunting truth that threatens to tear them apart. In this exotic and gripping thriller, where death is a dance partner and love flickers in the shadows, Cornelia must confront her own loneliness and unravel the mysteries that surround her. Will she find redemption and a chance at a life beyond the deadly stage? Or will the sinister forces at play consume her, leaving only echoes of a lost love in their wake?

Maxim Jakubowski was for over 20 years the owner of the much missed Murder One bookshop which he owned and ran. He was also ran Crime Scene, London's Annual crime film and literary festival. He has worked for many years as an editor in publishing and he currently writes, edits and translates full-time in London where he lives. A former columnist for Time Out and The Guardian he is now a monthly book columnist for Crime Time. Maxim Jakubwoski is also a former Chair of the Crime Writers' Association of Great Britain. More information about Maxim and his work can be found on his website.

Maxim Jakubowski on Black is the Night

 

It actually began with a shot.

An imposing cathedral somewhere in the French provinces. A happy couple on the steps leaving the ceremony behind, smiles on their faces, the bride wearing the obligatory white. And then the shot breaks up the cheering crowd and the groom collapses to the floor.

It was Paris in 1968 and my first encounter with Cornell Woolrich, the week that François Truffaut's 'La Mariée Etait en Noir' opened. A film classic better known here as 'The Bride Wore Black', adapted from the unforgettable novel by Cornell Woolrich.

At first it was a little confusing as, having been brought up in France, I hadn't made the connection between Woolrich and William Irish, a pseudonym he used on a number of books and short stories, and which French publishers somehow had highlighted on the majority of his books issued there. I had probably read a number of his stories in magazines, probably those of a more supernatural bent as I was at the time more of an expert on SF &fantasy and hadn't immediately puzzled out the Irish/Woolrich connection. To this day his books are generally signed by William Irish in France. An oddity of the French publishing scene where, similarly the wonderful novels by my dear, late friend Derek Raymond, are attributed to his real name, Robin Cook (as the US writer of medical chillers is almost unknown there...).

At any rate, this was my introduction to the dark world of death, broken love and melancholy loners that is characteristic of Woolrich.

He is an author's author. The general public mostly know him because of the many film and TV adaptations: 'Phantom Lady', 'Rear Window', Mississippi Mermaid', 'I Married a Dead Man', 'Black Angel', 'Deadline at Dawn', 'Night has a Thousand Eyes', 'Union City', and over 50 others.

Flash forward 20 years and I decide to launch Black Box Thrillers, a new imprint to rediscover some of the classics of noir, much inspired by the fact that so many wonderful US authors appear to be better known in Europe and are mostly out of print in their own language. And my first choice is, naturally, Woolrich. By now I have read all his books and a good chunk of his hundreds of stories and I am not just a fan but, with my own writing hat on, heavily under his influence.

He 'talks' to me; over the gulf of years we share some of the same obsessions: the cloak of night, the breathless passage of time that none of us can halt, the seductiveness of the femme fatale who we know is bad for us but can't stop lusting after, the downbeat endings, the strong sense of despair that life sometimes throws in our path.

I have no doubt that had I not read Woolrich (and a few other noir poets of the night like Marc Behm, David Goodis and Jim Thompson) I might have not begun writing crime & mystery and remained in the SF & fantasy ghetto. So, you know who to blame!

A Sunday dim sum lunch with Nick Landau and Vivien Cheung of the Titan group and my erstwhile silent partners in Murder One saw us brainstorming ideas for some new projects for Titan Books to follow up on the anthologies I had edited for them and which had performed reasonably well. Somehow the subject of Woolrich came up in the conversation as Nick is as much of a classic film fan as I am.

There have been a spate of recent anthologies with American small presses featuring stories influenced by the music of many luminaries: Joni Mitchell, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Jimmy Buffett, etc... Lightning struck Baker Street (which is where the restaurant we were dining in was...)! Why not do the same with influential writers? We agreed on the spot Woolrich would be the first (I have since followed up with a similar book under the halo of J.G. Ballard, which will appear in 2023).

There were crime authors I knew who shared my passion for Woolrich which I approached and every single one came on board without a moment's hesitation. Then I mentioned the project on social media and was deluged by fervent expressions of interest. Some writers I would never have dreamed of contacting, others whose work does not on the surface appear to have any connection with Woolrich but were adamant in expressing how important he was for them. I had an embarrassment of potential contributors to the anthology and had to turn down so many with a heavy heart. And then there were dozens of speculative submissions; two of which actually made it into the final book.

I am absolutely delighted by the volume that came together. Truly marvellous stories, each and every one flying high under one aspect or another of the melancholy and murderous world that Cornell Woolrich created. Not imitations, but tales that are in his image, some that reflect twists on his themes, others that ingeniously transpose his world into contemporary times without losing the essential poignancy that lies at the heart of his work, every one a winner.

I have now edited, for good or worse, well over a hundred anthologies but 'Black is the Night' is undoubtedly in my Top 5.

Black is the Night edited by Maxim Maxim Jakubowski (Titan Books) Out Now

A gritty and thrilling anthology of 28 new short stories in tribute to pulp noir master, Cornell Woolrich, author of 'Rear Window' that inspired Alfred Hitchock's classic film. Featuring Neil Gaiman, Kim Newman, James Sallis, A.K. Benedict, USA Today-bestseller Samantha Lee Howe, Joe R. Lansdale and many more. An anthology of exclusive new short stories in tribute to the master of pulp era crime writing, Cornell Woolrich. Woolrich, also published as William Irish and George Hopley, stands with Raymond Chandler, Erle Stanley Gardner and Dashiell Hammett as a legend in the genre. He is a hugely influential figure for crime writers, and is also remembered through the 50+ films made from his novels and stories, including Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window, The Bride Wore Black, I Married a Dead Man, Phantom Lady, Truffaut's La Sirene du Mississippi, and Black Alibi. Collected and edited by one of the most experienced editors in the field, Maxim Jakubowski, features original work from: Neil Gaiman, Joel Lane, Joe R. Lansdale, Vaseem Khan, Brandon Barrows, Tara Moss, Kim Newman, Nick Mamatas, Mason Cross, Martin Edwards, Donna Moore, James Grady, Lavie Tidhar, Barry N. Malzberg, James Sallis, A.K. Benedict, Warren Moore, Max Decharne, Paul Di Filippo, M.W. Craven, Charles Ardai, Susi Holliday, Bill Pronzini, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Maxim Jakubowski, Joseph S. Walker, Samantha Lee Howe, O'Neil De Noux , David Quantick, Ana Teresa Pereira, William Boyle