*Crime, Spies & Sleaze: No time for love in our Books department – no bodice-ripping Regency doorstops here, thank you – but for the author Madeleine Brent, we make an exception. Because ‘Madeleine Brent was a pseudonym for Peter O’Donnell, creator of Modesty Blaise, who used a variety of aliases in his long career as a jobbing author, and where the Madeleine Brent novels stand out is that their heroines are unusually skilled, preternaturally gifted, physically courageous, or all three. These tightly-plotted stories all have a strong adventurous/suspense  component, and it’s easy to imagine – if you have the Phillip Jose Farmer mindset of wanting to connect all the fictional realms – that Madeleine Brent heroines are ancestresses of the mysterious Modesty! From the boomerang-throwing Mitjikwin of “Golden Urchin” to the heiress-turned-music hall performer Bridie Chance of “Capricorn Stone”, these ladies are independent, intelligent, and highly entertaining.  We have five of the nine Brent novels available from a variety of publishers and in varying condition, so if we’ve managed to pique your curiosity, now’s a good time to try!