*Crime, Spies & Sleaze: Three very different books in this category this week. comic book and science fiction writer Gardner F Fox (my favourite comic writer) contributes a tale of the high seas and the Queen of the Spanish Main. Ross MacDonald’s Lew Archer is a private eye very much in the Marlowe/Spade mould. Dacia Maraini’s barely fictionalised tale is of the life of a female Italian thief, here in a movie cover of the film version. 
PICTURED: ALL SOLD
GARDNER F FOX: MADAME BUCCANEER Fawcett Gold Medal 1953 1st US PB VG £12
ROSS MACDONALD: THE CHILL Warner 1990 1st US PB thus VG £5
DACIA MARAINI: MEMOIRS OF A FEMALE THIEF NEL 1975 1st UK PB FN £8