The Colour of Murder

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY MARTIN EDWARDS

'One of our most ingenious and stylish home-grown crime novelists' – Spectator
'A book to delight every puzzle-suspense enthusiast' – New York Times

John Wilkins meets a beautiful, irresistible girl, and his world is turned upside down. Looking at his wife, and thinking of the girl, everything turns red before his eyes – the colour of murder.

But did he really commit the heinous crime he was accused of? Told innovatively in two parts: the psychiatric assessment of Wilkins and the trial for suspected murder on the Brighton seafront, Symons' award-winning mystery tantalizes the reader with glimpses of the elusive truth and makes a daring exploration of the nature of justice itself.

"A book to delight every puzzle-suspense enthusiast" —New York Times

"The latest reissue in the British Library's Crime Classics series comes from a writer long acknowledged as a trailblazer in psychological suspense...Symons keeps readers on their toes with his unreliable narrator and numerous misdirections, but he amply rewards us with a story that makes us think. A very welcome reissue." —Booklist (starred review)

"...Symons, whose love/hate relationship with the tropes of the classic British mystery continued throughout his long career. This time, he achieves perhaps his most successful melding of sociological analysis, golden-age whodunit tropes, and darkly satirical sendups of the very conventions he relies on to structure this unexpectedly moving tale of a deeply ordinary man all too easily moved. This perfect choice for Poisoned Pen's British Library Crime Classics series wears its 60 years with surprising lightness." —Kirkus Reviews