October 11, 2011

The Return of Derek Raymond

by

The great Derek Raymond.

In the five noir masterworks that comprise Derek Raymond‘s superb Factory Series (He Died With His Eyes Open, The Devil’s Home On Leave, How The Dead Live, I Was Dora Suarez and Dead Man Upright (to be published in 2012), he created the ultimate avenging spirit. A nameless Detective Sergeant, so given over to a ruthless compassion for the downtrodden of Thatcher’s austere England that he takes only the most desperate of unexplained deaths as his case. Emotionally investing himself in both the murderer and victim, the stubborn Detective Sergeant fearlessly peers into the dark heart of humanity, eternally hunting injustice in hopes of redeeming society itself.

With the launch of the new MobyLives we will be celebrating the resurrection of this singular voice, Derek Raymond. Born Robin Cook, he was a man of many lives and endeavors, none of them commonplace and a few of them illegal, reaching his zenith in the Factory Novels now once again available in North America.

We will be sharing anecdotes from Raymond’s friends and rare audio clips of the “Godfather of British Noir” himself as he reads from He Died With His Eyes Open and the gruesomely sublime I Was Dora Suarez.

This series will culminate in the extremely rare recording of Raymond’s last public reading.

Paul Oliver is the marketing manager of Melville House. Previously he was co-owner of Wolfgang Books in Philadelphia.

MobyLives