Evan Hunter – författare

Lizzie Borden, America''s most celebrated murderer, comes to vivid life in this riveting and chilling book by acclaimed author Evan Hunter as the portrait of a notorious woman unfolds with shocking clarity.Lizzie Borden took an axAnd gave her mother forty whacks.When she saw what she had doneShe gave her father forty-one.In recreating the events of that fateful day, August 4, 1892, in Fall River, Massachusetts, and the extraordinary circumstances which led up to them, Evan Hunter spins a breathtakingly imaginative tale of an enigmatic spinster whose secret life would eventually force her to the ultimate confrontation with her stepmother and father.Here is Lizzie Borden freed of history and legend—a full-bodied woman of hot blood and passion, fighting against her prim New England upbringing, surrendering to the late-Victorian hedonism of London, Paris and the Riviera, yet fated to live out her meager life in a placid Massachusetts town.Seething with frustration and rage, a prisoner of her appetites, Lizzie Borden finally snapped . . . but how and why she was led into her uncompromising acts is at the heart of this enthralling, suspenseful work of the imagination.Alternating the actual inquest and trial of Lizzie Borden with an account of her head-spinning, seductive trip to Europe, Evan Hunter portrays with a master craftsman''s art the agony of a passionate woman and the depths of a murdering heart.

While Evan Hunter is known for his powerful novels and screenplays, Ed McBain is known for portraying the soul of the cop. With Candyland, they join for the first time to write a single story -- a powerful novel of obsession. Benjamin Thorpe is married, a father, a successful Los Angeles architect -- and a man obsessed. Alone in New York City on business, he spends the empty hours of the night in search of female companionship. His dizzying descent leads to an early morning confrontation in a midtown bordello and a searing self-revelation. Part I of Candyland follows Benjamin''s fever-pitched search for identity, told in classic Evan Hunter style. Part II is pure Ed McBain territory. Three detectives discuss a homicide. The victim is a young prostitute who crossed Benjamin Thorpe''s path the night before. Emma Boyle of the Special Victims Unit gets assigned to the case. As the foggy events of the previous night come into sharper focus, it grows clear that Thopre is a potential suspect. The detailed police investigation is Ed McBain at top form. Shocking, bold and compulsively engaging, Candyland is a groundbreaking literary event.

From the bestselling author of The Blackboard Jungle comes a shattering novel of a family confronting its collective secrets, marking the high point in a writing career spanning almost five decades.It''s two o''clock in the morning when Andrew Gulliver gets a phone call from his mother, who tells him his twin sister, Annie, is gone. This is not the first time. Ever since she was sixteen, she''s been taking off without notice to places as far distant as Papua New Guinea, then returning unexpectedly, only to disappear yet another time, again and again and again. But this time is different. Last month, Annie got into serious trouble in Sicily and was briefly held in a mental hospital, where an Italian doctor diagnosed her as schizophrenic. Andrew''s divorced mother refuses to accept this diagnosis. Andrew himself just isn''t sure. But during the course of a desperate twelve hours in New York City, he and the Gulliver family piece together the past and cope with the present in a journey of revelation and self-discovery. Recognizing the truth at last, Andrew can only hope to find his beloved sister before she harms herself or someone else.

Part of the "NFT/BFI Film Classics" series, this is the story of life in a New York slum school, where young hoodlums develop their crude ways, and their teachers fight a vain and losing battle to bring a semblance of decency and honesty into their lives.

A family as raw and unyielding as the soil of the Virginia farm they left behind, they pursued their dream, journeying west across the American continent. In a boundless land of unimaginable dangers, they discovered their own will for survival -- and forged a triumph of the human spirit.

A family as raw and unyielding as the soil of the Virginia farm they left behind, they pursued their dream, journeying west across the American continent. In a boundless land of unimaginable dangers, they discovered their own will for survival -- and forged a triumph of the human spirit.

The "shocking" and "suspense-packed" bestseller about one teacher''s stand against student violence, and the basis for the Academy Award–nominated film (The New York Times Book Review).After serving his country in World War II, Richard Dadier decides to become an English teacher—and for the sin of wanting to make a difference, he''s hired at North Manual Trades High School. A tough vocational school in the East Bronx, Manual Trades is home to angry, unruly teenagers exiled from New York City''s regular public schools. On his first day, Dadier endures relentless mockery and ridicule and makes an enemy of the student body by rescuing a female colleague from a vicious attack. His fellow educators are bitter, disillusioned, and too afraid of their pupils to risk turning their backs on them in the classroom. But Dadier refuses to give up without a fight. Over the course of the semester, he tries again and again to break through the wall of hatred and scorn and win his students'' respect. The more he learns about their difficult circumstances, the more convinced he becomes that a good teacher can make a difference in their lives. His idealism will be put to the ultimate test, however, when a long-simmering power struggle with his most intimidating student explodes into a violent schoolroom showdown. The basis for the blockbuster film starring Glenn Ford and Sidney Poitier, Evan Hunter''s The Blackboard Jungle is a brutal, unflinching look at the dark side of American education and an early masterpiece from the author who went on to write the gritty 87th Precinct series as Ed McBain. Drawn from Hunter''s own experiences as a New York City schoolteacher, it is a "nightmarish but authentic" drama that packs a knockout punch (Time).

A glamorous ski resort becomes the setting for unspeakable evil in this "chilling, fascinating novel" by the New York Times–bestselling author of Last Summer (Los Angeles Times).Sandy, David, and Peter met as bored teenagers vacationing with their parents on a small resort island. The horrific crime they committed five years ago bound them together forever, cursing their friendship in blood and setting them on a path toward nihilism and destruction. Now in their early twenties, the glamorous and sophisticated trio has come to an exclusive ski resort just days before Christmas to satisfy their appetite for danger and enjoy the physical company of the only human beings they can still tolerate: one another. But an interloper soon finds her way into their closed circle. Mary Margaret is no gullible innocent. She''s smart and mischievous and appears bent on tearing the friends apart. Will Sandy, Peter, and David keep their sinister ménage-à-trois intact, or have they finally met their match? On the steep and icy slopes of Semanee Peak, a dangerous game of cat and mouse comes to a shattering end. "An unforgettable exploration into the nature of evil," Come Winter is the chilling sequel to Last Summer and a "brilliant . . . dazzling" portrait of young sociopaths at play (Burlington Free Press).

Three teenagers turn an idyllic summer vacation into a violent nightmare in this "compelling and unforgettable" novel by the bestselling author of The Blackboard Jungle (Harper''s).Bored, restless, privileged teenagers Sandy, David, and Peter meet while vacationing with their families on remote Greensward Island. The two boys, both sixteen, are immediately entranced by Sandy''s beauty and frank sexuality. Over the course of the summer, the trio creates an illicit teenage paradise far removed from adult supervision. Stolen beers and lustful teasing lead to more nefarious games, however, when Rhoda appears. Shy, quiet, and unsophisticated, the fifteen-year-old desperately wants to fit in with her more glamorous peers. Her awkwardness brings out a vicious cruel streak in Sandy, who has David and Peter so tightly wrapped around her finger they''ll do whatever she wants—even if it means destroying an innocent life. A fearless, unflinching portrait of youth gone wild, Last Summer was the basis for an Academy Award–nominated film starring Barbara Hershey, Bruce Davison, Richard Thomas, and Catherine Burns. Originally published in 1968 and heralded by Cosmopolitan as "the most chilling novel of this—or any—autumn," Last Summer transforms a coming-of-age story into a dark and twisted fable and confirms Evan Hunter''s reputation as a master of suspense.

An amnesiac hunts for his lost life in every corner of New York City in this "brilliant" novel from the bestselling author of The Blackboard Jungle (Chicago Tribune).Sunrise in Central Park. A man wakes up on a park bench with no idea who he is or how he got there. The only clues to his identity are the gold ring engraved "From G.V." he wears on his right hand and the black address book with a single phone number he finds in his jacket pocket. Lacking a name, the man takes one from a passing beer truck and a plane flying overheard—Buddwing, he decides to call himself. For the next twenty-four hours, Buddwing searches Manhattan hoping to rediscover his missing life. But no matter where he looks or whom he talks to, the past remains a confusing, disconnected jumble. One key name, however, echoes through the dim corridors of his mind: Grace. Unfortunately, there is no grace to be found in the sprawling city. From the pretty young college student who brings him to her Greenwich Village apartment to the drunken sailor on shore leave who shows him a wild time in Chinatown to the wealthy, disillusioned blonde who claims him as a treasure-hunt prize, no one Buddwing encounters has the answers he seeks. Weary and desperate, he fears the life he''s forgotten is too terrible to recall. But even the most painful memory has to be better than the emptiness of not knowing. Or does it? A vivid, kaleidoscopic portrait of 1950s New York City and a "fascinating exercise in the workings of the psyche," Buddwing was the basis for the Academy Award–nominated film Mister Buddwing starring James Garner, Suzanne Pleshette, Jean Simmons, and Angela Lansbury (St. Louis Post-Dispatch). Evan Hunter''s personal favorite of his many novels, this masterpiece of psychological fiction moves with dreamlike intensity toward a shattering and unforgettable conclusion.

New York Times Bestseller: A passionate, “no-holds-barred” story of an illicit suburban love affair from the acclaimed author of The Blackboard Jungle (The New York Times). Larry Cole has everything a man could want. He loves his wife, Eve, and is devoted to their two small sons. His career as an architect is both creatively satisfying and financially rewarding. His house in suburban Pinecrest Manor is attractive and comfortable.   But then Larry sees a new neighbor standing at the school bus stop. Margaret Gault is young, blond, beautiful—and married. She’s everything Larry didn’t realize was missing from his life, and he must have her. Maggie tells Larry she’s never been in love. But this isn’t about love. It’s about need and desire. Touch and taste and risk. And lies.   Larry and Maggie surrender to lust, knowing their secret motel rendezvous and lunch-hour trysts will amount to nothing; they will always be strangers to each other. But actions have consequences. And sometimes consequences can be deadly.   Author Evan Hunter adapted his riveting novel of infidelity into a film starring Kirk Douglas and Kim Novak. A torrid tale of sexual compulsion and the secrets lurking beneath the most placid of surfaces, Strangers When We Meet is an early masterpiece from the creator of the bestselling 87th Precinct series.    

New York Times Bestseller: A "monumental" saga of four ordinary American women from the author of The Blackboard Jungle (The New York Times Book Review).Amanda, a small-town minister''s daughter with hopes for a musical career, and Gillian, a hot-tempered aspiring actress from the Bronx, met at college. A decade later, one is happily married to an ambitious lawyer while the other is entangled in a passionate but troubled affair with a young man who''s spent five years in a navy prison. The other women in Amanda and Gillian''s lives mirror the choices they make and the secrets they share. Gillian''s mother-in-law, Julia, is haunted by a wartime affair and its tragic consequences. Amanda''s precocious teenage niece, Kate, belongs to a booming postwar generation that will radically change American society. Nevertheless, Kate knows that many of the challenges she faces as a young woman have been met and endured by her aunt and countless other women throughout history. Taking readers on an emotional journey through mid-twentieth-century America, author Evan Hunter paints an indelible portrait of romance, friendship, and sisterhood. Mothers and Daughters is a wide-ranging and poignant masterpiece from one of America''s most beloved storytellers.