How the Dead Live [Hardcover]

Derek Raymond (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1986

The third of the "Factory" series of bleak, atmospheric and subversive crime novels. The nameless detective working in the Unexplained Deaths division of the Met is sent to Wiltshire, where the local police are reluctant to investigate the strange disappearance of a popular local woman.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. First published in the U.K. in 1986, this powerful and mesmerizing novel should gain new U.S. fans for Raymond (1931–1994), known in Europe as one of the masters of British noir. The unnamed narrator, a dogged Scotland Yarder with a gift for antagonizing his superiors, travels to Wiltshire to resolve a bizarre missing-persons case. Though Marianne Mardy, a popular local figure, hasn't been seen for some time, her physician husband, William, hasn't reported her missing. The police are strangely uninterested in making any effort to locate the woman, and the narrator soon uncovers evidence of official corruption. After an initial interview with William, who lives a reclusive existence in a massive, crumbling mansion, the detective gets a glimmer of what really happened to Mrs. Mardy, only to find himself struggling to reconcile the truth with what his personal sense of justice requires. With spare, often lyrical prose, Raymond digs beneath society's civilized veneer to expose the inner rot. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"'A sulphurous mixture of ferocious violence and high-flown philosophy' Prospect 'Raymond has prodigious literary gifts as a writer of classic low-life London novels' New Statesman 'A mixture of thin-lipped Chandleresque backchat and of idioms more icily subversive' Observer 'I cannot think of another writer so obsessed with the skull beneath the skin' The Times 'Raymond writes with a stomach-churning exactness about murder, madness and mutilation' The Times 'Superb... an English Chandler... only better' Daily Mail" --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd; 1st ed edition (June 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0436405024
• ISBN-13: 978-0436405020
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,565,167 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Factory Scotland Yard thriller, May 6, 2008

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: How the Dead Live (Factory 3) (Paperback)

He knows the brass hates him as he is a British bulldog with no regard to his superiors, procedure, or the media when it comes to solving a case or for that matter keeping apolitically correct silence when some Home Office idiotic suit lectures. His boss can't fire him because he is so successful, but tries to exile him whenever a remote area asks for help.

Thus for opening his mouth during a mandatory class, this Scotland Yard detective finds himself leaving London for tiny Thornhill village in Wiltshire to investigate a missing-person. Apparently Marianne Mardy vanished; her husband Dr. William Mardy has not reported her missing; no one has. Since the local police suffer from duck disease up their arse, he is sent to rusticate make that investigate a possible murder so that his boss can have some needed R&R make that the gossipers can rest easy. In Thornhill, the outsider affirms the local police are uninterested in what happened to Marianne. As he keeps digging, he runs into corruption and soon begins to comprehend what happened to Mrs. Mardy when he learns HOW THE DEAD LIVE, but has problems with insuring justice not legal mumbo jumbo truly occurs.

This is a reprint of the third Factory Scotland Yard thriller written by the late Derek Raymond (see HE DIED WITH HIS EYES OPEN and THE DEVIL'S HOME ON LEAVE; neither read by me). Written two decades ago, the tale is a terrific British police procedural Noir narrated by the unnamed detective who is as excellent at solving cases as he is at annoying his boss. Sub-genre fans will appreciate this engaging one sitting detective tale that exposes the underbelly that society pretends does not exist.

Harriet Klausner

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Top Tier Noir, July 28, 2008

A Kid's Review

This review is from: How the Dead Live (Factory 3) (Paperback)

I'm reading Raymond's Factory novels in succession and this one, the third in the series, is the best I've read so far. In all of the Factory novels a nameless police investigator who is too stubborn, too true to himself, and too determined to put the world's villains away tells tales of how he goes about solving the Unexplained Deaths cases that get put to him. The narrator has suffered some horrific tragedies in his personal and family life, sees little hope for the future for himself or anyone else, but what gets him out of bed in the morning is the promise of being able to put away people who take harm other, innocent people - whether the villains be crooks or crooked cops. Raymond is often credited, along with Ted Lewis, as being the originator of British Noir; I can't quite put him up on the pedestal with Ted (very, very few reach that height, in my opinion), but these are certainly some of the better pulp novels I've read. Start with the first two Factory books, He Dies with his Eyes Open and The Devil's Home on Leave, then get this one.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It Hard to Say How Tongue-In-Cheek This Is, November 26, 2008

By 

Grey Wolffe "Zeb Kantrowitz" (North Waltham, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: How the Dead Live (Factory 3) (Paperback)

It's sometimes hard to figure out Derek Raymond, well most of the time. Since he was born Robert Cook but went by Robin and then changed his name (for his english publications) so as NOT to be confused with Dr.Robin Cook.
Reading his books will sometimes stretch your credulity as to whether you are reading 'noir' or satire, but probably both.

When his unnamed detective sergeant is sent to the 'country' to look into the disappearance of a woman it's almost as if he's being exiled to Siberia. The town of Thornhill (subtle huh!) is filled with more punters, ex-military and villains then you'ld expect to find in an East End Pub. Our "Hero" first makes his presence known when he get into an argument with the local constabulary because of where he parks his car, and then has it off with the desk sergeant.

After asking around about this well known neighbor that has been missing for six months, everyone plays the dummy. Though no one, including the local detective inspector, seems to care that she's hasn't been seen for a long period of time. Our Sergeant, goes to the local gambling establishment and with two hands of cards proves the place crooked and closes it down all by himself. At two other times he is faced by a shotgun and totally ignores the danger and of course wins (he even makes one of the contract killers cry).

So if you read this as a send-up of an Agatha Christie or P D James novel you will enjoy it immensely. Even if you read it as a straight mystery you will be surprised at some of the turns of events (he breaks the jaw of a 'Serious Crimes' Inspector who he thinks is trying to screw up his case). All-in-all the whole story is a 'hoot', from the language to the characters he creates, Raymond is an original.

NOTE: on the inside cover of the paperback is a picture of Cook/Raymond in a vegetable garden with a knife in his hand; if you look at the picture quickly he could be Malcolm McDowell in "A Clockwork Orange" sans the make-up.