The Deadly Percheron - John Franklin Bardin

The Deadly Percheron - John Franklin Bardin / 200-page paperback published in 2024 in the Penguin Modern Classics Crime & Espionage Series / ISBN 9780241687024

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‘Doctor, I think I’m losing my mind…’

When a wealthy young man turns up at respected psychiatrist Dr George Matthews’ office uttering these words, it changes his safe existence forever. Suddenly Matthews finds himself dragged into a strange, surreal world where nothing is certain. And when an actress is found murdered, a horse tied up outside her apartment, Matthews loses his memory – and must find it in a nightmarish urban jungle of mistaken identities, secrets and insanity.

John Franklin Bardin, in a frenzy of activity from 1946-8, wrote back-to-back the three novels — The Deadly Percheron, The Last of Philip Banter and Devil Take the Blue-Tail Fly — that would ensure his cult reputation. He worked in advertising and as an editor and teacher and died in New York City in 1981.