The Night of the Hunter - Davis Grubb

The Night of the Hunter by Davis Grubb / 246-page paperback published in 2023 in the Penguin Modern Classics Crime & Espionage Series

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'The new crime and espionage series from Penguin Classics makes for a mouth-watering prospect' Daily Telegraph

Two young children hold the key to a secret stash of money - and a relentless psychopath is on their trail...

Harry 'Preacher' Powell, his fingers tattooed with LOVE and HATE, is out of prison and doing the Devil's work. He knows his ex-cellmate hid $10,000 somewhere. He knows how to charm his way into unsuspecting lives. And he knows where the man's family lives. As he hunts them down, a terrifying game of cat and mouse begins. One of the great chase novels, The Night of the Hunter is a savage tale of innocence and evil in the Depression-era South.

"Davis Grubb's The Night of the Hunter remains the gold standard of southern noir. Grubb's unforgettably charismatic and psychopathic villain, Harry Powell, still has the power to flood your twenty-first century dreams with terror." -- Richard Price

"A thriller which commands one's frozen attention. It is also a work of beauty and power and astonishing verbal magic. ― New York Times

Davis Grubb was born in the Ohio River town of Moundsville, West Virginia in 1919 and died in New York City in 1980. He lived a various life, writing novels and short stories, screenplays, television treatments and working as a radio announcer. The Night of the Hunter was shortlisted for the 1955 National Book Award and in the same year was made into a legendary film starring Robert Mitchum as Preacher.