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The Night of the Hunter

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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

'What kind of a man would have his fingers tattooed that way?... What kind of a man? What kind of a preacher?'

One of the great chase novels, The Night of the Hunter centres on the ferocious, unforgettable figure of Preacher, a psychopath who relentlessly pursues two children who may or may not know the secret of where the money from a bank raid is hidden.

Set in a brilliantly rendered Depression-era American river town, Grubb's novel is both a study of innocence and evil and a savage picture of human failings as, one by one, the adults who have it in their power to protect the children fall for Preacher's wiles.

©2023 Davis Grubb (P)2023 Penguin Audio Classics Crime Fiction Crime Thrillers Historical Fiction Thriller & Suspense Fiction Crime Mystery

Critic reviews

'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)
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My only negative comment comes as one who has seen the film many times and is that, by comparison, the pace of the book can seem a little slow. Others would argue that the gradual build is an important device in itself, but for my taste, it could use a touch of ruthless editing.

A classic

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