House of Cards

By Stanley Ellin

Hired as a tutor for a madwoman's son, an American expatriate scraps to stay alive.

A washed-up heavyweight with dreams of becoming a writer, Reno Davis is down to his last franc when he lands a job as a bouncer at a sprawling Paris discotheque. His first night, he saves a slumming beauty from a pair of toughs, and she rewards him with a well-paid job tutoring her darling son. But what she really wants is a bodyguard to keep her precious baby safe from terrors real and imagined. Reno's new boss is a mental case, paranoid and delusional, whose lovers have a bad habit of dying violent deaths. But in this case, her paranoia may be justified.

Protecting the boy draws Reno into an international conspiracy that stretches from Paris to Rome to the killing fields of northern Algeria. When the bullets start to fly, this ex-fighter begins to fear that he may be punching above his weight.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Head of Zeus
• Release date: Dec 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9781784089597

Stanley Ellin

Stanley Ellin (1916–1986) was an American mystery writer known primarily for his short stories. After working a series of odd jobs including dairy farmer, salesman, steel worker, and teacher, and serving in the US Army, Ellin began writing full time in 1946. Two years later, his story “The Specialty of the House” won the Ellery Queen Award for Best First Story. He went on to win three Edgar Awards—two for short stories and one for his novel The Eighth Circle. In 1981, Ellin was honored with the Mystery Writers of America’s Grand Master Award. He died of a heart attack in Brooklyn in 1986.