Come Like Shadows — Simon Raven (Panther Books, 1975)

ISBN: 058603711X • Condition: Good • Sold by Crappy Old Books

Simon Raven does scandal like a maître d’ does menus: with a perfectly arched eyebrow and a quiet promise that something deliciously improper is on the next page. Come Like Shadows is Raven doing what he does best—drawing-room warfare, private vices, and the sort of well-bred treachery that never raises its voice but always rings the bell. Expect cultured knives, satin sheaths, and the agreeable suspicion that everyone is sleeping with the wrong idea.

This Panther Books edition has that mid-’70s paperback swagger—the faint whiff of train stations and expensive cigarettes—ideal for literature that lounges in a club chair while plotting your undoing. Inside, reputations are sport, money is motive, and the past is a houseguest who refuses to leave. Raven pours the drinks and the contempt in equal measures; his dialogue is silver-tongued and acid-rimmed, his characters the kind who send thank-you notes after burning bridges.

“Condition: Good” (Crappy Old Books translation): a veteran in honest shape—square enough to shelve proudly, supple enough to read irresponsibly. You may spot the genteel patina of previous lives: a crease with stories, a whisper of foxing, the mild swagger of a book that’s seen things and will not be boring about it. Perfectly serviceable for late-night chapters, early-morning regrets, and any moment requiring civilized mischief.

Buy it for the polished malice, keep it for the quotable venom, and display it for the aura of educated danger. Crappy Old Books: where elegant degeneracy finds a loving home, and where even “Good” means “good enough to corrupt your afternoon.”

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