The Chelsea Murders

1978 thriller novel by Lionel Davidson

CoverartistD.G. Rossetti
"The Blessed Damozel", 1878

LanguageEnglish

The Chelsea Murders
First edition
Author	Lionel Davidson
Cover artist	D.G. Rossetti "The Blessed Damozel", 1878
Language	English
Genre	Thriller
Publisher	Jonathan Cape
Publication date	1978
Publication place	United Kingdom
Media type	Print (Hardcover & Paperback)
Pages	237 pp
ISBN	0-14-005136-8
OCLC	59018354

The Chelsea Murders (known in the USA as Murder Games) is a 1978 thriller novel by Lionel Davidson. The book won the Crime Writers' Association's Gold Dagger Award.^[1]

Someone is killing residents of the hip bohemian London neighborhood of Chelsea, home to literary giants of the past like Virginia Woolf. What thread connects them in someone's mad mind? The only clue is a fragment of film, which accidentally caught images of the murderer, dressed in an outlandish costume and mask.

Television adaptation

An adaptation of the novel was broadcast in 1981, directed by Derek Bennett as a Television film and was released on DVD in March 2010.^[2]

References

↑ "Lionel Davidson". Stop, You're Killing Me!. Retrieved 10 May 2024.
↑ DVD Review: Armchair Thriller – Set 2

v t e Gold Dagger Award
1955–1959	The Little Walls by Winston Graham (1955) The Second Man by Edward Grierson (1956) The Colour of Murder by Julian Symons (1957) Someone from the Past by Margot Bennett (1958) Passage of Arms by Eric Ambler (1959)
1960–1969	The Night of Wenceslas by Lionel Davidson (1960) The Spoilt Kill by Mary Kelly (1961) When I Grow Rich by Joan Fleming (1962) The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le Carré (1963) The Perfect Murder by H. R. F. Keating (1964) The Far Side of the Dollar by Ross Macdonald (1965) A Long Way to Shiloh by Lionel Davidson (1966) Murder Against the Grain by Emma Lathen (1967) Skin Deep by Peter Dickinson (1968) A Pride of Heroes by Peter Dickinson (1969)
1970–1979	Young Man I Think You're Dying by Joan Fleming (1970) The Steam Pig by James H. McClure (1971) The Levanter by Eric Ambler (1972) The Defection of A. J. Lewinter by Robert Littell (1973) Other Paths to Glory by Anthony Price (1974) The Seven-Per-Cent Solution by Nicholas Meyer (1975) A Demon in My View by Ruth Rendell (1976) The Honourable Schoolboy by John le Carré (1977) The Chelsea Murders by Lionel Davidson (1978) Whip Hand by Dick Francis (1979)
1980–1989	The Murder of the Maharaja by H. R. F. Keating (1980) Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith (1981) The False Inspector Dew by Peter Lovesey (1982) Accidental Crimes by John Hutton (1983) The Twelfth Juror by B. M. Gill (1984) Monkey Puzzle by Paula Gosling (1985) Live Flesh by Ruth Rendell (1986) A Fatal Inversion by Barbara Vine (1987) Ratking by Michael Dibdin (1988) The Wench Is Dead by Colin Dexter (1989)
1990–1999	Bones and Silence by Reginald Hill (1990) King Solomon's Carpet by Barbara Vine (1991) The Way Through the Woods by Colin Dexter (1992) Cruel and Unusual by Patricia Cornwell (1993) The Scold's Bridle by Minette Walters (1994) The Mermaids Singing by Val McDermid (1995) Popcorn by Ben Elton (1996) Black & Blue by Ian Rankin (1997) Sunset Limited by James Lee Burke (1998) A Small Death in Lisbon by Robert Wilson (1999)
2000–2009	Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem (2000) Sidetracked by Henning Mankell (2001) The Athenian Murders by José Carlos Somoza (2002) Fox Evil by Minette Walters (2003) Blacklist by Sara Paretsky (2004) Silence of the Grave by Arnaldur Indriðason (2005) Raven Black by Ann Cleeves (2006) The Broken Shore by Peter Temple (2007) Blood from Stone by Frances Fyfield (2008) A Whispered Name by William Brodrick (2009)
2010–2019	Blacklands by Belinda Bauer (2010) Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin (2011) The Rage by Gene Kerrigan (2012) Dead Lions by Mick Herron (2013) This Dark Road to Mercy by Wiley Cash (2014) Life or Death by Michael Robotham (2015) Dodgers by Bill Beverly (2016) The Dry by Jane Harper (2017) The Liar by Steve Cavanagh (2018) The Puppet Show by M. W. Craven (2019)
2020–present	Good Girl, Bad Girl by Michael Robotham (2020) We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker (2021) Sunset Swing by Ray Celestin (2022) The Kingdoms of Savannah by George Dawes Green (2023) Tell Me What I Am by Una Mannion (2024) The Book of Secrets by Anna Mazzola (2025)

The TV series was re- shown on Talking Pictures Channel on 01/07/2021 (3 episodes).

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