Detective Fiction

Showing 361–396 of 485 results

£975



London, Ward, Lock & Bowden, 1894.

First edition. 8vo. Original pictorial cloth.

An excellent first edition of this collection of detective stories by Arthur Morrison, featuring the titular Martin Hewitt, a private detective who uses his powers of observation and deduction to solve crimes. A Queen's Quorum Cornerstone.

£250

First edition.
London, Blackie & Son, 1934
A rare Golden Age detective title centred on what happened to Simon Ewing at five minutes to five. Various people came and went and met face to face in his flat.

£195



New York, Appleton-Century, 1932.

First edition. 8vo. Original yellow pictorial cloth. Dust-jacket, priced $2.00.

One of the few Mundy titles to be serialised after publication in book-form. A Criminal Investigation Division of India caper, featuring Chullunder Ghose, and a Thuggee sect.

Talbot Mundy was an English writer of adventure fiction. Based for most of his life in the United States, he also wrote under the pseudonym of Walter Galt. Best known as the author of King of the Khyber Rifles and the 'Jimgrim' series, much of his work was published in pulp magazines.

£375

First edition, Lovat Dickinson, 1937. A scarce memoir of the Spanish Civil War from the American-born novelist, Helen Nicholson (Baroness de Zglinitzki), who was caught up in the conflict while visiting her daughter and son-in-law in Granada. Nicholson and her family were unabashedly supportive of Franco and the Nationalist. Rare in this condition and with the added association of being inscribed by the author’s daughter in the year of publication

£195



London, Marriott, 1930

First edition. 8vo. Original cloth, Dust-jacket correctly priced at 7/6 on front flap.

Rare in dust-jacket.

£495

First edition. London, Heinemann, 1928 Fifteen episodes of crimes studied by Rowland Hern and his Watson-like unnamed narrator with strong supernatural content.

£150


A Series of Stories
London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1936.

First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 3/6.

A collection of short stories by the 'Prince of Storytellers', in an attractive Bip Pares dust-jacket.

£395


A Novel
London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1931.

First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.

Considered one of Oppenheim's best works, opening with a fantastic description of the boring life of Mr Peter Cradd,and the transformation he undergoes when he inherits a fortune. A useful insight into middle class life in England in the thirties, and the dreams of downtrodden... A nice Bip Pares jacket to boot.

£150



London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1939.

First edition. 8vo. Original red cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced at 7/6.

- a dead man in the bank strong room, rolls of brown paper and balls of string; empty, coffin-shaped boxes... An attractively jacketed edition of this tale by the 'Prince of Storytellers', with artwork by Bip Pares.

Detective Fiction

Parkman (Sydney) Uncharted

£135



London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1935.

First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.

'This is a grand story about a shipwreck, a voyage in an open boat and a fight on an island, with a most unexpected twist at the end. So do not forget, "Parkman for Adventure."' (Home & Country, vol.18, 1936).

£250



London, Thornton Butterworth, 1935.

First edition. 8vo. Original pale yellow cloth. Dust-jacket, with 4/6 price sticker to front inside flap.

Great Bip Pares artwork on this murder-mystery revolving around the discovery of a body in an ancient barn.

£295



London, Hutchinson, [1925].

First edition. 8vo. Original dark red cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.

Seemingly a bizarrely scarce edition of this crime fiction title, with the BL and WorldCat only recording the Tauchnitz edition. It first appeared in serial form in Hutchinson's Magazine, 1924.

£295



London, Hutchinson, 1939.

First edition. 8vo. Original green boards. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.

Uncommon crime thriller by Hal Pink, aka Barrington Beverley.

£75


The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
London, Gerald Howe, 1937.

Second printing thus. 8vo. Original pictorial wrappers.

An attractive edition of the famous tale by Pitt, called The String of Pearls; or, The Fiend of Fleet Street (1847). Here with an introduction by the playwright Montagu Slater, famous for his work with Benjamin Britten.

£100



London, Stanley Paul, 1957.

First edition. 8vo. Original orange cloth. Dust-jacket, clipped but with price 6/6 present on inside flap.

Further Frampton frolics, the jacket here showing a few suspiciously red finger marks itself...

£100



London, Stanley Paul, [1947].

First edition. 8vo. Orriginal blue cloth. Dust-jacket.

Frampton of the Yard is back on the case following the mysterious disappearance of a friend in 'Dead End'.

£200

First edition.
London. Cecil Palmer, 1931
Listed in Hubin.

£225



London, Eldon, [1951].

First UK edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, neatly price-clipped.

Excellent jacket artwork graces this Anthony Adams crime thriller by American writer Pratt, originally published in the States under the author's pseudonym Timothy Brace.

£225



London, Eldon, [1951].

First UK edition. 8vo. Original red cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 5/-.

Excellent jacket artwork graces this Anthony Adams crime thriller by American writer Pratt, a.k.a. Timothy Brace.

£250



London, Nelson, 1935.

First edition. 8vo. Original orange cloth. Dust-jacket, price-clipped.

"A close-knit plot and first-rate story"...with Amazonians thrown in to boot. Scarce.

£925



London, Collins Crime Club, 1938.

First UK edition. 8vo. Original dark orange cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.

The first UK edition of the conjurer-turned-author Rawson's first book - uncommon thus in the rather nice jacket.

£175



London, Gollancz, 1945.

First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 8/6.

The first detective fiction title by archaeologist and raconteur Glyn Daniel, introducing Sir Richard Cherrington, an eminent but slightly eccentric archaeologist. Uncommon.

£495



London, Hodder & Stoughton, [1922].

First edition. 8vo. Original red cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.

A Craig Kennedy novel. The mysterious death of Stella Lamar, a famous movie star, who collapses on the set of her latest film, leads to Kennedy and Jameson being called in to investigate the case, immersing them in the world of cinema. Adapted into a movie in 1923.

£80



London, Museum Press, 1952.

First UK edition. 8vo. Original red boards. Dust-jacket, priced 10/6.

A nice UK first of this title, from a series of novels featuring Inspector Christopher McKee, head of the fictitious Manhattan Homicide Squad.

£75



London, Robert Hale, 1957.

First UK edition. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket, correctly priced at 10/6.

A very good first UK edition of this Inspector McKee novel by the American author Helen Reilly, who derived much of her work from her research into the New York Homicide squad.

Detective Fiction

Remenham (John) Arsenic

£150

Rare crime title, all other copies I have seen of this title are described as ‘7th Thousand’.
London, Skeffington, [1930 according to COPAC]
Reasonable to assume this was a publisher gimmick to show titles were popular.

£195



London, Collins Crime Club, 1935.

Sixth impression. 8vo. Original black cloth lettered in red. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 2/6.

Classic Dr Priestley territory here courtesy of genre master Rhode.

£195



London, Collins Crime Club, 1935.

Sixth impression. 8vo. Original black cloth lettered in red. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 2/6.

Classic Dr Priestley territory here courtesy of genre master Rhode.

£250



London, Geoffrey Bles, 1935.

'Popular Edition', second printing. 8vo. Original orange cloth. Dust-jacket, with price-sticker '5/-' on spine.

A decent, early edition of this the second appearance of armchair detective Lancelot Priestley, who featured in a long-running series of novels during the Golden Age of Detective Fiction.

£225


A Mystery Story
London, Geoffrey Bles, 1930.

First edition. 8vo. Original orange cloth. Dust-jacket, price neatly excised from spine.

The jacket's menacing photographic artwork enhances this early Dr Priestley title. An uncommon book in the original jacket.

£395



New York, Dodd, Mead, 1941.

First US edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced $2.00.

A mysterious beam of light wreaks havoc in this Dr Priestley novel. Nice jacket artwork.

£275

London, Geoffrey Bles, 1935. Popular edition first reprint. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 4/6 (second issue?). An uncommon early issue of this rare Rhodes title, originally published in 1928, the jacket featuring the original classic artwork by well-known artist Abbey; one of this prolific author's earliest books, set against a yachting culture backdrop.

£60



London, Geoffrey Bles, 1960.

First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket.

One of the last Lancelot Priestley novels by this prolific writer.

£75



London, Collins Crime Club, May, 1938.

Ninth impression. 8vo. Paperback. Dust-jacket, with 'Crime Club 6d'.

Rhode's novel is centered around the great annual motor rally at Torquay. Fog, car "crash" and and an erroneous verdict of accidental death leads to a murder investigation.

£575



London, Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1939.

First UK edition, first impression, stamped 'Special Presentation Edition' on copyright page. 8vo. Original black cloth lettered in red to spine. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7s. 6d. net.

The first UK edition of the author's first book. Amateur sleuth Jake Justus is on the case in this Chicago lakeside murder-mystery, and a large amount of alcohol is apparently consumed... Scarce in the original dust-jacket.

'Craig Rice' was a pseudonym for Georgiana Ann Randolph (1908-1957). J. Randolph Cox notes in Twentieth-Century Crime and Mystery Writers (London, 1980) that "...the warmth and humanity in her writing were matched by a sense of form and discipline all her own. She never forgot that the primary purpose of the detective story was entertainment."

£85


A Story of Crime
[London], Collins Detective Story Club, n.d. [c.1930].

First edition thus. Small 8vo. Original near-black leather over limp boards, blocked in gilt.

A disappearing corpse, a supernatural theory, and a genuinely shocking finale... This title was originally published in 1907 as 2835 Mayfair, before being brought back to life for Collins' Detective Story Club, one of the first 12 classic crime books chosen for the series.