Detective Fiction
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.
Detective Fiction
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.
Detective Fiction
London, Hutchinson, 1939.
First edition. 8vo. Original green boards. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
Uncommon crime thriller by Hal Pink, aka Barrington Beverley.
Detective Fiction
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.
Detective Fiction
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...
Detective Fiction
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'.
Detective Fiction
First edition.
London. Cecil Palmer, 1931
Listed in Hubin.
Detective Fiction
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.
Detective Fiction
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.
Detective Fiction
Quiroule (Pierre, pseud. Walter William Sayer) The Painted Death
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.
Detective Fiction
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.
Detective Fiction
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.
Detective Fiction
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.
Detective Fiction
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.
Detective Fiction
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
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.
Detective Fiction
Rhode (John, pseud. Cecil John Charles Street) Dead Man at the Folly
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.
Detective Fiction
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.
Detective Fiction
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.
Detective Fiction
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.
Detective Fiction
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.
Detective Fiction
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.
Detective Fiction
London, Geoffrey Bles, 1960.
First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket.
One of the last Lancelot Priestley novels by this prolific writer.
Detective Fiction
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.
Detective Fiction
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."
Detective Fiction
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.
Detective Fiction
A Story of the Baccarat Club
London, Hodder & Stoughton, [1929].
First edition. 8vo. Blind-stamped presentation copy to front free endpaper. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced at 7/6.
One of the more decidedly criminous titles by Irish author Jessie Louisa Rickard, one of the founders of the Detection Club in 1930. Moody artwork by the artist John Morton-Sale.
Detective Fiction
London, Frederick Muller Ltd, 1952.
First edition. 8vo. Original red cloth. Dust-jacket, priced for 9/6.
Excellent jacket artwork on this first edition by Australian writer and playwright Rienits, the work that garnered him success in the UK and led to him becoming a successful scriptwriter for the BBC.
Detective Fiction
Rohmer (Sax, pseud. Arthur Henry “Sarsfield” Ward) The Sins of Sumuru
London, Herbert Jenkins, 1950.
First edition. 8vo. Original orange cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 8/6.
Best known for his Fu Manchu series, here Rohmer offers the reader a female villain, bewitching and hypnotising, but bent on world domination.
Detective Fiction
London, Jenkins, 1959.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original red boards. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 12/6.
Dr Fu Manchu gets busy on the Tibetan border, much to the concern of the Western allied intelligence agencies...
Detective Fiction
London, Herbert Jenkins, 1956.
First edition. 8vo. Original red boards. Dust-jacket, priced 10/6.
The last of Rohmer's femme fatale novels featuring Sumuru, a beautiful and mysterious woman who is the leader of a secret society of assassins, pitching her against Inspector Milligan of Scotland Yard.
Detective Fiction
Rohmer (Sax, pseud. Arthur Henry Ward) The Mystery of Dr Fu-Manchu
London, Methuen, 1913.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original red cloth stamped and lettered in gilt to upper board and spine.
The book that kickstarted the Fu-Manchu phenomenon, a keystone of the "Yellow Peril" trend in genre fiction in the late 19th/early 20th century: "the first sustained duel between detective Nayland Smith and that fiend and fanatic, that most malign and formidable personality, that adept in all the arts and sciences..." (see Queen's Quorum 64).
Detective Fiction
London, Hurst & Blackett, 1929.
First edition. 8vo. Original black cloth with orange inlays. Dust-jacket, correctly priced at 7/6.
'A complete and detailed account of the amazing criminal activities of this sinister Chinaman". (jacket blurb...). Unusual to find in the original jacket and in such reasonable condition.
Detective Fiction
London, Geoffrey Bles, 1934.
First edition. 8vo. Original red cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 2/6.
Classic crime story of murder, mystery and madness, set in a remote house on the coast of England. Scarce.
Detective Fiction
Rolls (Anthony, pseud. Colwyn Edward Vulliamy) The Vicar’s Experiments
London, Geoffrey Bles, 1932.
First edition. 8vo. Original red cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
"...the case of a country clergyman who happens to be a homicidal maniac..." (jacket blurb). The first crime thriller by Vulliamy, writing as Anthony Rolls.
Detective Fiction
London, Rich & Cowan, 1938.
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
Attractive stylistic jacket artwork by Bip Pares complements this tale of long-planned quadruple murder.