Detective Fiction
London, Constable, 1924.
First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6, with publisher's 'file' sticker to spine. Publisher's promotional card loosely inserted.
A tale of mild villainy and opportunism featuring a parasitical couple on the fringes of cosmopolitan society. Attractive jacket artwork by A. Mary Ryland.
Detective Fiction
London, Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1935.
First edition. 8vo. 1p. advertisements. Original cloth. Dust-jackets, correctly priced 7s 6d.
A very good first edition of this intriguing novel, based on the story Mon premier crime by Gustave Macé, in the series "La Police parisienne."
Detective Fiction
London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1934.
First edition, second impression. 8vo. Original blind-tooled red cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 2/6.
An attractive early impression of this 'Yellow Jacket' Dr Thorndyke tale, bringing the good doctor's famous forensic mind to bear once more.
Detective Fiction
A Story of Crime by...Ex-Chief Inspector of Scotland Yard Author of "The Crime Club" [London], Collins Detective Story Club, n.d. [c.1930].First edition thus. Small 8vo. Original near-black leather over limp boards, blocked in gilt.Originally published in 1913, and the source for the 1917 film of the same name. Froëst was apparently incredibly strong, and could tear a pack of cards in half and snap a sixpence "like a biscuit"...nice.
Detective Fiction
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
London & Melbourne, Ward, Lock, 1939.
First edition. 8vo. 6pp. advertisements. Original yellow cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.
Jonathan Mansel, one of Dornford Yates' most popular characters, heads a small private organisation dedicated to the detection of serious crime "by methods sadly unavailable to the regular police". Uncommon in the jacket.
Detective Fiction
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.
Detective Fiction
London, Aldus Publications, 1949.
First edition. 8vo. Original red boards. Dust-jacket, priced at 7/6.
A tale of fatal attraction on Fleet Street. An uncommon imprint.
Detective Fiction
London, Pawling and Ness Ltd., 1934.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. 1p. advertisements. Original red cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced at 3/6.
A rare title in the jacket: "The author served his apprenticeship to fiction in the highly imaginative school of boys' papers, and was for a time associated with the late Edgar Wallace." (jacket blurb)
![Alternative view of Roscoe (Mike) [pseud. John Roscoe]. Slice of Hell](https://lycanthiabooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/82580_2-300x399.jpg)
Detective Fiction
London, W. Foulsham, 1955.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original black boards. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 9/6.
Throught Redheads and a Funeral, taking in San Francisco and Kansas City, "Yes, it's Johnny April again and the fastest, slickest story you'll read in a long, long time." (jacket blurb). An uncommon 'Mask Mystery' by publishers Foulsham.
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, Sampson Low, Marston, 1949.
First edition. 8vo. 1p. advertisement. Original faux-morocco red cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 8s. 6d.
Vintage Morland, packed with thrills and told with easy humour.
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.
![Alternative view of Dalton (Moray) [pseud. Katherine M. Renoir]. The Belgrave Manor Crime](https://lycanthiabooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/82562_2-300x399.jpg)
London, Sampson Low, Marston, [1935].
First edition. 8vo. Original dark pink cloth. Dust-jacket, with worn 5/ price-sticker over original 2/6 price.
A fun blend of murder mystery and the paranormal, with series character Detective-Inspector Hugh Collier teaming up with psychic Cosmo Thor to solve the crime. Striking jacket artwork, this an early issue of the jacket, correctly listing Dalton's The Black Death (1934) as her previous title.
Detective Fiction
London, Herbert Jenkins, [1932].
First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, with publisher's 3/6 price-sticker on top of original 2/6 price.
A scarce early title by this prolific author, who wrote over forty novels, often with a flair for unusual phrasing that would be lucky to escape the editor's blue pencil these days.
Detective Fiction
London, New York, Toronto, Hodder & Stoughton, 1913.
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth lettered in black to upper cover, spine lettered in gilt. Dust-jacket with inset colour illustration.
An early, rare example of a dust-jacket featuring artwork seemingly solely commissioned for the jacket, rather than repeating a frontispiece or plate from the book. This was an important time of transition for dust-jackets, moving away first from the disposable, purely advertorial type and then those that just repeated an internal design.
Writing in Twentieth-Century Crime and Mystery Writers (London, 1980), Daniel P. King noted "In the mystery genre, [Mason] made ample use of the psychological element - and in doing so, was in advance of his time."
Detective Fiction
and other stories of the Principality
London, Grant Richards, [1931].
First edition. 8vo. Original red cloth lettered in black to spine. Dust-jacket, correctly priced at 7/6.
A very good first edition of this compilation of thrilling tales set in Monte Carlo.
Detective Fiction
London, Hodder & Stoughton, [1926].
First edition. 8vo. 8pp. advertisements at end. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced at 7/6.
A rare book in the original first issue dust-jacket, with striking artwork.
Detective Fiction
London, Thornton Butterworth, 1930.
First edition. 8vo. 1p. advertisements. Original green cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced at 7/6.
A tale of espionage, romance and Eastern exoticism, set just before the outbreak of WWI. An excellent copy.
Detective Fiction
London, Elkin Mathews and Marrot, 1931.
First edition. 8vo. Original red cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced at 7s6d.
An attractively stylised jacket by D.V. Barry, on a murder mystery by American adventurer, stage actress, novelist and screenwriter Virginia Tracy.
Detective Fiction
A Study of the Detective Story
London, Wm Collins Sons & Co Ltd, 1931.
First edition. Large 8vo. Original black cloth lettered in red with red top-stain to text block. Dust-jacket with wraparound photographic artwork, correctly priced at 7/6.
First edition, described by Ellery Queen as "the most ambitious treatise on the detective story written in the, language" before Haycraft (In the Queen's Parlor, p.131).
"Despite the universal appeal of detective fiction, only recently has serious attention been paid to its technique. It is surely high time that criticism 'placed' detective fiction and officially recognised the conscientious craftsmanship that beguiles our leisure hours" (Foreword).
Detective Fiction
London, John Hamilton, [1939].
First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced at 7/6.
A striking dust-jacket design on this rare work set in Malaysia, a strange blend of murder mystery and the weird, with no copies in trade at the time of listing.
Detective Fiction
London, F.V. White & Co., Ltd., 1915.
First edition. 8vo. Original red cloth lettered in black. Dust-jacket, priced 6/.
An uncommon murder mystery, particularly in the original 1915 dust-jacket, a rare survivor.
Detective Fiction
London, Robert Hale, 1983.
First edition. 8vo. Original black boards. Dust-jacket.
A fine copy of this later work by the novelist and screenwriter T.E.B. Clarke (1907-89), one of the few Brits to win Best Original Screenplay Oscar, for his script for The Lavender Hill Mob.
![Alternative view of Graeme (Bruce) [pseud. Graham Montague Jeffries]. The Return of Blackshirt](https://lycanthiabooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/82474_2-300x411.jpg)
London, T. Fisher Unwin Ltd (Ernest Benn Ltd), 1927 [but 1928?]..
First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, second impression (stated, and priced 3s.6d., with Benn imprint to spine).
The second of the author's famous 'Blackshirt' series, nothing to do with Oswald Mosley (or Rodney Spode), rather a 'Raffles'-esque character, author by day, cracksman by night. Early issues of the first and second titles are both known scarcities, especially in the jacket. The book itself has no impression indicated, suggesting it is the first; however, the list of works by the same author facing the title-page includes Passion, Murder and Mystery, which was not published until 1928 (BL). Benn & Fisher Unwin merged in 1926, and this title seems to have been absorbed into Benn's 3/6 Library in 1928 or 1929.
The last time this title surfaced at auction was in 2019, when it made $1875.
Detective Fiction
London, John Crowther, 1946
First edition. 8vo. Original black cloth stamped in silver. Dust-jacket, correctly priced at 7/6.
A superior copy of this uncommon first edition by the enigmatic Mary Durham, present in the correct first issue dust-jacket. The story features the author's serial character Chief Inspector York.
Detective Fiction
Some Reminiscences of Sherlock Holmes.
London, John Murray, 1917
First edition. 8vo. 6pp. advertisements. Original cloth.
A collection of previously published Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, including the titular short story, 'His Last Bow: The War Service of Sherlock Holmes'.
Detective Fiction
London, Herbert Jenkins, 1926
First edition. 8vo. 2pp. advertisements. Original dark red cloth blocked in black. Dust-jacket, correctly priced at 3/6.
A great first edition, with enticing jacket artwork. The authors had previously collaborated on the The Forbidden Hour.
Detective Fiction
More Madame Storey Mysteries.
London, Collins Crime Club, 1933
First edition, second impression (i.e. first Cheap Edition, published the same month as the first). 8vo. 4pp. advertisements. Original orange cloth lettered in black. Dust-jacket, correctly priced at 3'6 (1st Cheap Edition).
A very good copy of this compilation of short stories by the prolific author Hulbert Footner, featuring his well-known protagonist Madame Rosika Storey. Scarce in the dust-jacket. Preceding the US edition by four years.
Detective Fiction
London, Ward Lock, 1935
First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket priced at 3/6 on front flap and also has tell tale 3 digits on spine indicating a slightly later issue.
Hubin listed title featuring the author's regular detective Insepctor Mclean and his rather fuller-witted assistant Sergeant Brook
Detective Fiction
London, Marriott, 1930
First edition. 8vo. Original cloth, Dust-jacket correctly priced at 7/6 on front flap.
Rare in dust-jacket.
Detective Fiction
London, Ward Lock, 1939
First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket (the 3 digits - 902 - indicate an early reprint).
A man claimed that with his artifical ear-drums he could detect sounds inaudible to ordinary people. This acute listening would allow him to manipulate any combination lock and open any safe. Was he the one that opened Mrs. King's safe and stole all of her precious diamonds and jewels?
Detective Fiction
London, Ward Lock, 1930
First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket (the 3 digit number (245) on spine indicates it is an early reprint).
As the Pretty Sinister blog asks: how can anyone resist the subtitle? "In Which a New and Quite Different Type of Detective Unravels a Mystery Staged in Chicago, Bagdad of the Lakes, London of the West!"
Casimer Jech, crooked curio dealer, is approached by millionaire Amos Carrington and together they hatch a scheme to acquire a rare manuscript mistakenly labeled as something fairly worthless to be auctioned off at an Evanston estate.
Detective Fiction
London, Skeffington, 1932
8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket priced at 2/6 on spine with '5th Thousand' on spine. Skeffington often used such wording to give the impression of sales success.
UK author, prolific between the Wars, specializing in thrillers (often with Oriental villains) and mysteries. The Sound-Machine is centred around a revolutionary machine that destroys by sound vibration (Blieler p.183).
A stunning example of a book that rarely turns up in a jacket especially one as superb as this.
Detective Fiction
London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1930
First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket correctly priced at 7/6.
Hubin-listed tale involving the escapades of a couple of multi-millionaires' sons who come up against a band of rum-runners.
No copies in commerce at time of listing.
Detective Fiction
London, Jarrolds, 1935
First UK edition (Translation of Chateau en Limousin published in Paris in 1934). 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket.
Suzanne Marguerite Tinayre was a prolific French novelist and woman of letters. This was her only crime novel and is listed in Hubin.
It concerns the celebrated case of Madame Lafarge and whether she really murdered her husband nearly a century earlier.
Very scarce with only one copy cited by COPAC in the British library.
Detective Fiction
London, Heinemann, 1939
First UK edition. 8vo. Not original publisher's cloth, some sort of library binding. Photographic dust-jacket correctly priced at 7s 6d on front flap.
Published in US as 'Poor, poor Yorick.' A Hubin-listed title involving the dumping of a corpse off the coast of Connecticut and the apparent suicide by poisoning of a hostess on the eve of divorce.
Frederick Clyde Davis (1902-1977) was an American pulp writer. He was educated at Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, and became a professional writer at the age of 22. Davis wrote several novels featuring his series detective, Professor Cy Hatch of which this is one.
Detective Fiction
London, Columbine Publishing Company Ltd, 1939
First edition. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket 5/- overprice although original price of 3/6 is still visible on the spine.
From the publisher's blurb: 'Delia Romney was born to sin and she elected to make that the way of her life. She murdered without remorse. She sold herself without hesitation or contrition.'
A typically risqué and sensationalist story from a small publishing house well known for both its racy plot lines and lurid dust-jackets.
Detective Fiction
London, Hurst & Blackett, [1927].
First UK edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket correctly priced at 7/6 on spine.
Basis for a 1931 American Oscar winning pre-code film that tells the story of an alcoholic defence attorney in San Francisco who must defend his daughter's ex-boyfriend on a charge of murdering the mobster she had started a relationship with, whom he had previously achieved an acquittal for on a murder charge. Starred Norma Shearer, Leslie Howard, Lionel Barrymore, and Clark Gable
A very rare book into film title especially in such exceptional condition. Adela Nora Rogers St. Johns (1894-1988) was an American journalist, novelist, and screenwriter. She wrote a number of screenplays for silent movies but is best remembered for her groundbreaking exploits as "The World's Greatest Girl Reporter" during the 1920s and 1930s.
Detective Fiction
London, Faber & Gwyer, 1926
First edition. 8vo. Original brown cloth boards. Dust-jacket, correctly priced at 7/6 on spine.
In this Hubin-listed murder story, the author shows the placid life of Minden Town disturbed by a mysterious tragedy. The mystery remains a mystery almost to the very end of the book. A rare and early Faber crime title.
Detective Fiction
London, John Gifford Ltd, [1938].
First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.
A distinctly hard-to-find title by the creator of The Black Pilgrim.
Detective Fiction
London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1950
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original boards, Dust-jacket.
A near fine example of this the first book by the author using this pseudonym. An uncommon classic of crime fiction, revolving around a sudden death at a cocktail party.