Detective Fiction
Edinburgh & London, William Hodge & Company, Limited, 1927
First edition, inscribed presentation copy from the author. 8vo. Original red cloth. Dust-jacket.
A very good copy. Inscribed by the author, one presumes, thus: 'To dear Winifred, with much love from an affectionate old friend Winnie, in remembrance of her visit to Station House. June 1927.' An easy to find book, but very uncommon both inscribed and in jacket. Contains a novel and two shorter pieces.
Detective Fiction
Gunn (Victor, pseud. Edwy Searles Brooks, aka Berkeley Gray) Ironsides Smahes Through.
London, Collins, 1940
First edition. 8vo. 3pp. advertisements. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7'6.
A very good first edition of this Ironsides title, distinctly uncommon in the original dust-jacket. Victor Gunn was one of several pseudonyms for Edwy Brooks, alongside his perhaps more well-known moniker 'Berkeley Gray'.
Detective Fiction
London, Hamish Hamilton, 1953
First edition (preceding the first US edition by a few months). 8vo. Original burgundy boards. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 10s.6d.
Chandler's hard-boiled noir classic, defined by the author himself as "my best book". In 1955, the novel received the Edgar Award for Best Novel. It was later adapted as a 1973 film of the same name, updated to 1970s Los Angeles and starring Elliott Gould.
Detective Fiction
First edition.
London, Cassell, 1917.
A collection of eleven tales, one of which is a locked room mystery and two of which have definite weird content. Not mentioned by Bleiler.“The Mystery of Howard Romaine”
involves the disappearance of a coffin and a body from a locked room (Adey p.300)The Cuckoo Clock" is a tale of delirium involving the transmigration of a soul into a cuckoo clock. "The Fatal Fairy" is about a man who kidnaps a fairy at dawn, whereupon it turns into a monstrous baby vulture -- until he releases it a day later.Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree was an English actor and theatre manager. This collection appeared in the year of his death.Very scarce in jacket.
Detective Fiction
First edition.
London, Collins, 1947.
Stephen Maddock was a pseudonym of JM Walsh and used for his more explicitly criminous titles.
Detective Fiction
First edition.
London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1935.
A collection of four criminous short stories listed in Hubin, the eponymous first of which concerns the battle between Sir Harker Bellamy, the famous secret service chief known as ‘The Mole’ and The Priest’ a daring and resourceful foreign spy and plotter.Rare in such a well preserved jacket.
Detective Fiction
First edition.
London, Cassell, 1935.
The Phantom Gunman is the author’s first crime novel and imagines what would happen if Chicago gangsters were to come over to London. Features serial character Mrs Pym.Exceptionally scarce in a jacket
Detective Fiction
First edition, ‘7th thousand’.
London, Skeffington, [1932].
Skeffington often used ‘7th thousand’ label on title page to try and show that their titles were in high demand so this is not necessarily a reprint.A Hubin-listed mystery featuring the author’s serial character, detective-crook Jimmy Traynor.
Detective Fiction
First edition.
London, Herbert Jenkins, 1935.
Featuring serial character Gilbert Larose The Poisoned Goblet tells of the efforts by a gang to kidnap the child of Lady Ardane.Fabulous dustwrapper art. A desirable title.
Detective Fiction
First edition.
London, Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1933.
When the dignified life of Steven Kester came to an undignified end there were several people with potential motives. Serial character Spike Tracy acts as detective and solves the mystery.Rare in d/w.
Detective Fiction
First edition. London. Collins, 1927 ‘[a] swift-moving thriller...gives a vivid picture of life in New York’s underworld.’ (jacket blurb)A very good, unsophisticated example of this title by prolific Canadian author [William] Hulbert Footner, listed in Hubin but wrongly dated as 1929 (the date of the first US edition) therein. We could find no copies of this the true first edition on WorldCat’s database for institutional holdings. Exceedingly scarce in the original dust-jacket.From the collection of Adrian Homer Goldstone, 1897-1977 (bookplate). Goldstone was a renowned Californian book-collector, particularly well know for his bibliographies of Arthur Machen and John Steinbeck, both of which were published through the University of Texas.
Detective Fiction
First edition, second impression first month as first state April 1935.
London. Collins, 1935
Stephen Maddock was a pseudonym used by prolific adventure and crime fiction writer JT Walsh born 1897 to 1952. He had two main series characters under this name: Inspector Slane and Timothy Terrel, the latter of whom appears in Conspirators in Capri. Very scarce in a jacket.
Detective Fiction
First edition. London, Methuen 1922 A Hubin listed mystery in the very elusive jacket which has some visual similarity to the jacket design of ‘Mysterious Affair at Styles’, Agatha Christie’s first novel, published two years earlier. John Moroso was a New York based writer who contributed to various publications in the 1910s and 1920s and also wrote a story about life in an east side New York City ghetto titled The Stumbling Herd, which was made into a silent film in 1926
Detective Fiction
First edition.
London, Cassell, 1939
The story centres on the murder of Mr Norwitch found stabbed in an antiques shop. The author worked in an antiques store and clearly draws heavily on this experience. According to authoritative website www.classiccrimefiction.com, UK first editions in original jackets are rare especially this title.
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
Translated from the French by Maverick Terrell. First English edition, London, T. Werner Laurie, 1936.One of the prolific French author's whodunits. Dekobra (real name Maurice Tessier) was one of France's best-known authors during the interwar period, and several of his books were made into films.
Detective Fiction
First edition, London, Alfred A. Knopf, 1929.Rare London Knopf imprint, in the remarkable striking dust-jacket designed by Shaw.
Detective Fiction
(A Detective-Inspector McCarthy Yarn).First Edition. Wright & Brown, n.d. [c.1941].
Detective Fiction
London, Columbine Publishing Co, 1939.The world-renowned detective Grant Rushton takes on his most sinister foe yet, High Priestess of the terrible cult of the Voodoo, Marie Galante.
Detective Fiction
London, Hutchinson, 1937.One of the Inspector Williams novels, by an author also known for writing Sexton Blake titles.
Detective Fiction
Mills and Boon, London, 1937
First edition