Detective Fiction
London, Heinemann, 1934.
First edition. Autograph letter from the author (as Shearing) tipped in at front endpapers. 8vo. Original pink cloth.
A murder mystery, based on the unsolved murder of Harriet Buswell in 1872. The autograph letter from Bowen to the Scottish lawyer and keen amateur criminologist William Roughead is dated December 1939, and mentions a book of his published that same year, Neck or Nothing.
Detective Fiction
and other stories
London, Hutchinson, [1934].
First edition. 8vo. Original green cloth. Dust-jacket, 'Blue Star Library' issue.
Further crime thriller fiction based in the Pacific from the author of The Tales of Mynheer Amayat.
Detective Fiction
London, Collins Crime Club, [1939].
First UK edition. 8vo. Original orange cloth.
An automobile accident strands Nero Wolfe and Archie in the middle of a private pasture - and a family feud over a prize bull.
London, Collins Crime Club, 1951.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original dark orange cloth. Dust-jacket, no price.
Uncommon and attractive UK edition of this legal crime thriller by Tillett.
Detective Fiction
London, Nelson, 1928.
First edition. 8vo. Original red cloth lettered in gilt. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
Scarce detective fiction title, in attractive Abbey jacket.
Detective Fiction
London, Grayson & Grayson, 1932.
First edition. 8vo. Original black cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
An excellent example of this highly attractive jacket; uncommon detective fiction title.
Detective Fiction
London, Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1934.
Crime Circle Novels edition. 8vo. Original pale blue cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 2/6 to spine with additional price sticker to inside front flap for 3/6.
Striking jacket design by Lee Elliott; the title was first published in 1928.
Detective Fiction
London, Heinemann, 1959.
First edition. 8vo. Original green boards. Dust-jacket, priced 13s6d.
A very good first edition of this later adventure of Aboriginal Australian detective DI Napoleon "Bony" Bonaparte.
Detective Fiction
London, Heinemann, 1960.
First edition. 8vo. Original black boards. Dust-jacket.
An excellent first edition of this later adventure of Aboriginal Australian detective DI Napoleon "Bony" Bonaparte.
Detective Fiction
London, Heinemann, 1961.
First edition. 8vo. Original red boards. Dust-jacket, priced sticker of £1.75 over original price 13s6d.
A very good first edition of this later adventure of Aboriginal Australian detective DI Napoleon "Bony" Bonaparte.
Detective Fiction
London, Francis Aldor, 1946.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 8/6.
A good first edition of this '40s adventure of Aboriginal Australian detective DI Napoleon "Bony" Bonaparte.
Detective Fiction
London, Heinemann, [1960].
First UK edition. 8vo. Original dark blue boards. Dust-jacket, 13s6d.
A very good first edition of this later adventure of Aboriginal Australian detective DI Napoleon "Bony" Bonaparte.
Detective Fiction
London, Michael Joseph, 1958.
First edition. 8vo. Original red boards lettered in gilt. Dust-jacket, price-clipped.
An attractive first edition of these Judge Dee historical mysteries. The main character was based on a real 7th century detective.
Detective Fiction
Vickers (Roy, pseud. William Edward Vickers) The Pearl-Headed Pin
London, Newnes, n.d..
Early reprint. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 2/6.
An attractively jacketed edition of this crime thriller, originally published in book form under the pseudonym David Durham in 1925.
Detective Fiction
London, Thornton Butterworth, 1936.
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, 'overseas edition' printed to spine.
An attractive first edition in Bip Pares jacket of Philip Neville Walker Taylor's naval crime thriller set against the backdrop of South Africa.
Detective Fiction
London, Hutchinson, n.d..
25th thousand. 8vo. Original green cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
The novel of Edgar Wallace's famous play told by Robert Curtis.
Detective Fiction
London &c., Harrap, 1924.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original dark orange cloth. Dust-jacket.
The second of the American author's 'Pennington Wise' titles, scarce in the jacket.
Detective Fiction
Wentworth (Patricia, pseud. Dora Amy Turnbull) Vanishing Point
London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1955.
First edition. 8vo. Original red boards. Dust-jacket, priced 10s6d.
A nice first edition of one of the later 'Miss Silver' titles by Wentworth.
Detective Fiction
London, Collins Crime Club, 1943.
First edition. 8vo. Original red cloth. Dust-jacket, price-clipped.
The first edition of an intense psychological thriller from the author of The Lady Vanishes.
Detective Fiction
London, Skeffington, [c.1924].
First UK edition. 8vo. Original pale green/grey cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.
Distinctly uncommon title and edition of this wonderfully jacketed crime fiction novel, by American pianist, religious apologist and author Harvey Wickham, an author whose renown dipped somewhat following his pro-Mussolini stance and his denigration of the works of D.H. Lawrence.
A Romance of England under the Blitz
London [&c.], Hurst & Blackett, [1942].
First edition. 8vo. Original orange cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 8/6.
Attractive jacket artwork on this war-time first edition.
Detective Fiction
Wood (Eric, pseud. Frank Knowles Campling) Death of an Oddfellow
London, John Hamilton, [1938].
First edition. 8vo. Original red boards. Dust-jacket, priced 7s6d.
Attractive jacket artwork graces this uncommon 'thirties title, featuring recurring characters Arnold Keene and Bernard Young.
Detective Fiction
the private memoirs of Wayne Armitage
London, Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1936.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original green cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7s6d.
A murder mystery set amongst US expats and local characters in a town in France. Frank Sherwin was an English artist known for his paintings and designs for railway destinations around the British Isles.
Detective Fiction
Wynne (Anthony, pseud. Robert McNair Wilson) The Sign of Evil
Philadelphia, Lippincott, [1925].
First US edition. 8vo. Original beige cloth lettered in red. Dust-jacket, priced $2.00.
The first title published under this pseudonym, originally published as The Mystery of the Evil Eye (1925). Serialised weekly in Flynn's between 29 November 1924 and 3 January 1925.
Detective Fiction
First edition, inscribed by the author on the frontispiece.
London. Lincoln Williams, 1935
According to the Bear Alley blog the book is listed in the English Catalogue of Books as having appeared in February 1935 and it was listed under the pen-name "Trill". The publisher Lincoln Williams went into administration in July 1935 so the book probably wasn’t reprinted. Trill was a pen name for Harry C. Liebart according to Hubin. Very scarce in a jacket.
Detective Fiction
or, The Murder in the Red Barn
London, John Lane The Bodley Head, 1943.
Second edition thus, reprint. 8vo. Original pictorial wrappers.
A modern rendering of the popular 19th-century melodrama relating to a high-profile murder case of 1827. Here with an introduction by the playwright Montagu Slater, famous for his work with Benjamin Britten.
Detective Fiction
London, Drane's, [1924].
First edition. 8vo. Original green boards. Dust-jacket, priced 6/-.
An uncommon first edition of this collection published by an uncommon imprint. Many of the tales revolve around a consulting detective agency in Calcutta, as in the author's coeval work Benjamin & Co., and despite a tendency towards some rather "old school" jingoism and misogyny do include some rather wonderfully evocative sketches of colonial life in India.
Detective Fiction
London, Philip Macdonald, 1956.
First edition. 8vo. Original black cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 8/6.
A very good first edition, featuring the author's second major series character, Roger Bennion.
Detective Fiction
London, Heinemann, 1937.
First edition. 8vo. Original black cloth lettered in gilt to spine. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.
Excellent jacket artwork by the always fantastic Youngman Carter (Allingham's husband) graces this the eighth Campion title by Margery Allingham. A scarce and important first edition in the crime fiction canon.
London, Stanley Paul, 1927.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Advertisements. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.
Detective fiction with spy thriller overtones, courtesy of Anglo-Canadian author 'Anthony Armstrong' - striking jacket artwork; scarce.
Detective Fiction
First edition.
London, Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1935.
Features series character Spike Tracey who is studying the local paper for promising openings in crime when one literally blows in on his doorstep.
Rare in wrapper especially one as good as this.
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
A Series of Reminiscences and Adventures in Many Lands
London, Hurst & Blackett, [1926].
First edition. Large 8vo. Plates. Original red cloth lettered & ruled in black. Dust-jacket, early issue, with '1st Cheap Edition' and 2/6 to the spine.
An excellent copy of this compilation of nine stories by Ashton-Wolfe, drawing upon his years immersed in the world of crime, first as an assistant to Alphonse Bertillon, the great advocate of criminal anthropometrics, in Paris, then as an interpreter in the British law courts. The striking jacket artwork is by Hookway Cowles.
Detective Fiction
New Stories of Murder and Mystery
New York, Charles Scribners, 1928.
First US edition. 8vo. Original pictorial orange cloth. Dust-jacket, price-clipped.
One of several anthologies compiled by the writer and socialite Lady Cynthia Asquith, herself known as an author of ghost stories. Uncommon in the original dust-jacket.
Detective Fiction
London, The Readers Library, n.d. [1933].
First edition thus. Small 8vo. 2pp. advertisements. Original cloth, gilt. Dust-jacket, adverts printed to reverse.
An attractive pre-war edition, in good jacket.
Detective Fiction
London, Gollancz, 1936.
First edition. 8vo. Original black cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
A collection of six stories showcasing the forensic talents of feature cases of Mr. Reggie Fortune, a surgeon working for Scotland Yard.