Detective Fiction
London, Gollancz, 1939.
First edition. 8vo. Original black cloth lettered in red. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
Joshua Clunk makes his full-length novel debut in this work, having appeared previously in short stories only. The work also features a cameo by Bailey's other recurring character, Reggie Fortune.
Detective Fiction
and other Tales of Adventure
London, Hodder & Stoughton, n.d. [c.1930].
Early edition. 8vo. Original red decorative cloth. Dust-jacket, no price.
A lovely copy of this compilation of stories by American novelist, playwright, and Olympic water polo player Rex Beach.
Detective Fiction
London, Peter Davies, 1935.
First edition. 8vo. Original tan cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.
The Ventriloquist, by E. Belasyse, is a much better crime story. It is written with a commendable simplicity, for one thing. If it is a first novel, it is unusually well planned and executed. The people are real." (Illustrated London News, vol.187).
Detective Fiction
Bell (Josephine, pseud. Doris Bell Collier Ball) A Well-Known Face
London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1960.
First edition. 8vo. Original green boards. Dust-jacket, price-clipped.
A very good first edition of this later title by one of the co-founders of the Crime Writers' Association.
Detective Fiction
London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1959.
First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 12s.6d.
A couple discover that their child-sitter served a prison sentence for child murder, something they cannot square with the individual in question, sparking their own investigation and the unravelling of some strange secrets.
Detective Fiction
Bellairs (George, pseud. Harold Blundell) The Body in the Dumb River
London, John Gifford, 1961.
First edition. Signed presentation copy from the author. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket, priced 10s6d.
Inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, 'To George, With remembrance of a loyal friendship and unfailing help, George Bellairs'. Attractive jacket artwork on this later Inspector Thomas Littlejohn novel.
Detective Fiction
early issue (stating 7th Thousand on title), some minor spotting, original red cloth, dust-jacket, some minor chipping to edges but overall a very good example, publisher's price sticker on spine, 8vo, Skeffington, [c.1930].
Detective Fiction
London & Melbourne, Ward, Lock & Co., 1937
First edition. 8vo. 2pp. advertisements. Original green cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced at 7'6.
A game leads to theft and murder, leaving Detective-Inspector Richard Courtenay with a quandary ...who was 'King Oscar'? A very attractive dust-jacket.
Detective Fiction
London, Cassell, 1930.
First edition. 8vo. Original brown cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.
The first UK edition of the fourth Charlie Chan book by Biggers, who set out to create a character that was the opposite of the 'yellow peril' portrayal of Orientals as villains that was the trend at the time. Uncommon in the dust-jacket.
Detective Fiction
London, Robert Hale, 1979.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original black boards. Dust-jacket, priced £3.95.
Harder-boiled than most, PI Matt Scudder gets to grips with a death of an unlikely couple in Greenwich Village.
Detective Fiction
London, Chatto & Windus, 1900.
First edition. 8vo. Original pictorial blue cloth stamped in orange and black.
A classic of crime fiction, Bodkin's first book to feature a lady detective and an important work in this collectable subgenre. In later works, Myrl married his other famous detective hero Paul Beck, the "Rule-of-Thumb" detective.
Detective Fiction
London, John Long, 1939.
First edition. 8vo. Original green boards. Dust-jacket, with publisher's price sticker 7/6.
Extremely uncommon Hubin-listed title, in excellent dust-jacket. Seemingly the only criminous novel by the author.
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)
Detective Fiction
London, G. Bell, 1935.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original red cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7s6d.
Compelling Bip Pares artwork graces this detective fiction title by American author Dorothea Brady, recounting the experiences of three artists commissioned to portray a wealthy Frenchman's beautiful wife.
Detective Fiction
(A Detective-Inspector McCarthy Yarn). First Edition. Wright & Brown, n.d. [c.1941].
Detective Fiction
Brock (Lynn) [McAllister (Alister)] The Deductions of Colonel Gore.
First edition, in early (1928) jacket.
London. Collins, 1924
Author’s debut novel and the first to feature Colonel Gore. This and other books in the series are noted for their intricate plots.
Detective Fiction
Poison in Africa
London, Ernest Benn, 1930.
First edition. 8vo. Original off-white boards. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
Uncommon murder mystery set in Africa and involving poison. Adam Broome was a pseudonym of Godfrey Warden James, born 1888. He had two series characters Inspector Bramley and Commissioner Denzil Grison, whose stories are set in Africa.
Detective Fiction
First edition.
London. Cape, 1930
Contains two short novels both with murder at their core. Rare in dust-jacket.
Detective Fiction
London, Peter Davies, 1960.
First edition. 8vo. Original green boards. Dust-jacket, priced 13s6d.
Ace private detective Carolus Deene is on the case in the village of Gladhurst.
Detective Fiction
London, Cassell, 1928.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original green cloth lettered in gilt. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.
The first UK edition of this particular compilation of short stories by Limehouse Nights author Thomas Burke. Set in the bustling streets and alleys of London's East End, the book offers a vivid and often dismal portrayal of life in one of the city's most diverse and vibrant neighbourhoods. Distinctly uncommon in the jacket.
Detective Fiction
London, Grant Richards, 1921.
First edition. 8vo. Original pale blue boards. Dust-jacket, priced 2/-.
More stories from the murky world brought to life poetically in 1916 by Burke in "Limehouse Nights". Uncommon in the jacket.
Detective Fiction
London, Constable, 1931.
First edition. 8vo. Original red cloth. Dust-jacket, price-clipped.
Tales of Chinatown and Limehouse: "horrible, ironical, whimsically aloof"
London, Ward Lock, 1935.
First edition. 8vo. Original orange cloth. Dust-jacket, with code '617' to spine.
A surprisingly uncommon crime fiction title, one of only four titles by this author recorded in the British Library.
Detective Fiction
London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1928.
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
The first edition of the author's first book, memorably transferred to the big screen in 1936, starring Boris Karloff.
Detective Fiction
London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1936. First edition. 8vo. Original black cloth with yellow spine label. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6. The second of two Buchanesque thrillers by Cannan, right down to the style of the jacket artwork. The author was well known for her detective fiction and children's stories.
Detective Fiction
London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1935. First edition. 8vo. Original black cloth with yellow spine label. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6. The first of two Buchanesque thrillers by Cannan, right down to the style of the jacket artwork. The author was well known for her detective fiction and children's stories.
Detective Fiction
London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1935.
First edition. 8vo. Original black cloth with yellow spine label. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
The first of two Bunchanesque thrillers by Cannan, right down to the style of the jacket artwork. The author was well known for her detective fiction and children's stories.
Detective Fiction
London, Collins Crime Club, 1958.
First edition. 8vo. Original dark orange boards. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 10s6d.
Architecture + murder = classic stuff.
Detective Fiction
London, Harper & Brothers, 1930.
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth.
A solid first edition of Carr's first novel, of the locked-room subgenre. The work introduced his series character Henri Bencolin: "an impossible murder in a gambling club - the victim, seen to enter an empty room with all entrances under observation, is subsequently found there, beheaded" (Twentieth-Century Crime and Mystery Writers, p.146)
Detective Fiction
London, Arthur Gray, [1934].
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 3/6.
Great jacket artwork on this rare, Hubin-listed title.
Detective Fiction
London, Victor Gollancz, 1939
First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket.
A superb first edition of one of this prolific author's crime/thriller titles.
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
London, Hamish Hamilton, [1965].
First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, price-clipped.
Fourteen stories by US writer Chandler which originally appeared in the American magazine Black Mask, including the first book appearance of The Pencil.
London, James Bowden, 1898.
First edition. 8vo. Advertisements. Original brown pictorial cloth lettered in gilt to spine.
A great first edition by a writer best remembered perhaps as the author of The Lost Continent: The Story of Atlantis (1899). This collection is the second book he published under the pseudonym Chesney.
Detective Fiction
London, Cassel and Company Ltd, 1929.
First edition. 8vo. Original brown cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
An attractive first edition of this compilation of Chesterton's famous Father Brown stories.
Detective Fiction
London, Cassell, 1926.
First edition. 8vo. Original black cloth blocked in red.
An uncommonly good example of this highly collectable Father Brown first edition: Father Brown 'unravels the tangled skein of crime with entire success, and does it with convincing common-sense logic' (dust jacket).