Detective Fiction

Showing 253–288 of 485 results

£135


An Arabesque
London, Williams & Norgate, 1926.

First English edition. 8vo. Original red cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.

First English edition, translated from the Swedish. Cleverly combines modern mystery with an Arabian Night's kind of vibe.

£395



London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1938.

First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.

An uncommon detective fiction title by the author most well-known for her historical romances, one of only eleven she wrote in this genre.

Ernest Fletcher's butler, his nephew Neville, and Helen North provide conflicting evidence about his untimely demise in a London suburb. Then a second murder is committed, giving a grotesque twist to a very unusual case.

£175



London, Hodder & Sttoughton, 1932.

First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced at 3/6.

Drums beat at night...and Professor Bastion hears the echo on Hampstead Heath (jacket)

£195



London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1931.

First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 3/6.

An very good first edition of one of Holt's best books.

Detective Fiction

Horler (Sydney) Checkmate

£150



London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1930.

First edition. 8vo. Original orange cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 3/6.

Uncommon Horler title, especially in the jacket.

£150



London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1937.

First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.

Hubin-listed detective fiction title, scarce in the original dust-jacket.

£275



London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1929.

First edition. 8vo. Original orange cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 3/6.

Mid-period Horler, distinctly uncommon in such condition.

£250



London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1931.

First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 3/6.

An excellent first edition of this Horler title, rare in such condition.

£195


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.

£160



London, Hutchinson, [c.1934].

First edition, "6th thousand". 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket.

Three tales by this master of excitement, uncommon in the dust-jacket with cool photographic artwork.

£195



London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1931.

First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 3/6.

An attractive Hodder & Stoughton first edition, in classic Hastain jacket.

£150



London, Hodder & Soughton, 1935.

First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 3/6.

A macabre flautist graces the jacket of this uncommon Horler title.

Detective Fiction

Hornung (E.W.) Stingaree

£120



London, Philip Allan, 1936.

'Popular Edition'. 8vo. Original green cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 2/6.

An attractive edition of this tale by the creator of Raffles.

£275



London, Chatto & Windus, 1902.

First edition. 8vo. Title printed in red & black with device; publisher's catalogue at end dated March 1902. Original gilt pictorial blue cloth.

Attractive first edition from the creator of Raffles the gentleman thief, in which a woman is accused of her husband's murder - one of Hornung's works which is considered to provide a favourably modern portrayal of a female protagonist.

£125



London, Collins Crime Club, 1946.

First edition. 8vo. Original orange cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7s6d.

An uncommon first edition in the jacket; a government official's investigations into an engineering company's failing business leads to murder...

£450



London, Faber & Faber, 1937.

First edition. 8vo. Original red cloth. Dust-jacket, price-clipped.

A hoax "death by committee" goes fatally wrong, inevitably perhaps... A rare Faber publication, in rather nice period jacket, here price-clipped but priced accordingly.

£875


...a startling and realistic story of Melbourne social life
London, The Hansom Cab Publishing Company, n.d. [c.1888].

First UK edition, early issue, stating 'two hundredth thousand'. 8vo. Advertisements. Original pictorial wrappers.

The famous Melbourne-based crime thriller by prolific author Fergus Hume, distinctly uncommon in this condition. A publishing phenomenon, sadly not something the author himself managed to cash in on as he had sold the publishing rights for a desultory amount to businessman Frederick Trischler, who went on to found the Hansom Cab Publishing Company in London.

£575


The story of a commonplace crime
London, Mundanus / Gollancz, 1931.

First edition (preceding the hardback). 8vo. Original printed wrappers. Housed in morocco-backed cloth slip-case and chemise.

An uncommon work by Anthony Berkeley Cox, aka Anthony Berkeley. The work is significant in the genre of crime fiction as one of the earliest and finest examples of the inverted detective story, a technique which would go on to inspire numerous other authors, as well as film-makers - notably Hitchcock and his 1941 film Suspicion (actually based on another, similar Iles title).

£495



London, Gollancz, 1940.

First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.

The first edition of the fifth novel to feature John Appleby, a young Detective Inspector in the Metropolitan Police, straddling detective and spy fiction admirably.

£795



Philadelphia & New York, Lippincott, [1942].

First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, priced $2.00.

An enigmatic woman, a hat like a pumpkin, and a murdered wife - things aren't looking good for Scott Henderson in this gripping mystery thriller by Woolrich writing as William Irish.

£395



Philadelphia & New York, Lippincott, 1950.

First edition. 8vo. Original teal cloth. Dust-jacket, priced $2.50.

A collection of six stories by Woolrich under his well-known pseudonym 'William Irish'. The title story was the basis for the 1952 film Don't Ever Open That Door.

£350



London, Hutchinson, 1951.

First UK edition. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 9/6.

A further collection of short stories by Edgar Allan Poe Award of the Mystery Writers of America winner William Irish, a.k.a. Cornell Woolrich. Scarce.

£150



London, Stanley Paul, 1936.

First edition, early reissue stating '3rd thousand' on title-page. 8vo. Original brown cloth. Dust-jacket, with overlaid price-sticker '4/-' to spine.

Early printing of this hard-to-find crime thriller, especially tricky in equally coeval jacket.

Detective Fiction

James (P.D.) Cover Her Face

£3,250



London, Faber & Faber, 1962.

First edition. 8vo. Original green cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 18s.

A great first edition of James's debut novel, an ingeniously plotted mystery that introduced readers to Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard, immediately ranked the author amongst the best crime writers.

£85



London, Gaywood Press for S.D. Francis, [1951].

First edition. 8vo. Original luridly-pictorial stapled wrappers.

One of the splendidly salacious 'Hank Janson' titles, uncommon in the original wrappers and in such good condition. Frances enjoyed great success with his hardboiled US-style thrillers written under this pseudonym, opening the way for a variety of copycat British authors writing in a similar vein, but they did also court controversy when a murder supposedly inspired by one of the Hank Janson titles led to the publishers being taken to court and successfully prosecuted for obscenity (the author managed to avoid a similar fate on it seems a technicality).

£85



London, Gaywood Press for S.D. Francis, [1950].

First edition. 8vo. Original luridly-pictorial stapled wrappers.

One of the splendidly salacious 'Hank Janson' titles. Frances enjoyed great success with his hardboiled US-style thrillers written under this pseudonym, opening the way for a variety of copycat British authors writing in a similar vein, but they did also court controversy when a murder supposedly inspired by one of the Hank Janson titles led to the publishers being taken to court and successfully prosecuted for obscenity (the author managed to avoid a similar fate on it seems a technicality).

£85



London, Gaywood Press for New Fiction Press, [1952].

First edition. 8vo. Original luridly-pictorial stapled wrappers.

One of the splendidly salacious 'Hank Janson' titles. Frances enjoyed great success with his hardboiled US-style thrillers written under this pseudonym, opening the way for a variety of copycat British authors writing in a similar vein, but they did also court controversy when a murder supposedly inspired by one of the Hank Janson titles led to the publishers being taken to court and successfully prosecuted for obscenity (the author managed to avoid a similar fate on it seems a technicality).

£85



London, Gaywood Press for New Fiction Press, [1952].

First edition. 8vo. Original luridly-pictorial stapled wrappers.

One of the splendidly salacious 'Hank Janson' titles. Frances enjoyed great success with his hardboiled US-style thrillers written under this pseudonym, opening the way for a variety of copycat British authors writing in a similar vein, but they did also court controversy when a murder supposedly inspired by one of the Hank Janson titles led to the publishers being taken to court and successfully prosecuted for obscenity (the author managed to avoid a similar fate on it seems a technicality).

£85



London, Gaywood Press for S.D. Francis, [1950].

First edition. 8vo. Original luridly-pictorial stapled wrappers.

A 'Hank Janson' title, uncommon in the original disturbingly salacious wrappers and in such good condition. Frances enjoyed great success with his hardboiled US-style thrillers written under this pseudonym, opening the way for a variety of copycat British authors writing in a similar vein, but they did also court controversy when a murder supposedly inspired by one of the Hank Janson titles led to the publishers being taken to court and successfully prosecuted for obscenity (the author managed to avoid a similar fate on it seems a technicality).

£425



London, Skeffington, [1929].

First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, with publisher's 3/6 price-sticker to spine.

An attractive first edition and an uncommon book in the jacket. Detective Philip MacCray is on the case to solve the murder of an archaeologist recently returned from the Orient.

£120



London, Harrap, 1927.

First UK edition. 8vo. Original green cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 2/6.

'Armistice Night Murders in Paris, London, and New York' (jacket). An uncommon title in the jacket, from the pen of a prolific American author and cultural critic.

£150



London, Longmans, Green and Co., 1932.

First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.

A scarce detective fiction title, one of only three titles by this author recorded in Hubin.

£195



London, John Hamilton, 1929.

First edition. 8vo. Original red cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.

A pleasing example of this first edition, seemingly one of only two titles by this author. A conspiracy to murder a leading art expert unravels... Scarce.

Detective Fiction

Kane (Henry) Triple Terror

£175



London, T.V. Boardman, 1958.

First UK edition. 8vo. Original orange boards. Dust-jacket, priced 10s6d.

Three more capers for Peter Chambers, Kane's most prolific character. Kane also wrote the movie adaptations for Ed McBain's 87th Precinct's Cop Hater and The Mugger.

£495

London, Ward, Lock, 1938. First UK edition, first impression. 8vo. 2pp. advertisements. Original green cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced at 7/6. A very good first UK edition by a prolific, somewhat bonkers crime writer, a foray into the "locked room" subgenre, revolving around a mysterious manuscript (possibly derived from a short story penned by the author's wife, herself a writer[?]). Scarce in the first issue jacket.

£175



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.