London, George G. Harrap, 1919.
First Clarke edition. 4to. Plates and illustrations. Original sage cloth, decorated in black.
Harry Clarke's superb black & white images provide the perfect counterpoint to Poe's dark tales. A decent copy, if anything enhanced by the Shrewsbury School's gilt coat-of-arms to upper cover.
Detective Fiction
The Case of the Murdered Band Leader
London, John Lane The Bodley Head, 1939.
First UK edition. 8vo. 2pp. advertisements. Original teal cloth lettered in red. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7s6d.
Set in the glittering background of an ultra-modern night club in San Francisco, peopled by famous stars, Sudden Silence has an interest rivalled only by the strangeness of its incidents. (jacket).
![Alternative view of Hull (E[dith]. M[aud].) The Captive of Sahara](https://lycanthiabooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/84087_2-300x450.jpg)
Modern Literature
London, Methuen,, 1932.
Second edition. 8vo. 8pp. advertisements. Orange cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 3/6.
A handsome early edition of this follow-up to The Sheik (1919). Hull is credited with setting off a major and hugely popular revival of the "desert romance" genre of romantic fiction, helped by the Rudolph Valentino film adaptations.
Modern Literature
London, Faber & Faber, 1959.
First edition. 8vo. Original red cloth lettered in white to spine. Dust-jacket.
An autobiographical recounting of the author's first-hand experiences of apartheid in South Africa.
Detective Fiction
London, The Literary Press, n.d..
First edition thus. 8vo. Original green cloth. Dust-jacket.
What was the secret of Chesterton Square?
Modern Literature
A Novel
London, Sampson Low, [1934].
First edition, "File Copy". 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, price-clipped.
The last novel by this insanely prolific Cornish writer, author of the best-selling 'improving story' Her Benny (1879). Wonderful jacket artwork.
Modern Literature
London, Rich & Cowan, 1933.
First edition. 8vo. Title within xylographic border. Original green cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.
A lovely first edition of a Shakespearean era yarn.
Modern Literature
London, Jonathan Cape, 1930.
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth, lettered in gilt at spine. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.
A tale of deprivation and adversity set near the mouth of the Thames. Scarce in jacket.
War, Invasion & Spy
New York, William Sloane, 1957.
First US edition, first printing, inscribed presentation copy from the author. 8vo. Original cloth-backed boards. Dust-jacket, priced $3.50.
A great inscribed first US edition of the book that would become one of the most well-loved of the British war films (1958), starring John Mills. The inscription on the title-page reads, 'For "The Principal" To commemorate his 80th birthday and in hopes he will survive to see at least twenty more books published - Kipper - August 5th 1958' ('Kipper' being the author's nickname among friends).
Detective Fiction
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.
Modern Literature
London, Longmans, Green,, 1923.
First edition. 8vo. 4pp. advertisements. Original green cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 6/-.
A very good example of this early jacketed work set in Dartmoor, Devon. The adverts at the back are all related to West Country tales, including My Lady of the Moor by John Oxenham, which features none other than Beatrice Chase as the heroine.
Detective Fiction
London, Rich & Cowan, 1939.
First edition. 8vo. Original orange cloth. Dust-jacket, price-clipped.
Visually intriguing jacket artwork, and a tale of espionage, treasure, murder, and at least one giant hunchback, of course.
Sexuality & Erotica
London, Jarrolds, [1932].
First edition, first printing. 8vo. 39pp. publisher's catalogue dated Spring 1932 at end. Original blue cloth, dust-jacket, correctly priced at 7/6.
A tale of sacred & profane love, by an author best known for his science fiction, adventure stories, and historical fiction books for children. This definitely a more adult venture.
London, Collins, 1935.
First edition. 8vo. Original brown cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced at 7/6.
Cult novel about a man who discovers his mother has been hiding his monstrous brother in the attic, the author's only dalliance within the fringes of Sci-Fi. Very scarce in the original Rex Whistler jacket.
Modern Literature
Calvert (E. Roy) Capital Punishment in the Twentieth Century.
With a Preface by The Right Honourable Lord Buckminster
London & New York, G.P. Putnam, 1927.
First edition, signed by the author. 8vo. Original green cloth, lettered in gilt. Dust-jacket, priced 5/-.
A rallying cry by this Quaker writer against capital punishment, outlaying the failures of the death sentence as a deterrent. Suitable jacket artwork by renowned British artist Frank Brangwyn.
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.
![Alternative view of Lowndes ([Marie Adelaide] Belloc) The House of Peril](https://lycanthiabooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/82679_2-300x450.jpg)
Horror & Gothic
London, The Readers Library, n.d. [c.1935].
First edition thus. Small 8vo. Original cloth, gilt. Dust-jacket, with advertisements printed to reverse.
Originally entitled A Chink in the Armour; a scarce Readers Library edition, in fun jacket.
Weird & Supernatural
London, Methuen, 1918.
First edition. 8vo. Original pale blue cloth, lettered in black.
An early and uncommon Sax Rohmer first edition, set in Egypt with the inscrutable Abu-Tabah taking on the villain role from Fu Manchu. The book is notable for introducing a more explicitly weird & supernatural element.
Horror & Gothic
London, Robert Hale, 1956.
First edition. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 12/6.
A semi-gothic thriller set largely in Victorian London, by a prolific writer and biographer. The book, like many of Hooke's, was subsequently made into a film, The Gypsy and the Gentleman (1958).
Modern Literature
London, Bodley Head, 1923.First edition. 8vo. 8pp. advertisements. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, without price.Great jacket artwork by Canadian–British illustrator and commercial artist Austin Cooper (not the car).
Detective Fiction
London, Hutchinson, n.d. [c.1930].
Third edition (stated). Small 8vo. Original cloth, gilt. Dust-jacket, priced 2/- and stating '5th Thousand'.
An early edition of this collaboration between the Hanshews, scarce in the original dust-jacket - with artwork by the illustrator Joseph Abbey.
Detective Fiction
London &c., Cassell, 1913.
First edition. 8vo. 4pp. advertisements. Original brown cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 6/-.
The first chapter of Mr. Edge's story is enough to indicate the mystery which is to be unravelled, and every succeeding chapter makes the mystery deeper until the final elucidation... (The Bookseller, Vol. 60, 1914).
An early detective fiction title, in a remarkably excellent pre WW1 dust-jacket. Exceptionally scarce, with only six copies recorded by WorldCat, and no copies in trade or at auction that we could trace.
Modern Literature
London, Macdonald, [1943].
First edition. 8vo. Original red cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 8/6.
A light-hearted book. If you not like mean people, you will not be discouraged by the fate which overtakes the characters... (jacket blurb)
![Alternative view of Hull (E[dith]. M[aud].) The Sons of the Sheik](https://lycanthiabooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/82645_2-300x399.jpg)
Modern Literature
London, Eveleigh Nash & Grayson, [1926].
Film tie-in edition. 8vo. 3pp. advertisements. Original red cloth. Dust-jacket.
A handsome early edition of the sequel to The Sheik (1919); the first edition was published in 1925, with this edition issued to coincide with the popular film version starring Rudolph Valentino. Hull is credited with setting off a major and hugely popular revival of the "desert romance" genre of romantic fiction.
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.
Travel
London, William Heinemann, 1922.
First edition. 8vo. Original red cloth lettered in black. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.
This tale of diplomatic and social life on the Bosphorus, a certain number of years ago, has the exciting elements of the 'spy' story... (jacket blurb). Seemingly scarce in the jacket.
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.
War, Invasion & Spy
London, Ward, Lock, 1901.
First edition, full-page autograph inscription from the author to the blank recto of the frontispiece. 8vo. 4 plates, 12pp. advertisements. Original pictorial cloth.
An appreciative, borderline fawning, gift inscription from the trade unionist and Liberal-Labour politician, T.R. Threlfall, to the Sir George Alexander Cooper, 1st Baronet.
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)
Horror & Gothic
London, Tinsley Brothers, 1867.
3 vols. First edition. 8vo. Half-titles all present. Publisher's dark orange blind-tooled cloth, lettered in gilt to spines. Housed in modern morocco-backed cloth solander box.
The best example of this rare, Hubin-listed three decker by Irish author Sheridan Le Fanu that we have ever seen, extremely uncommon in the original cloth and in such condition. The story itself features the Gothic tropes and elements one would expect from the author of Uncle Silas (1864) and In a Glass Darkly (1872), a crumbling family pile, hidden romance, suspicious death, a looming inheritance and dangerous ambition.
![Alternative view of Sapper [pseud. H.C. McNeile]. Ronald Standish](https://lycanthiabooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/82581_2-300x399.jpg)
War, Invasion & Spy
London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1933.
First edition. 8vo. Original pale blue cloth. Dust-jacket, price ablated from spine.
A pleasing first edition of this collection of short stories by 'Sapper', featuring the character Ronald Standish as chief protagonist (appearing previously only in 'The Saving Clause' (1927) and 'Tiny Carteret' (1930)). Sapper of course most well-known for creating Bulldog Drummond.
![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.
Modern Literature
London, Hurst & Blackett, 1918.
First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 5/ and stating '20th thousand'.
A later title, but a characteristically passionate & emotive novel by the author of the notorious The Quick or the Dead? (1888). Scarce in such an early issue dust-jacket.
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.