[solid copy, moderate wear to cloth at top and bottom edges, agency stamp on ffep and title page (see notes), old tape marks on both pastedowns; jacket is well-worn, with several large chips, significant paper loss at spine ends (including loss of about half the title), tape marks on both flaps]. The first American edition of Chandler's last great novel (published in England the previous year), this copy bearing the stamp of Chandler's long-time Hollywood agent, H.N. Swanson, on the ffep and the title page. This would have been one of several copies that Swanson would have had on hand, with ... View More...
(no dust jacket) [ex-rental library book, intact but quite shelfworn, with considerable paper residue/remnants on front cover and both pastedowns, fading to spine cloth, some kind of white stain along rear hinge, etc.; a reading copy, nothing more]. Typical Chase pulp, with a classic politically-incorrect title (changed for most later editions to the more benign "Twelve Chinamen and a Woman"). Quote from the tiny portion of the jacket text that remains on the front pastedown: "This is no book for the faint-hearted. It is for mystery fans who like explosive action." View More...
(no dust jacket) [good solid book, light shelfwear, lower rear corner slightly bumped, spine somewhat faded, a couple of tiny dark stains on spine near front hinge, whitish stain along top of rear cover]. Novel about a woman political reformer who runs afoul of organized crime. View More...
[minor soiling to edges of text block; jacket shows a bit of wear at corners and spine ends]. Crime novel about a thief who executes a "perfect" kidnapping of an infant girl, one element of which involves stashing her with an unsuspecting family while he begins a two-year campaign to extract ransom money from the girl's father. Unfortunately for all concerned, however, he gets pinched (while visiting Canada) for a previously-committed crime, is convicted, and sentenced to twenty years in a Canadian prison. When he's released in 1933, he's faced with two immediate problems: (1) how t... View More...
[a little wear to cloth at bottom edges, light dust-soiling to top page edges; jacket lightly soiled on rear panel]. SIGNED by the author on the title page. His fourth novel, and the second Milo Milodragovitch mystery. The second state of the first edition (with "First Edition" stated on the copyright page). Signed by Author View More...
[nice clean copy, a touch of wear to lower extremities, spine very slightly turned; jacket shows some wear along top and bottom edges, with various small nicks and tiny chips, front panel a bit scuffed/rubbed]. Hard-boiled detective fiction by one of its earliest (and hardest-boiled) practicioners, featuring his most famous protagonist, private dick Race Williams, who could probably knock Sam Spade's teeth out with one hand tied behind his back. (Nah, on second thought, he'd probably just shoot him -- but with a clear conscience. "I never bumped a guy off who didn't need it," Race once decla... View More...
(no dust jacket) [spine turned, binding a little weak (but intact), bumping and slight fraying to all corners, one-time owner's name on ffep, some deterioration to cloth at rear joint; internally clean, a perfectly OK reading copy]. The author's second mystery novel, also the second to feature Sergeant Cass Harty, "wisecracking member of the New York Homicide Squad, and his skeptical little stooge, Barney Stauffer." The pair investigate a group of violent murders at a small Long Island beach resort, with one of the mysteries encountered along the way being: "How did a Button Gwinnett autogra... View More...
(in a Grosset & Dunlap dust jacket) [a good sound book with modest wear to extremities; the jacket is edgeworn, with minor paper loss at spine ends and a couple of corners, a few small edge-tears]. Murder mystery set in a great hospital, which "had for years functioned with the smooth regularity of an intricate machine, [with] its surgeons, doctors, interenes, nurses, residents form[ing] a disciplined army serving humanity, serving the hospital" -- that is, until patients started turning up dead from unnatural causes. NOTE that the dust jacket on this copy is from a Grosset & Dunlap reissue. View More...
(price-clipped) [moderate shelfwear/scuffing to bottom edges of boards, light dust-soiling to top page edges; jacket edgeworn, with minor paper loss at spine ends, various small closed tears, creases, etc.]. Hard-drinking reporter helps out a private detective trying to solve the murder of the about-to-be-7th wife of a millionaire playboy. A "fast-moving tale of pub-crawling Gotham where a woman is only a woman but a good cigar is a clue." View More...
[a nice-looking copy with extremely light shelfwear, spine very slightly turned; jacket a teensy bit crinkled at spine ends, no other discernible wear]. "The rare-book angle gets to Janeway every time." Nuff said. View More...
[solid book with not much actual wear, BUT: (a) its one-time owner went absolutely bonkers with his ownership rubber-stamp, using it on all endpapers, the bottom edge, and a couple of other places; and (b) the dust jacket, heavily worn, is firmly glued down at the flaps]. Early mystery novel by Fisher, as he was still clawing his way up out of the pulps (his breakthrough novel, "I Wake Up Screaming," was just two years in the future), about a washed-up actress whose life "had become dull, barren and incredibly stupid, and [who] had become obsessed with the idea of death. So she dec... View More...
[a reading copy only: ex-rental library, typical marks, heavy shelfwear; jacket heavily worn/rubbed, trimmed by about 1/4" at both top and bottom edges, flaps glued down, all in all pretty rough]. View More...
(no dust jacket) [solid clean copy, moderate shelfwear, a couple of pages roughly opened]. The author's eighth novel under his name (his 11th if you count those done under pseudonyms). [If you are of a mind, a very nice facsimile of the original H. Lawrence Hoffman-designed dust jacket can be had for this book (not from us, but will supply details upon request), which will help it look very handsome on your shelves.] View More...
[light wear to binding at ends of spine, otherwise a clean and solid book; jacket edgeworn, with some chipping and minor paper loss in the vicinity of the spine ends, wrinkling and a bit of shallow chipping along top edge, ditto wrinkling at bottom of front panel]. Mystery novel centered around "New York's swankiest and most murderous scandal sheet" -- a magazine called "The Social Arbiter," essentially a not-too-subtle blackmail operation dedicated to fleecing the well-to-do. A contemporary reviewer observed that the book was "written in the frankest kind of Broadway idi... View More...
[solid, clean book, with minimal shelfwear, slight browning at page edges, small and very faint dampstain on top edge; jacket shows virtually no wear, with just a little browning around the edges of both flaps, and a tiny bit of what might be insect-chewing at the top corner of each flap]. A tale of an honest cop framed by organized crime, in order to protect the city's vice district. Supposedly set in a recognizable American city - - the jacket copy says that the author's previous novel was set in St. Louis, and that this one takes place in "another Mississippi Valley city." View More...
[ex-lending library book, stamped on endpapers but no other markings; book is mildly shelfworn but still a solid copy; jacket is attractive but with two problems: one, the flaps have been firmly glued down; two, the jacket was trimmed by about 1/8" at the top and 3/16" at the bottom, to fit inside one of those old-style jacket protectors; that jacket cover has now been removed and replaced with a mylar wrap-around, which makes the volume quite presentable, since the jacket itself is quite clean, albeit a bit wrinkled due to the presence of the paper backing (which couldn't be removed),... View More...
(no dust jacket) [decent copy, front hinge cracked but not separated, light dampstaining and a few small white marks at bottom of front cover (interior of book not affected), slight fraying at bottom front corner]. Very scarce first novel by the author of "Detour," exploring the question of whether "it is possible in this day of enlightened justice for a man to be punished twice for the same crime." (A very nice facsimile dust jacket can be had for this book, from another source.) View More...
[nice square copy, a few tiny nicks to cloth at edges, a little wear at spine ends, long-ago seller's price lightly rubber-stamped on rear endpaper; jacket shows a bit of edgewear, teensy paper loss at a couple of bottom corners, one-inch closed tear at top front hinge]. Very scarce first novel by the author of "Detour," exploring the question of whether "it is possible in this day of enlightened justice for a man to be punished twice for the same crime." View More...
(no dust jacket) [worn but intact copy, apparently ex-rental library but with un-obnoxious traces (inked call number and label remnant on rear pastedown, faint stamping on top and bottom edges); text from front jacket flap is affixed to front pastedown]. Early novel by this former pulpster, the first of two to feature Sheridan Doome, "ace of the Naval Intelligence," who is notable (I guess) for having been badly disfigured in the explosion of a ship during the first World War, requiring the permanent placement of "huge steel plates over his entire chest and back." As the narrat... View More...
[very nice copy, no significant wear, just some very VERY light soiling to the page edges, trace evidence of a single careful reading by a singularly careful reader, and a couple of tiny abrasions of mysterious origin on the rear pastedown; the jacket is darn near perfect, with just a teensy bit of surface wear (many would call it Fine without blinking, but a bit of yellowing on the jacket flaps made me blink)]. The fifth -- wait, wait (A, B, C, D, E...) -- yep, fifth in the author's immensely popular and long-running Kinsey Millhone series. An awfully nice copy at an awfully nice price. (No... View More...
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![Image for Dancing Bear [*SIGNED*]](/assets/images/product/16822.jpg)
