[slight bump to top rear corner, scrunching to bottom corners of last ten pages or so, light age-toning to page edges; jacket moderately worn, with small tears and occasional slight paper loss at several corners]. Reprint edition of this early MacDonald title, featuring Anthony Gethryn, "a detective of the nonchalant, super-dangerous sort who gives the reader a thrill with every drawl." Vintage printings of this book in any kind of jacket are scarce; the design here replicates that of the first American edition, albeit with a slightly different color scheme. View More...
(no dust jacket) [ex-lending library book, although the only marks are two stamps on the ffep; other than that, the book is only lightly worn, and is unblemished except for some minor staining to the endpapers and a previous owner's signature in pencil upside-down on the rear pastedown; (the scanned image makes the book look rather mottled for some reason, when in fact it's uniform in color and quite nice-looking)] The second of three opera-themed mystery novels by an author who was herself an operatic diva, having made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1922; she later became one of the nation'... View More...
(price-clipped) [very nice book, faint wear to extremities, vintage price sticker (from San Francisco department store The White House) on rear pastedown; jacket shows some wear along top and bottom edges, with various small tears and nicks, and some associated creasing]. Mason's first novel, also the first of his 26 books featuring U.S. Army Intelligence officer Captain (later Major) Hugh North. View More...
(no dust jacket) [moderate shelfwear, mild soiling to cloth, light fraying at several corners, previous owner's faint stamp on front pastedown, tiny bookseller's stamp on ffep]. Scarce mystery novel set in Paris; "a tale for those who know nothing about art, and for those who know too much." View More...
(no dust jacket) [minimal shelfwear, light age-toning to edges of text block]. (An Inner Sanctum Mystery) Series Murder mystery (the author's second) with a clever, albeit contrived, set-up: a guy calls a private detective and warns him of an impending murder that will take place that night at the caller's house, which will then be staged to appear as though it was committed by the caller, and confirmed by the subsequent discovery of the caller's corpse accompanied by an incriminating "suicide" note. View More...
[ex-rental library book (marked as such only by a large stamp on the ffep), well-worn, soiling to edges of text block; jacket is slightly trimmed (i.e. just a bit shorter than the book itself), backed with brown paper, tape-stained along edge of front flap and down the middle of the rear flap (with a little loss of text on the latter), but still and all pretty clean and attractive]. Murder mystery set at a run-down chateau in the wilds of Quebec, the author's fifth novel in as many years. The rear-jacket biography of Mrs. Millar is a nice reminder that she was already well established as a w... View More...
[good sound copy, age-toning to top of text block, vintage bookseller's label (Foyle's, London) on front pastedown; jacket has various small tears and chips, paper loss at spine extremities, chipping along top edge of rear panel]. In this, the author's second detective novel, "the private investigator, Ronald Anglesea, is called on to inquire into the disappearance of the valuable Manders rubies from Deed House, near the north-west coast of Scotland. But one of the guests has vanished, as well as the rubies; to Anglesea it becomes a case of murder. This may be among the queerest fictional m... View More...
[spine turned, light wear to base of spine and bottom corners; jacket slighty faded at spine, with tiny tears at several corners, one-inch closed tear and associated creasing at top of front panel]. An early reprint of the prolific Ms. Mitchell's first novel (first published in the U.S. by Dial Press in 1929), in which a famous arctic explorer is found dead in a bathtub at an English country house -- and is discovered to have been a woman! (Much, I suppose, like a purchaser of this book by "G.M. Mitchell," as she is called in the front jacket panel, might have been surprised to have learned t... View More...
(price-clipped) [modest shelfwear to book; jacket somewhat scuffed at bottom of front panel, minor abrasions and tiny chips at spine ends, light edgewear]. INSCRIBED and SIGNED by the author on the front endpaper: "For David Miller -- / for those long / nights without sleep / Elick Moll / June 12 '53." The first novel by a noted screenwriter, about a man who awakens from an alcoholic blackout to discover that he may have committed a murder. It served as the basis for the 1952 film of the same name, starring Gary Merrill and Linda Darnell, directed by Roy Ward Baker. (I'm not 100% positive ... View More...
(gray decorated cloth; no dust jacket) [good solid copy, slight fraying to cloth at spine ends, light stain at top of fore-edge]. Third novel in the long-running "Baron" series, which eventually spanned nearly fifty books and inspired a short-lived 1960s TV series. According to the copyright page the original British title of the book was "Salute the Baron!" (and it was indeed published years later, in various editions, as "Salute for the Baron"), but in this instance the publisher made an error: it was actually first published in the U.K. as "The Baron Again"... View More...
[nice tight book, extremely light stain on top edge of text block, no significant wear; jacket also very nice, with just one little nick at top of rear panel]. Fulsomely INSCRIBED to friends and SIGNED ("G.") by the author on the ffep. "A hilariously funny and suspenseful murder mystery" about a pair of identical twin sisters who, "thanks to the miracles of Jane Fonda and plastic surgery," hardly resemble one another and, at the age of forty, have taken quite different career paths -- and then one of them is murdered and the other sets out to solve the crime. Signed b... View More...
(price-clipped) [good solid copy, mild shelfwear, light browning to page edges; mostly-white jacket shows a bit of soiling, minor chipping/dog-earing at top of spine, one-inch split (closed) at bottom rear fold]. One in the author's series of adventure-suspense yarns featuring counterintelligence agents Harrigan and Hoeffler. This time their assignment takes them to Southern California, where "the sudden disappearance of noted scientist and developer of the 'memory bank' computer, Dr. Ronald Jarrell, baffles security agents." View More...
(no dust jacket) [nice solid copy, minor edgewear, some darkening to cloth along edges of spine, tiny bookseller's label on ffep]. The third Homer Evans tale, in a genre we might call "screwball mystery" -- or as critic William DeAndrea described the Evans books, "absurdist, almost surreal farces, populated by likable loonies somehow involved in murder cases that didnt have to make much sense [but] just had to serve as a framework for the craziness. This one, set in Paris, involves Homer and his girlfriend/sidekick Miriam trying to solve the mystery of a stolen violin (although "solving the m... View More...
[book shows shelfwear, ffep torn out, minor soiling to top edge, some fraying to cloth at extremities, a couple of bent page corners; jacket is well-worn at all edges, a couple of surface-peeled patches, front flap detached (held in place by Brodart cover)]. The author's third (I think) mystery novel featuring drama critic-detective Tony Woolrich, this one set on the south shore of Long Island. View More...
(no dust jacket) [ex-rental library book, well-worn all around, rear hinge cracked and front hinge weak; jacket flaps glued to pastedowns, vintage price sticker (from "Johnson's Bookstore," location unknown) on ffep; a previous owner/critic has pencilled an evaluation on the ffep, deeming it a "rather ribald mystery - not especially timeless but quick and lively"]. Murder mystery which introduced the character of Tony Woolrich, a drama critic and amateur sleuth, who here solves a string of murders committed by a homicidal maniac in various costumed guises (Napoleon, Nero and Ca... View More...
[solid clean copy, generally nicer than most of these wartime S&S books, slight bumping/fraying at top corners, spine very slightly turned; jacket a bit on the tattered side,with tears at spine corners, a little paper loss at top of spine, several tiny tears and chips at edges of front panel, two-inch split at bottom front foldover, small chunk missing from upper corner of rear panel (no loss of text); OK, so it won't win any beauty contests, but it's still quite serviceable]. Light-hearted domestic mystery novel about three children who decide to solve the murder of their next-door neighbor,... View More...
(no dust jacket) [Good only, a worn but intact book; spine turned, moderate wear with slight fraying to cloth at a few corners, top right-hand edge of front cover bumped, one-time owner's name on ffep, light staining to rear cover, spine lettering partially rubbed off]. New York-set mystery novel about a movie actress who sees a creepy disembodied arm and hand reaching out from under her bed one night, and spends the rest of the novel (with the help of many other characters) trying to figure out what the heck it was -- spook, burglar, figment of her imagination? By some definitions this coul... View More...
(no dust jacket) [mild exterior wear, slight darkening & waviness to top page edges, spine cloth a bit faded but lettering still strong]. SIGNED by the author on a large printed label affixed to the ffep, proclaiming this to be the "Autographed Edition / To / W.D. Rorrex / with the kindest personal regards / of the author:". Signed by Author View More...
[light wear to book at spine ends, vintage price sticket (J.W. Robinson Co.) on rear pastedown; jacket a little faded at edges and spine, tiny chip at bottom of front panel, about 1/2" paper loss at top of spine, a couple of other small nicks and tears]. One of several of this Danish attorney-writer's novels (many of them mysteries) to be published in the United States, this is the tale of a young man who discovers after the death of his father that "his only inheritance was a noble name, a mass of debts which fortunately were unknown to all but himself, and good credit." A man of... View More...
[solid, square copy, a couple of mildly bumped corners, very faint beverage ring stain on front cover; jacket heavily worn at extremities (a bit of paper loss at all corners), a few small edge-tears, wrinkling]. Excellent Hollywood mystery novel with elements of the fantastic, revolving around a quack doctor's experimental raising of dogs from the dead. The author was a pulp writer turned novelist/screenwriter, who later turned to directing as well. View More...