[light shelfwear, some dust-darkening to top of text block; includes a COLOR PHOTOCOPY of the original jacket (but which cuts short half of the rear flap)]. Increasingly hard-to-find golf-themed mystery, in an INCOMPLETE PHOTOCOPY of the original dust jacket (missing half the rear flap, the text of which is related to a different book). PLEASE NOTE that I did not manufacture this faux jacket; it was on the book when I bought it. View More...
[light bumping to lower corners, minor wear at spine ends, a good sound copy; jacket is edgeworn, and has been internally reinforced with brown paper tape along all edges and folds] Mystery novel set along the Cornwall coast, featuring "that delightfully zany pair of amateur sleuths, Jane and Dagobert Brown," who were (of course) vacationing in the area. (Because don't all amateur sleuthing couples, zany or not, always get involved with murders when they're on vacation?) Although American-born, the author spent much of his writing life in England, which pretty much infused his fiction -- one... View More...
(price-clipped) [nice clean book, minor wear to extremities; jacket a little browned along edges and spine Reprint edition of this renowed collection of Victorian-era detective stories, originally published in book form in 1903. The earliest fiction by R. Austin Freeman, "soon to be acknowledged as one of the great masters of the field, in collaboration with his close friend, Dr. John James Pitcairn." The First American Edition of this reprint (got that?) appeared in 1968; this is the second printing, from 1972. View More...
[nice and clean, no discernible wear to book; jacket has a teensy-tiny nick at top of front panel, faint soiling/browning to spine]. Half a dozen Victorian-era detective stories, co-authored by R. Austin Freeman in collaboration with his close friend, Dr. John James Pitcairn. Unlike the preceding volume of Pringle stories (which was a reprint of a collection originally published in 1903), this volume is the first book printing of six previously-uncollected tales. As the jacket blurb explains: "These are the last six Romney Pringle stories -- there are no more." Contains two short i... View More...
[nice tight clean copy, faint wear to top and bottom edges of book; jacket slightly faded at spine, tiny tears at top corners of spine, one-inch closed tear at bottom of rear panel, light soiling to rear panel]. INSCRIBED and SIGNED by the author (using her real name) on the half-title page: "To Robert Lewine -- / from an unknown admirer named / Helen Van Slyke / Sept, 1974." Romantic suspense/mystery novel about a woman who marries a doctor and moves to his luxurious family compound, called Madrugada, in Southern California -- but soon finds herself in danger, and convinced that "... View More...
[very nice clean copy, firm and tight with just a touch of wear at the extremities; jacket a bit scuffed on the front panel, a couple of tiny edge-tears, long vertical scrape to top half of rear panel, minor soiling at spine and rear panel]. The first of three mysteries by this author, all quite uncommon, featuring his character "Prosper Fair," an upper-class Englishman "whose identity is itself a mystery [at least until the end of this first adventure]," who "takes on the role of a detective while he is wandering through the English countryside with his donkey and his dog... View More...
[light wear to spine ends; jacket edgeworn, with some soiling/staining at internal edges of flaps]. Mystery novel set in the Virgin Islands. The main character is a writer "who has been living on St. Thomas for many years and who knows all about the permanent residents there, the natives, the tourists from the States, and the island's history and traditions." The author was a prolific writer of (mostly) juvenile fiction, often with sports-related themes, and often (I'm really just guessing here) quite a few virgins involved as well. (Sometimes I really just can't help myself.) View More...
(price-clipped) [minor shelfwear to bottom edge, tiny dent in top of rear cover; jacket moderately scuffed and edgeworn, light soiling to rear panel]. Sort of a Rashomon-style murder mystery, with the story told three times, each from the perspective of a different character: a woman who is seduced and then murdered; her killer (whose p.o.v. is descibed as that of "the self-centered, sex-ridden pride of the all-conquering male"); and finally as revealed to the police superintendent who investigates the murder. The author adopts a different narrative voice for each section of the book... View More...
[no discernible wear to book, one-time owner's initials plus date & place of purchase written in ink along edge of rear pastedown (concealed beneath rear jacket flap); the jacket is lightly scuffed, and has a 2-inch closed tear (internally tape-repaired) at top of spine, with some associated creasing across the upper section of the front panel]. Murder at an Anglican church, high on the Yorkshire moors, during a symposium on the role of the Church in the modern world, the attendees at which are an international gaggle of ecclestiastical guests-cum-suspects: "a bishop who was a well-known TV p... View More...
[a nice clean book, light shelfwear, spine just a bit turned; jacket moderately faded along spine, otherwise colorful and attractive with minor wear only]. Quite uncommon murder mystery about a killing that occurs on opening night of a Broadway play and "involves, before its solution, the most important figures in the whole production -- the rich producer, equally famous in New York and Hollywood, the titled and fabulously clever author, the beautiful star herself, and all the lesser members of the cast and backstage crew." According to the jacket blurb, the author came "from a family that h... View More...
[minimal wear to book, very slight bumping to lower extremities, vintage price sticker (from The White House) on rear pastedown; jacket a little darkened at spine, a few tiny edge-nicks]. "A Mystery with love and without a murder," revolving around a prodigal son's relationship with his steel magnate father, the secret formula for a new process that could revolutionize the manufacture of steel, and "several fascinating ladies," all concocted into "a swift, intricate plot in which chase and threat, pistol shots and sudden danger go hand in hand with romance." Uncommon,... View More...
[nice tight clean unread book, with no discernible wear; jacket shows very light wear at extremities, faint rubbing/soiling]. Mystery novel about a middle-aged, divorced film reviewer who finds himself involved in what seems to be "a real-life replay of Alfred Hitchcock's 'Rear Window'." According to the jacket blurb, the book "is both a potent psychological thriller and a game -- it offers the experience of a Hitchcock movie, not from outside, which is the way we usually experience it, but from inside, from the point of view of one of the characters." (It would seem to me th... View More...
(no dust jacket) [ex-library (marked as such only by presence of diagonal card holder on rear pastedown and "FIC" stamped on top edge; otherwise a solid enough copy, actually quite clean overall but with some deterioration (nibbling?) to the cloth at the right edge of the front cover, and a few small rubber-stamps (bookseller and one-time owner, not library) inside the front cover]. Mystery novel -- apparently the author's only book -- about a couple of guys who pull off a jewel robbery; set primarily in New York City and Providence, Rhode Island. A contemporary reviewer felt that th... View More...
[minor edgewear to covers, browning around edges of rear cover, otherwise a nice tight copy]. (A Quill Mysterious Classic) Series Mass Market PB Suspense novel about a newspaperman investigating the apparently "accidental" death of a high-school student. View More...
[nice copy, tight and unworn, just a trace of dust-smudging on top edge; jacket shows extremely light surface handling wear]. Limited/numbered edition of 350 copies, this being no. 83, and SIGNED on the limitation page by both the author and his son (the jacket artist); this copy additionally SIGNED by the publisher, Dennis McMillan, on the copyright page. The author, in his foreword, explains that "The Paper Gun" is "a story complete in itself," but more in the nature of "a completely detailed synopsis on paper" than a fully-realized novel; he attributes this to the... View More...
(no dust jacket) [solid copy, moderate edgewear, slight fraying of cloth at top of spine, spine cloth darkened, small red mark on bottom page edges]. View More...
[light soiling to top and bottom edges of covers, flowery gift inscription (non-authorial) on ffep, bookplate on front pastedown; jacket is trimmed roughly 1/8"-1/4" along top and bottom edges, small stain at upper right corner of rear panel]. "The adventures of a big-time swindler, who starts a carefully organized campaign to swindle a rich, unworldly widow and becomes entangled in a tragic situation impossible to foresee." Basis for the 1946 Warner Bros. film of the same name, starring John Garfield and Geraldine Fitzgerald. The film had a long gestation period: an origina... View More...
[moderately shelfworn, light staining along bottom edge of front cover, slight fading to cloth here and there; jacket lightly edgeworn, tiny bits of paper loss at several corners, a number of old internal tape repairs/reinforcements]. Suspense novel about "a man whose moral code is based on expediency, [which] can include the necessity to slug, rob and kill." When he does just that -- kills a man in a brawl in a pub -- he finds himself on the run, and takes refuge (by force) in the room of a shop-girl. Basis for the 1948 film of the same name, starring Burt Lancaster and Joan Fontaine. View More...
[faint edgewear to covers, otherwise virtually as-new]. Trade PB Chandler's first novel, and the introduction of Philip Marlowe. The basis for two film adaptations: the terrific Howard Hawks-directed version from 1946 (with Humphrey Bogart as Marlowe), which rewards multiple re-viewings, and the far-less-than-terrific 1978 version, of which a single viewing was more than enough. (The latter might have seemed like a good idea at the time, given that its star (Robert Mitchum) had been an excellent Marlowe just a couple of years before, in Dick Richards's FAREWELL, MY LOVELY, but two (at least)... View More...