OTHER CRIME WRITERS AT
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UNITED KINGDOM

London : William Collins Sons & Co. (The Crime Club), (1980). First edition. Signed by Catherine Aird on the title-page. The ninth Inspector Sloan mystery. Motiveless murder at the flower show.
Post 8vo (21cm). 202,[ii]pp. Original red boards, blocked and lettered in gilt; slight marks on lower edge, but a very good copy in the original Colin Thomas dust-jacket – price-clipped and just slightly nicked at one corner.

£50

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London : Chatto & Windus, 1958. First edition. “It begins with murder on a rainy night in a cul-de-sac off London theatreland. Who were the strange couple in the country bus, certain witnesses of the crime?” – Inspector Luke and Mr Campion – a left-hand glove, a lizard-skin lettercase, a museum of oddities and a blood-chilling dump in the East End.
Post 8vo (21cm). (220)pp. Original orange boards, blocked and lettered in gilt; a touch of bruising and fading; endpapers lightly tanned; top edge a little spotted, but a good copy in the Youngman Carter dust-jacket – the jacket a touch tanned, but just lightly nicked and used, with an unobtrusive repaired tear, with a faint touch of spotting on the rear panel and also good.

SOLD

London : Chatto & Windus, 1968. First edition. Her final book, finalised from her manuscript after her death (at her request) by her husband, Philip Youngman Carter. A young woman doctor is bequeathed a house on an Essex estuary – anonymous letters, ton-up tearaways, an angry farmer, a shifty solicitor, an aged poet – and Albert Campion. “The seedy, half-alive village explodes into violence like a fire-cracker”.
Post 8vo (21cm). (224)pp. Double-page map by Youngman Carter. Original violet boards, lettered in gilt; a hint of bruising and faint sunning; a few slight spots, but a very good copy in the striking Carter dust-jacket – just faintly creased but also very good.

£50

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London : William Heinemann, (1952). First British edition. “Everything about old Lady Ellonby, from her long nose to her black walking-shoes, was decisively sharp and pointed” – a murder mystery with an English country-house setting.
Crown 8vo (19cm). [iv],(224)pp. Original black cloth, blocked and lettered in gilt, blocked in blind on lower cover; a few faint marks; some light spotting, mainly of edges; a few leaves slightly bruised, but a very good and sound copy.

£20

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London : Sands & Co., 1900. First edition. A rare, early, and entertaining murder mystery which opens with a young “unofficial investigator” in an office off Fenchurch Street. “One apparent murder, two advertisements in an agony column, two veiled ladies, a secret society, two or three villains, a highly suspicious private detective ... and another from Scotland Yard, more knave than fool, are the main ingredients” (Pall Mall Gazette, 19th April 1900). And to those we might add the anonymous letter, the overheard telephone call, the strange visitor, the cab-ride to an empty house beyond Ealing Common, and the corpse handcuffed to an insensate young man – “a maze of mysteries”.
Crown 8vo (20cm). viii,(240),[viii]pp. Original pictorial cloth, blocked in black, yellow and grey in an atmospheric design of a watcher by the window, the rooftops of London beyond; some light wear and a few marks; mild tanning of endpapers; a little shaken and slack; some minor marks and creases, but otherwise a good copy of a difficult title.

£200

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London : Longmans, Green & Co., (1947). A reprint of the original 1938 edition. “Wapping. Tugs and barges on the river. A west-end shop that deals apparently in nothing but lingerie. Women who sell their souls for something in a little screw of paper ...”.
Crown 8vo (20cm). [vi],278pp. Original red cloth, lettered in black; endpapers a little tanned, but a very good, crisp and bright copy, in a very lightly rubbed, slightly chipped and faintly darkened dust-jacket.

£15

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London : Hodder & Stoughton, (1963). First edition. A Jaguar car is stolen at London airport, but a flat tyre in Fulham disrupts a planned wage-snatch in Wandsworth. The abandoned car is impounded – and then the body is found.
Crown 8vo (20cm). (190),[ii]pp. Original boards; just a hint of bruising; minor mark to front endpaper, but a very good, clean and sound copy in the Von Briesen dust-jacket – also very good.

SOLD

London : Michael Joseph, (1948). First edition. His first thriller – a Buchanesque search for vital missing papers. “I happen to know a little bit about the way certain investigations of this kind were carried out during the war” (Nicolas Bentley).
Crown 8vo (19cm). (224)pp. Original black cloth, blocked and lettered across spine in red and yellow; a very good copy in the original dust-jacket – a striking design of canary and eyeball – just lightly used, rubbed, slightly nicked and creased.

£40

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London : for The Crime Club by Collins, (1949). First edition. Headless corpse found near the haunting and secret-ridden country house of a great poet – the stylish and enigmatic Nigel Strangeways investigates.
Crown 8vo (20cm). (256)pp. Original orange cloth, blocked and lettered in black; just a touch sunned; a few faint edge spots, but a very good copy.

£20

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London : Hammond, Hammond & Co., (1949). First edition. The plane crash-landed in the desert in a raging sandstorm ...” – an Anatole Flique novel, copyrighted in 1948, published in January 1949 and apparently never published in the USA. “A crisp style and originality of handling that lifts it from the conventional American thriller” (Western Morning News, 16th March 1949).
Crown 8vo (20cm). (192)pp. Original blue-green boards, blocked and lettered in gilt; spine slightly sunned through jacket, but a very good and sound copy in the original Stein dust-jacket – a design in black, yellow, green, blue, pink and purple – just a little sunned, very lightly worn at tips, and just slightly nicked.

£40

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London : Grant Richards, 1923. First edition. “The Virginiola Fraud”, “The Missing Actress Sensation”, and seven further mysteries featuring the all-seeing blind detective of Richmond. “As fresh ... as when he first appeared ... Mr. Chesterton’s ‘Father Brown’ and the late Jaques Futrelle’s ‘Thinking Machine’ perhaps run him rather close for the deputyship of the lamented Sherlock. Max probably has it with the average reader ... well above the ordinary standard by which fiction detectives capture magazine readers” (Yorkshire Post, 26th September 1923).
Crown 8vo (20cm). (320)pp. Original blue cloth, lettered in black; just a hint of rubbing and darkening, a couple of tiny marks, but a very good and sound copy.

£200

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London : William Heinemann, (1929). First edition. His second detective novel – a smartly constructed and much admired locked-room mystery – all the suspects with flawless alibis. “Quite an engaging little business, with some pleasantly new features. Somebody startles England by writing to the newspapers to say that he proposes to commit a murder. The date, and, roughly, the locality are given ... [and] at the appointed time somebody is found in the right place very dead indeed” (The Bystander, 17th April 1929).
Crown 8vo (20cm). [viii],312pp. Plan. Original black cloth, lettered in yellow; a few minor signs of age and use; some slight marks and spots; very mild tanning of endpapers; slight production flaw to front endpaper, but overall a very good copy.

SOLD

London : Hamish Hamilton, (1947). First British edition. The mystery of a man who comes back to London from the dead. “It looks impossible, insoluble; it turns out clear as day, a neat little crime, an excellently human motive. This is Carr at his best” (Illustrated London News, 23rd August 1947). Also published in New York the same year.
Crown 8vo (20cm). (256)pp. Original navy cloth, blocked and lettered in gilt; a few slight marks; a few spots to top edge, but a very good, bright and sound copy in the dust-jacket – a dramatic design by Harold Hookway Cowles (1896-1987) – with a few tiny marks and scuffs, but also very good.

£125

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London : Hamish Hamilton, (1959). First British edition. “A barrister has secretly adopted the child of a woman whom he himself had successfully prosecuted for murder. Of course, he gets murdered. The plot turns not only on who killed him, but on which of his children was the adopted one” (E. D. O’Brien, Illustrated London News, 3rd October 1959). With a concluding eleven pages of notes on the background and sources for London in 1865.
Crown 8vo (20cm). (236),[iv]pp. Original black boards, blocked and lettered in silver; a very good, bright, clean and sound copy in the striking Val Biro dust-jacket – also very good.

£25

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London : Herbert Jenkins, [1944]. First edition. The suicide of gambling man Colonel Trevor brings Inspector Jimmy Brigg to a suburban greyhound track – and then just as an outsider wins, a man falls dead. A nicely observed murder mystery from the veteran crime-writer.
Crown 8vo (20cm). 188pp. Original orange cloth, ruled, blocked and lettered in black; a number of edge spots, but otherwise a very good and bright copy in the striking dust-jacket – the jacket with just very minor wear and a little spotting on verso, but also very good.

£50

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London : Wright & Brown, (1937). First edition. Early evening in Soho and a rapid encounter with the notorious Sorilio Gang in “that famous rendezvous of London’s Bohemia, ‘Au Chat Noir’. The place was nearly full, and a pall of blue smoke hung over the main restaurant, while the acrid odour of cheap Italian cigars and cheroots offended the senses of any but habitués”. The first of just two crime novels from this almost certainly pseudonymous author.
Crown 8vo (19cm). 250,[vi]pp. Original orange cloth, ruled and lettered in black; lightly rubbed and a little sunned; some spotting, mainly of edges and prelims; a few minor marks and creases, but a good copy. The front free endpaper has been untidily removed, but its place taken in a very welcome survival by the vibrantly coloured front panel of the original dust-jacket, depicting the scene outside Au Chat Noir.

SOLD

London : Victor Gollancz, 1944. First edition. His uncommon first book – later published in the USA as “Obsequies at Oxford”. Gervase Fen making his first appearance in a witty and classical locked-room mystery with some theatrical types in wartime Oxford. “Whatever his true name is, he is most certainly a gentleman who knows Oxford backwards, forwards, and inside out. For his murders take place in the colleges, hotels and theatres of that city, and although these are in every case fictional, the calmer atmosphere of the Senior Common Room and the Porter’s Lodge is unmistakeably authentic” (The Sphere, 11th March 1944).
Crown 8vo (183 x 120mm). (160)pp. Plan. Bound, without half-title, in an elegant recent half green morocco, banded and gilt; top edge gilt; original cloth backstrip preserved at rear; wartime paper lightly tanned, but otherwise a very good copy in an attractive binding.

£250

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London : Museum Press, [1955]. First edition. Charles Fawcett has invented something very special, but his plans unravel – Richard Maidment, a.k.a. Mr Pilgrim, to the rescue. A mystery with “all the speed, wit and technical excellence of the Americans, Michael Cronin ... can infuse as much glamour into his (British) lovelies as even Mr. Goldwyn could wish for” (London Evening News).
Crown 8vo (20cm). 192pp. Original black boards, blocked and lettered in silver; internally a poor copy – lacking front free endpaper; outer leaves stained; text marked and creased; tape repair to final leaf; but a serviceable reading copy in a distinctive dust-jacket by John Pollack (1918-1985) – the spine of the jacket rubbed and nicked, but substantially complete and otherwise in good order. Inked shelfmarks to half-title and front flap of jacket.

£15

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London : André Deutsch, (1978). First British edition. Stamp-dealer found murdered – karate, roses and zen. A Masao Masuto mystery – “here he is at his incomparable best” (Louis Untermeyer).
Post 8vo (21cm). [viii],(160)pp. Original orange boards, blocked and lettered in black; some spotting of edges and prelims, but otherwise a very good copy in the original dust-jacket – a photographic design by James Jackson, lettered in orange and white – also very good.

£20

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London : Ward, Lock & Co., (1938). First edition. Detective-Sergeant Frank Osborne of the CID waits for his girl on the corner of Jermyn Street – but his attention is distracted by the blonde in white and her red hat. An engaging crime novel from the Anglo-Canadian Maurice Dix.
Crown 8vo (20cm). 288pp. Original tan cloth, lettered in brown; mild creasing to spine; some spotting to edges and prelims, but otherwise a very good copy.

£40

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London : Chatto & Windus, 1897. First edition. “The name of Dick Donovan is well-known. He has not a rival who can touch him in his own particular line, and these ‘Chronicles’ will probably take rank as the best Detective Stories ever written. But apart from their literary merit they deal with some very remarkable phases of crime, not the vulgar, sordid crime of the gutter and the slum, but crime considered as a fine art” (Edinburgh Evening News, 16th January 1897). Nine Michael Danevitch stories, including “The Mysterious Disappearance of a Million Roubles”, “A Modern Borgia”, “The Merchant of Riga”, etc., together with the novella, “The Clue of the Dead Hand”, featuring the Edinburgh detective Peter Brodie.
Crown 8vo (20cm). [2],[vi],304 + 8,32pp advertisements, the latter dated February 1897. Original blue cloth, elaborately blocked and lettered in silver; some light wear at extremities; endpapers a little cracked; slight tear to one advertisement leaf; a few spots, but a good copy. Contemporary ownership inscription of Isabel Vernon.

£100

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London : Chatto & Windus, 1899. First edition. Sixteen short stories, including “The Spell of the Black Siren”, “A String of Famous Pearls”, “The League of Death”, “The Forged Cheque”, etc. “Mr. Dick Donovan is well known as a writer of clever detective stories. ‘The Records of Vincent Trill’ (Chatto) is as good as any that he has given us. Vincent Trill was no ordinary detective ... It is of course another matter whether it is desirable to encourage the public interest in the records of crime and criminals, but one can hardly blame Mr. Donovan for giving his readers what they want” (St. James’s Gazette, 17th May 1899).
Crown 8vo (20cm). [2],[vi],(286),[ii] + 32pp inserted advertisements dated September 1898. Original pictorial cloth; a little rubbed and slightly bruised; a few minor marks and spots, but a good copy.

£100

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London : George Newnes, 1901. First edition. “Leave me woman; for heaven’s sake, leave me; do not taunt me into madness ...” – a taut thriller from the enduringly popular Southampton-born writer who also went by the name of Joyce Emmerson Preston Muddock.
Crown 8vo (20cm). vi,378pp. Original decorative cloth gilt; lightly rubbed and marked; endpapers lightly tanned, but still an attractive copy. Partially removed contemporary school prize-label on front paste-down. Hubin p.120.

£40

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London : Collins for The Crime Club, (1946). First edition. “Looking back on it all, I cannot believe that it happened, though I have tangible proof that it did. It seems now like a long drawn-out dream; or, more accurately, a nightmare ...” – the lives of fellow-travellers on the same coach become entangled.
Crown 8vo (20cm). 192pp. Original orange cloth, lettered in black; edges spotted, but otherwise a very good sound and bright copy in the colourful dust-jacket (a design by. S. J.) – the jacket price-clipped, just lightly rubbed at extremities and a little spotted on the lower panel and flaps. Contemporary (February 1947) ownership inscription of J. P. Farnley neatly pasted over, with a related manuscript date on rear endpaper.

£50

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London : William Heinemann, (1953). First edition. A presentation copy, inscribed, signed and dated (1953) by Fitzgerald. “I came back to my flat an hour before my normal time and entered my sitting-room at the moment poor Edwards was being shot by a gloved man in a stocking mask” – trusted head of government department engaged on secret work disappears – traps, betrayals, Spanish bandits, and the sinister brotherhood of Los Pobrecitos Locos – the Poor Little Crazy Ones.
Crown 8vo (20cm). [iv],(212)pp. Original red boards, lettered in gilt; device in blind on lower cover; faint spine crease; mild spotting of edges, but a good and sound copy.

£20

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London : George G. Harrap & Co., (1934). First jigsaw edition. An elegant Fletcher country-house mystery – the Ellingshurst diamonds go missing, a housemaid is murdered, and the mysterious tenant of the Dower House disappears. Originally published the previous year, but here reissued in the “Harrap Jig-Saw Mystery” series, with a pink tissue insert at p.236 demanding that the reader “Stop!”, followed by instructions to assemble the jigsaw puzzle contained in a compartment at the rear to reveal the culprit, and then to open up the pink-sealed final pages for the full denouement.
Crown 8vo (20cm). (3)-(252),[ii]pp. With all bar one of the 150 jigsaw puzzle pieces (lacking just one corner piece) and both halves of the pink tissue seal. Original orange cloth, blocked and lettered in black; faint strip of sunning at head; some spotting, mainly of edges and endpapers; some internal marks, but a good and still bright copy in the green and yellow dust-jacket – the jacket a little worn and creased, with a few marks, spots and short nicks, but a complete and uncommon survival.

£200

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London : Collier & Co., 1908. First British edition. It begins at a masked ball – a young woman in a Western outfit and a man dressed as a burglar. Love story, crime story, mystery novel. “A puzzle both subtle and intricate ... three distinct sets of intelligence, of different qualities, are set to work to unriddle the mystery” (The Scotsman, 18th May 1908) – police, journalist, and the extraordinary Professor Van Dusen – the “Thinking Machine”. Futrelle’s first “Thinking Machine” novel, originally published in New York in 1906.
Crown 8vo (20cm). (224)pp. Coloured frontispiece by Reginald Pannett. Original green cloth, lettered in gilt and blocked in blind, with two pictorial onlays by Pannett; just a hint of bruising; endpapers lightly tanned; a few edge spots, but a very good, bright and attractive copy.

£250

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London : Hodder & Stoughton, (1957). First British edition. Drowned some eighty-six years earlier, the Herr Graf materialises to play himself in a movie.
Crown 8vo (20cm). 190,[ii]pp. Original dark green boards, ruled and lettered in gilt; a few faint marks, but a very good copy in the original dust-jacket – a touch sunned, slightly nicked and just lightly worn at extremities.

£25

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London : William Collins Sons & Co. (Crime Club), (1978). First edition. Lovejoy is broke, but has the clues to an amazing find. His means of financing the treasure hunt are idiosyncratic. The second Lovejoy novel.
Post 8vo (21cm). 192,[iv]pp. Original red boards, blocked and lettered in gilt; a very good copy in the Colin Thomas dust-jacket – the jacket just very faintly rubbed, but also very good.

£75

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London : Arthur Barker, (1961). First edition. Hate, revenge and death – Janine (fatally tender), Samuel Boone (tycoon with conscience), and Kovas (communist seeking revenge) – Peter and Janine drawn into an inescapable cycle.
Post 8vo (21cm). 224pp. Original green cloth, lettered in black; mild spotting of edges, but a very good copy in the Eileen Walton dust-jacket – just lightly worn at extremities and slightly marked on lower panel, but also very good.

£20

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London : Greening & Co., 1899. First edition. A murder mystery set in the Surrey Hills – "A good example of the old 'shilling shocker' expanded to the size of an ordinary novel. We begin with the customary murder, for which, on this occasion, there at first seems even less motive than usual; then we have the false clues and the amateur detective; and at last the discovery of the criminal in an unexpected personage ... superior to many of its class" (Yorkshire Post, 11 July 1900). "The writing is exceptionally good for this class of literature" (Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper, 14 July, 1900).
Crown 8vo (21cm). viii,388 + 24pp inserted advertisements dated October 1899. Original pictorial cloth in a flamboyant design of orange, black and white; lightly rubbed and slightly bruised; lower cover a little marked; lacks front free endpaper; front hinge cracking; a little shaken; text a little tanned and slightly brittle; a few leaves carelessly opened, but a reasonable copy of a scarce and fragile production.

SOLD

London : Bodley Head, (1970). First edition. A collection of thirteen stories featuring London detectives from the 1891-1914 period – by Clifford Ashdown, Guy Boothby, Ernest Bramah, William le Queux, Arthur Morrison, Baroness Orczy, Max Pemberton, etc. Selected and introduced by Sir Hugh Greene.
Demy 8vo (23cm). (352)pp. Original cloth; a touch bowed, but a very good copy in a price-clipped and lightly creased dust-jacket.

£20

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London : Bodley Head, (1973). First edition. A collection of thirteen stories from before the Great War – crime in the shires – by M. McD. Bodkin, Ernest Bramah, Dick Donovan, J. S. Fletcher, Jacques Futrelle, Fergus Hume, Arthur Morrison, Victor L. Whitechurch, etc. Selected and introduced by Sir Hugh Greene.
Demy 8vo (23cm). (318),[ii]pp. Original boards; a few faint edge spots, but a very good copy in a slightly nicked dust-jacket.

£20

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London : George Routledge & Sons, 1899. First British edition. “For those who like plenty of action, a jumping from sensation to sensation, in fact, a progress so exciting that the reader, gripped by the story, has no time to question its probabilities, this is just the book ... a smart detective ... a Wall Street firm believed to be fraudulent ... the detective personates a dead man ... burglars, fires, and dynamite ... certainly the best novel Mr. Gunter has given us for a long time past” (Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper, 24th September 1899). First published in New York earlier in 1899.
Crown 8vo (19cm). (290),[vi]pp. Original pictorial boards; a little worn and slightly scuffed; hinges a little tender; some spotting to endpapers; text a little tanned; a touch shaken, but a better than average copy of a fragile production.

£25

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London : HarperCollins, (2007). First edition. Signed by Reginald Hill on the title-page. A huge Semtex explosion, Dalziel at death’s door, Pascoe wants to know about the shadowy Knights Templar.
Medium 8vo (25cm). 280pp. Original black boards, blocked and lettered in gilt; just a hint of bruising; a few faint marks, but overall still a very good copy in a very good dust-jacket.

£25

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London : Methuen & Co., (1923). First edition. Secret intelligence papers arrive on the eve of his wedding, but Carling does not trust his chief’s lovely young wife. Later published in the USA as “The Phone Booth Mystery”.
Crown 8vo (20cm). vi,(232),8pp. Original blue cloth, ruled in blind on upper cover; ruled and lettered in black across upper cover and spine; a few slight flecks and marks; edges spotted; very slight browning of endpapers, but a very good and bright copy.

£25

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London : Faber & Faber, (1977). First edition. A young girl found murdered in East Anglia, but then a second death at the forensic laboratory investigating the case – Commander Dalgleish is called in. “One of the most unusual and puzzling cases of his career”.
Post 8vo (21cm). [vi],(266)pp. Original red boards, ruled and lettered in gilt; a few slight marks; small erasure from foot of title-page, but otherwise a very good copy in the Terry Trott dust-jacket – the jacket very good, clean and unworn.

£50

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London : Victor Gollancz, 1981. First British edition. “A brilliant scheme to obtain four million dollars by a highly original form of extortion” from a luxury hotel-cum-apartment block. By the author of “The Cincinnati Kid”.
Post 8vo (21cm). 256pp. Original red boards, lettered in gilt; top edge lightly spotted, but otherwise a very good copy indeed in an equally very good dust-jacket.

£10

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London : Hurst & Blackett, (1968). First edition. A broken engagement, a mysterious death in Austria, a row with a reporter, and terror in an Alpine village. Signed by the author, as “Barbara Kaye”, on the title-page and further inscribed on the front free endpaper with love to Elizabeth – this being the crime writer “Elizabeth Ferrars” (pseudonym of Morna MacTaggart) and signed Marie, i.e. “Marie Muir”- another of Barbara Muir’s pseudonyms – one author playfully addressing the other under their assumed names.
Crown 8vo (20cm). (184)pp. Original red boards, blocked and lettered in gilt; a very good, bright, sound and clean copy in the dust-jacket – the jacket a little rubbed and slightly worn at folds, but complete and attractive still.

£40

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London : Weidenfeld & Nicolson, (1996). First edition. Signed by John Lawton on the title-page. The second of the much-admired Frederick Troy series – Chief Inspector Troy is assigned to bodyguard and spy on Nikita Khrushchev on his visit to England – “A splash of Greene, a twist of Deighton, a small measure of history – Lawton has produced a thrilling cocktail” (The Times).
Royal 8vo (25cm). [x],416,[vi]pp. Original maroon boards, lettered in gilt; the merest hint of bruising, but a very good copy indeed – bright, clean and sound – in an equally very good dust-jacket.

£100

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London : Weidenfeld & Nicolson, (1998). First edition. Signed by John Lawton on the title-page. The scarce third novel in the much-admired Frederick Troy series – it is 1963 – a defection, a ministerial resignation, an overdose and a suicide – all echoes of very real events – an “unputdownable narrative of spying, sexual intrigue, political scandal and murder ... a haunting novel, transcending the bounds of genre fiction” (A. N. Wilson in the Daily Telegraph).
Royal 8vo (25cm). [viii],440pp. Original black boards, lettered in silver; an excellent copy, bright, clean and sound, in an equally fine dust-jacket.

£100

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London : Grant Richards, 1898. First edition. Laurence Gray, young man of humble background from Blackburn made good, is wrongfully arrested for murder on the day of his engagement to the beautiful Geraldine Lucas. On the one hand a powerful indictment of the penal system, on the other “a chaotic conglomeration of sensational incidents, flung together in an inartistic fashion” (Dundee Advertiser, 12 May 1898).
Crown 8vo (20cm). (viii),316,[iv]pp. Frontispiece and seven dramatic plates by the always entertaining Stanley Llewellyn Wood (1866-1928). Original pictorial mustard cloth, reproducing one of the Wood plates; spine a touch darkened; endpapers slightly cracking; a few minor marks and spots, but still an attractive copy.

£100

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London : William Heinemann, (2005). First British edition. Signed by Donna Leon on the title-page. Death of an illegal immigrant in Venice – Commissario Guido Brunetti finds there is more to it. “Donna Leon has a wonderful feel for the hidden evils that lie below the facade of the magical city, and Brunetti, sturdy family nan and cynic, is an endearing guide to the machinations of Italian society” (The Times).
Demy 8vo (23cm). [viii],276,[iv]pp. Endpaper maps. Original blue boards, blocked and lettered in gilt; a few very faint signs of use, but a very good copy in the Richard Dunkley dust-jacket – also very good.

£25

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London : Hodder & Stoughton, (1982). First edition. The second of the Harry Maxim novels – “Mr Lyall saunters down the corridors of power and the alleys of pugilism with laconic grace and a steady aim” (from the original Sunday Times review).
Demy 8vo (23cm). (256)pp. Original dark green boards, blocked and lettered in gilt; edges a little spotted, but a very good copy in the original Melvyn Gill dust-jacket, lettered in green and white – also very good.

£20

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London : Quartet Books, (1976). First British edition. The Scottish poet with a torrid tale of a far-right Japanese grouping – with the theft of some antique Japanese swords in London, the British secret services become involved. Rejoiced in by “The Library Journal” as having “too much action in this wild, hilarious, ultimate take-off on the Bond-type novel for one to bother with analysis ... If you can manage to slow down for a second, you may also notice that Macbeth can write”.
Demy 8vo (23cm). [x],242,[iv]pp. Original violet boards, lettered in silver; a very good copy in the Dave Roe pictorial dust-jacket – the jacket flaps lightly tanned, but otherwise also very good.

£20

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London : Victor Gollancz, 1971. First edition. “There’s a corpse in the copse ...” — a seedy literary hanger-on found dead on his way to see his editor in Kent — American private eye Jim Piron, some ripely eccentric characters, the author’s sardonic humour, and a fine English country-house murder. “McGirr at his splendidly ingenious and exhilarating best”.
Post 8vo (21cm). 160pp. Original red boards, lettered in gilt; just a hint of bruising, but a very good, bright and sound copy in the Gollancz yellow dust-jacket, printed in magenta and black — just faintly bruised and with some mild creasing, but also very good.

£25

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London : Harvill Press, (2003). First British edition. The disappearance of a blameless estate agent in Southern Sweden leads Kurt Wallander to a plot against the newly freed Nelson Mandela. First published as “Den Vita Lenjoninnan” in Stockholm in 1993 and here in the translation by Laurie Thompson first published in the United States in 1998.
Medium 8vo (25cm). [viii],440pp. Maps. Original black boards, blocked and lettered in gilt; a touch bruised; edges very faintly tanned, but a very good copy in the Peter Dyer dust-jacket – the jacket just slightly nicked in a couple of places, but also very good. Waterstone’s sticker on front panel.

£20

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London : Harvill Secker, (2008). First edition in English. An interesting foreword from the author and five Wallander stories from periods in his life predating any of the novel appearances – Wallander before becoming a senior police officer. First published in Swedish in 1999. Translated by Ebba Segerberg and Laurie Thompson.
Medium 8vo (25cm). [viii],376pp. Original navy boards, ruled and lettered in gilt; a very good copy in the Andre Thijssen dust-jacket, also very good.

£20

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London : Arthur Gray (Books), [1934]. First edition. “At the end of an evening spent in the West End of London this man found his mind a complete blank as to the events of an hour of it, and he discovered in his possession, inexplicably, a parcel of diamonds that represented a fortune. How, where, and with whom, had he spent the mystery hour?” – Philip Granger is soon mixed up with Doc Summers, bland and ambassadorial king of crime (drawn from the life), but the beautiful Olive is intent on saving him.
Crown 8vo (19cm). (254),[ii]pp. Original orange cloth, lettered in black; small and faint band of discolouration at foot of spine; a few edge-spots; text lightly tanned; a couple of nicks and small flaws, but a good copy of an uncommon title – in the striking original dust-jacket by H. W. Perl (1897-1952) – the jacket a little worn, and lightly creased and sunned, with a few repaired splits and a tear, but complete and attractive still.

£200

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London : Hodder & Stoughton, (2002). First edition. Her powerful fourth crime novel – mystery, parapsychology and madness on the Northumberland moors.
Medium 8vo (25cm). 246,[ii]pp. Original black boards, lettered on spine in gilt; a very good copy in a just lightly used dust-jacket.

£20

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London : Methuen & Co., (1929). First edition. “As soon as he heard the crash, and felt the lurch and quiver of the ship, the man in deck-cabin number seven threw aside the bed-clothes and, pulling on a dressing-gown, went quickly across to the flat trunk that lay in the corner. It had three heavy locks, and for each one he used a differently shaped key ...”.
Crown 8vo (19cm). (256)pp. Original blue boards, lettered and ruled in black; just a hint of rubbing to tips; very mild tanning of endpapers; a few edge spots, but overall a very good, bright and sound copy.

£25

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London : Ward, Lock, Bowden & Co., [ca.1891]. An undated reissue of the British edition, originally published by Ward, Lock & Co. in 1887, but here with the addition of James Bowden to the title-page imprint (the upper wrapper retaining the original imprint). The shadowy nineteenth-century American woman crime-writer was most often published under her “Lawrence Lynch” pseudonym, but here appears under her genuine maiden name with a tale of the theft of a trove of diamonds. First published in Chicago in 1884 as by Lawrence L. Lynch.
Post 8vo (21cm). 160pp. Original pictorial wrappers – now with an additional plain outer wrapper; a little worn and slightly chipped and frayed; text a little tanned and brittle; a few nicks and chips, but a reasonable copy of a fragile and ephemeral production. An ex-library copy, with the occasional stamps of Paddington Public Library.

£50

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London : John Long, (1906). First edition. A scarce Edwardian murder mystery from the war correspondent turned novelist. An old man well-known in London and sinfully rich disappears off the face of the earth. A drunken journalist identifies the body seven years later and decides to investigate – then changes his mind. Belle Molloy, whose Irish lilt tends to lapse into broader brogue, and her beautiful young friend Miss Lilian Lee also feature.
Crown 8vo (20cm). 318,[ii] + (32)pp inserted advertisements dated June 1906. Original pictorial cloth, lettered in gilt on spine and enamelled in red, white and black on upper cover; just lightly rubbed and a touch bruised; mild tanning of endpapers; some spotting, mainly of edges and prelims, but a very good copy. Contemporary ownership inscription of Arthur Garratt.

£125

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London : Harvill Secker, (2012). First edition in English of “Gjenferd” (2011). Harry Hole is back in Oslo – but his ghosts are catching up with him. “From the moment he steps off the plane, someone is watching his every move and tracing his every call”. Translated by Don Bartlett.
Medium 8vo (25cm). [vi],452,[vi]pp. Maps. Original grey boards, lettered in black; a few faint signs of use, but a very good copy in the dust-jacket – also very good.

£20

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London : New English Library, (1972). First edition. Jack Manso, head of the firm, Terry Sneed, corrupt detective, etc. – a chilling and sobering fiction (with a glossary of underworld slang) dedicated to Ronnie, Reggie and Charlie, and Charlie and Eddie, and Frankie, and Billy.
Post 8vo (21cm). 348,[iv]pp. Original blue boards, blocked and lettered in gilt; text faintly tanned as usual, but a very good copy in the original photographic dust-jacket by Klepth – just very lightly rubbed at extremities and with one short nick. With the ownership stamp of Bill Norman.

£25

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London : Victor Gollancz, 1984. First British edition. The second Vic Warshawski mystery – the unexplained death of her cousin.
Post 8vo (21cm). [iv],252pp. Original red boards lettered in gilt; a very good copy indeed in the Gollancz yellow dust-jacket, lettered in black and cerise – price-clipped but also very good.

£25

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London : Victor Gollancz, 1952. First edition. Owen of the Yard investigates the murder of an unassuming commercial traveller in Pending Dale – “What is distinction? ... in the works of Mr. E. R. Punshon we salute it every time” (Dorothy L. Sayers).
Crown 8vo (20cm). (224)pp. Original red boards, lettered in gilt; text lightly tanned, but a very good copy of an elusive book in the Gollancz yellow dust-jacket – price-clipped, a little spotted and with a few tiny nicks, minuscule chips and a couple of short tears, but otherwise itself very good.

£75

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London : Victor Gollancz, 1954. First British edition. “A first-rate story of New England mayhem, in which those familiar characters, Queen père et fils, are temporarily discarded and the near-lynching and sleuthing are done by the locals. Original, violent and ingenious” (The Sphere, 11th September 1954).
Crown 8vo (20cm). 222pp. Original red boards, lettered in gilt; just a touch bruised, edges a little spotted and tanned, but a good copy in the Gollancz yellow dust-jacket, lettered in magenta and black – the jacket just lightly used, slightly marked and a little dulled, but complete and attractive still.

£15

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London : Orion Books, (1998). First edition. “Damon Mee was last seen in a blurred security video on the dance floor of a Kirkcaldy night club ...”. One of the “Criminal Records” series of novellas, edited by Otto Penzler.
Crown 8vo (20cm). [vi],73,[i]pp. Original blue boards, blocked and lettered in silver; just a hint of tanning, but a very good, bright and firm copy in the dust-jacket – equally very good.

£20

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London : Jonathan Cape, (1971). First edition. “When a woman tells you her past, you can be sure she intends you to be her future, you can quote me there” — the interior monologue of a very ordinary man with a mind to murder his wife. “Its theme is the habitual duplicity of civilized life. Conspiracy, says Frederic Raphael, is the inevitable partner of permanence; we share our beds with strangers”.
Post 8vo (21cm). (184)pp. Original black boards, blocked and lettered in gilt; top edge red; slight tanning to endpapers and a couple of spots, but a very good copy in the Colin Andrews dust-jacket — the jacket sunned at spine (as usual) and price-clipped by the publisher, with a revised price over-sticker, but with only a very faint suggestion of wear and also very good.

£25

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London : Hutchinson & Co. (Publishers), (1971). First edition. Crossword addict Stanley Manning has his eyes on his wife’s inheritance from his hated mother-in-law — “a man dominated by greed, who discovers, as his nerve goes, that a harmless hobby may become an over-ruling obsession”.
Post 8vo (21cm). (192)pp. Original brown boards, blocked and lettered in gilt; mild tanning to endpapers, but a very good copy in the Colin Andrews dust-jacket — the jacket with just a touch of edge-wear and some slight creasing to inner flaps, but also very good. Contemporary gift inscription to front free endpaper.

£125

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London : Hodder & Stoughton, [1929]. An early reprint of the original 1928 edition. Bulldog Drummond has rid the world of Carl Peterson, but Irma lives on – Mrs Drummond is abducted, “hair-raising adventures in haunted houses, deserted mills, at Stonehenge at midnight, and in Irma’s fantastic room. The probabilities of the tale may be far-fetched, but that will not prevent its being hailed as worthy successor to the stories of the series that have preceded it” (The Scotsman, 16th August 1928).
Crown 8vo (20cm). 312,4pp. Original mustard-yellow cloth, lettered in black; a few minor marks and slight creases; mild spotting of edges; outer leaves lightly tanned, but overall a very good copy. Contemporary (1929) gift inscription.

£20

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London : Hodder & Stoughton, [1930]. First edition. “Tiny Carteret stretched out a hand like a leg of mutton and picked up the marmalade. On the sideboard what remained of the kidneys and bacon still sizzled cheerfully on the hot plate; by his side a cup of dimensions suitable for a baby’s bath gave forth the fragrant smell of coffee. In short, Tiny Carteret, half-way through his breakfast ...”. Rugby-playing hero ventures forth – sinister organisation based in Switzerland, compromising photographic negative, the honour of a Balkan queen, the happiness of an English duke’s daughter, the security of the state, London night-clubs, Parisian hotels, murder and mayhem – “a story of thrilling adventure and ingenuity the like of which has seldom been written” (Western Mail, 14th August 1930).
Crown 8vo (20cm). 320pp. Original blue cloth, ruled in black and blind, and lettered in black; a few edge spots, but a very good sharp and sound copy. Contemporary (December 1930) ownership inscription of Barbara Dunn.

£40

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London : Macmillan London, (1990). First edition. Signed by John Sherwood on the title-page. A Celia Grant mystery – nothing what it seems in an Elizabethan garden.
Demy 8vo (23cm). (192)pp. Original green boards, lettered in silver; very faint and narrow strip of fading at foot; text just a little browned; but still a very good copy in the original photographic Paul Grant dust-jacket – also very good.

£25

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London : Macmillan London, (1994). First edition. Academic disappears in the Loire Valley – Celia Grant investigates.
Demy 8vo (23cm). [iv],(204)pp. Original holly green boards, lettered in gilt; very good indeed in the original pictorial dust-jacket – also very good.

£20

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London : Collins, 1954. First edition. “Delaney should never have been there at all, out on the Sydney waterfront in the dark. He should have been with Kathy ...” – the third of the Dennis Delaney detective novels.
Crown 8vo (20cm). 192pp. Original maroon boards, lettered in silver; mild tanning of endpapers, but a very good copy in the stylish John Rose dust-jacket – the jacket with a few slight marks, a few short nicks and slight tears, and some spots to rear flap, but complete and close to very good.

£25

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London : Gerald G. Swan, (1942). Her first crime novel – and we meet the curious investigator Jacob Chaos. Murder in a madhouse – Dr Royd has been killed and any number of people had good cause.
Crown 8vo (19cm). (224)pp. Plan. Original blue cloth, lettered in gilt; front free endpaper neatly excised; text a little tanned, but otherwise a very good copy in the striking original dust-jacket – a little trimmed, slightly marked and very lightly worn and nicked, but also very good.

£50

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London : Michael Joseph, (1988). First edition. His first book – high finance, extortion and the Tokyo underworld.
Demy 8vo (23cm). [vi],(278),[ii]pp. Original blue boards, blocked and lettered in silver; very good in the original pictorial Alun Hood dust-jacket – also very good.

£25

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Sydney : Angus & Robertson, (1958). First edition. Laid in on front free endpaper is a label signed, dated (1970) and inscribed by Dal Stivens. Successful barrister, attractive mistress, allurement and murder for murder’s sake.
Post 8vo (21cm). [viiii],208pp. Original dark blue boards, lettered in gilt; lightly bruised, but a very good copy in the original dust-jacket – a design in grey, pink, black and white – just very slightly rubbed, a touch sunned, slightly nicked and with mild spotting on lower panel.

£20

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London : John Lane, The Bodley Head, (1938). First British edition. The second of the author’s murder mysteries – set in New York. “Three murders at the rate of half a crown apiece is good value for money, and those who demand tales of sudden death for their entertainment will welcome ‘The Embarrassed Murderer’ ... if only for the authoress’s prodigality ... [but] Miss Stockwell’s ‘thriller’ has more to recommend it than generosity in the matter of corpses, however, for it is one of the best pieces of detective fiction I have read recently ... each of [the murders] is closely related to the elusive ‘perfect crime’ ... For crime fiction this gets top marks” (Western Morning News, 9th November 1938).
Crown 8vo (20cm). [vi],282pp. Original green cloth, lettered in brown; a few faint marks; edges a little spotted, but a very good copy in the James Arnold dust-jacket – the jacket just a touch dulled at spine and with a handful of spots, but also very good.

£100

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London : Gerald G. Swan, [1945]. First edition. Twenty-four short crime stories – by Ian Begbie; Leslie Berkly; Don Black (2); Douglas Blair; Leslie Bussey (2); G. M. Byrne (2); Michael Dare; Hal Drummond (Blondes Ain’t So Dumb); John Eagle; Dora Garnett; Ronald Horton; Maurice G. Hugi; Dallas Kirby; Peter Larcombe; Norman Lazenby (Red Scarf Murder); Clifford Lewis (Man Hunt); G. H. Lister (Murder at Noon); O.J.Q.; Rex Ransley; Shelley Smith (Death of an Artist), and Leopold Spero.
Demy 8vo (22cm). (128)pp. Illustrations. Original cloth-backed thin pictorial boards; some slight rubbing and wear; some minor internal damage to gutter at front and rear, but a good copy of an uncommon production. Just a single copy (British Library) located in major libraries worldwide.

SOLD

London : Victor Gollancz, 1986. First edition. The fourth William Dougal and James Hanbury novel – Hanbury plans to marry into respectability.
Post 8vo (21cm). (184)pp. Original red boards; very good indeed in the original yellow, black and cerise dust-jacket – price-clipped, but otherwise also very good indeed.

£20

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London : Victor Gollancz, (1987). First edition. The fifth William Dougal mystery – murder and the Jacobite guinea.
Post 8vo (21cm). (192)pp. Original red boards; tiny edge spot, but a very good indeed in the original Eleni Michael dust-jacket – a design in red, yellow, black and white – price-clipped, but otherwise also very good indeed.

£20

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London : Robert Holden & Co., (1915 [but 1926]). [Second edition]. The first and most famous of the Doctor Syn novels – the piratical vicar of Dymchurch – rum-running, night-riding and coffins. Thorndike starred in his own touring production of a stage version in the 1920s, produced by his sister – Dame Sybil Thorndike (1882-1976) – who contributes a foreword to the present edition. It was filmed in 1937 with George Arliss, Margaret Lockwood, etc.
Crown 8vo (181 x 117mm). 256pp. Bound, without preliminary blanks, in a fine recent half blue morocco, by Bayntun-Riviere; top edge gilt; marbled sides and endleaves; a sprinkling of edge-spots, but a very good copy.

£250

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London : George Vickers, 1863 [i.e.1862]. First edition. “Yes, I am a thief! I will not say that I glory in the title ... but, as I am about to write my ‘Confessions’, as other men, great in their way – and I am a very great man in mine – have done before me, I may as well start fair, and own myself at once what I am, what I always have been, what I was born, bred, and brought up – A THIEF!” – the book was announced in the “London Evening Standard” on 11th December 1862 as to be published in ornamental boards at a shilling and sixpence on the 15th December – “The disclosures made in this volume will be read with deep and peculiar interest. It is full of information”. Sometimes attributed to Irving Lyons, author of “The Boy Pirate” and “Black Rollo, the Pirate”, although no contemporary person of that name has been traced. The book was evidently not a success: 896 copies were auctioned off at Hodgson’s in October 1863, along with 50,000 assorted others books classified as “capital popular books, railway reading, &c.”.
Foolscap 8vo (17cm). viii,312pp. Original decorative boards; spine darkened, worn and chipped; edges rubbed; lower hinge cracking; lacks front free endpaper; an indifferent but serviceable copy of a cheaply made and extremely rare book. Just two copies (Amsterdam and Harry Ransom, Texas) of this edition located in major libraries worldwide, none in the United Kingdom.

£250

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London : Ward, Lock & Co., (1938). First edition. Doctor Lomax is a known proponent of euthanasia. One morning his mother, suffering from an incurable illness, is found dead. Conclusions are drawn. His fiancée is young barrister Octavia Bayne. In the days before Platt gave up the law to become a writer, it was in his office that Count Esterhazy dictated the confession which unravelled the Dreyfus Affair.
Crown 8vo (19cm). 316,[iv]pp. Original red cloth, lettered in black; some minor fading; some spotting, mainly of prelims and edges, but otherwise a very good copy in the pictorial dust-jacket by Joseph van Abbé (1889-1954) – tanned at spine, price-clipped, a little rubbed, lightly worn, slightly creased, nicked and a little split and chipped, but still an attractive survival. Gift inscription dated 1947 and small blurred stamp on front free endpaper.

£50

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London : Macmillan London, (1988). First edition. Signed by M. J. Trow on the title-page. Superintendent Sholto Lestrade is recovering from a broken leg in 1912 – but then his future father-in-law’s butler is murdered by mistake and a letter arrives reading simply, “Four for the Gospel Makers”.
Post 8vo (21cm). 224pp. Original blue boards, lettered in silver; a very good copy in the original pictorial dust-jacket – the jacket also very good.

£25

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London : Herbert Jenkins, [ca.1932]. A reprint in Jenkins’ “Shilling Library” format. Clare Charters, famous actress, and a question over the timing of her husband’s death. First published in 1925.
Foolscap 8vo (18cm). 312pp. Original orange boards, lettered, ruled and decorated in black; a little worn, slight nick at head of spine; but a nice copy in the original dust-jacket – shadow of a gun on a clock-face – rubbed, chipped and slightly repaired but still attractive.

£15

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London : Odhams Press, [1938]. A reissue of the book first published by Collins the previous year with the additional sub-title “The Story of a Freelance Spy”. A thriller from “the Australian Edgar Wallace” with a Spanish Civil War setting – a tunnel to Africa under the Straits of Gibraltar, Colonel Ormiston of the Secret Service investigates.
Crown 8vo (20cm). [ii],252,[ii]pp – including integral endpapers. Original green cloth, blocked and lettered in gilt; spine lettering a touch dulled; edges somewhat spotted, but a very good and sound copy in the original pictorial dust-jacket – just very slightly nicked and chipped.

£20

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London : J. & C. Brown & Co., 1856. First edition. The very first appearance in fiction of a Scotland Yard detective – stories by “Waters”’ of the Yard, the narrator invented by journalist William Russell – the very first English detective stories. Originally published in Chambers’ Edinburgh Journal between 1849 and 1852, with some of the stories appearing in book form in New York in 1852, the present publication is the first appearance of all eleven, with a final twelfth tale not previously published.
Foolscap 8vo (18cm). (310)pp. Wood-engraved frontispiece, engraved by George Measom (1818-1901), later knighted for his charitable work. Original pictorial boards, a dramatic yellowback design in red and black; rebacked with a neat paper spine replacing the fragile lost original; some rubbing and wear; internally a few small marks, spots and slight creases, but overall an attractive copy of a cornerstone of the genre.

£1,000

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London : J. & C. Brown & Co. / London : W. Kent & Co., 1856-1859. First edition. The very first appearance in fiction of a Scotland Yard detective, indeed the very first English detective stories. Originally published in “Chambers’ Edinburgh Journal” between 1849 and 1852, with some of the stories appearing in book form in New York in 1852, the present publication is the first appearance of all eleven, with a final twelfth tale not previously published. Bound together with the present copy is the scarce Second Series of 1859 – a further eight stories by “Waters” of the Yard, the narrator invented by journalist William Russell.
Two volumes, bound as one. Foolscap 8vo (157 x 98mm). (310); [viii],262pp. With the half-title to the second volume, but the variant without the frontispiece sometimes found in vol.i. Bound in a neat contemporary half calf, banded and ruled in gilt; sprinkled edges; some mild rubbing and light wear, a few spots to prelims, but a very good copy of a cornerstone of the genre. With a contemporary W. H. Smith blind stamp on title and the contemporary ownership inscription of C. W. Williams Wynn – Charles Watkin Williams Wynn J.P. (1822-1896), Oxford educated barrister and M.P. for Montgomeryshire for nearly twenty years.

£1,250

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London : Contact Publications, [1950]. First edition. One of apparently only three contemporary spin-offs of the Dick Barton radio phenomenon – and the most significant. Nine Dick Barton stories by the original BBC scriptwriters (later to write “The Archers”), all appearing in book form for the first time, with six of them as yet un-broadcast. With numerous stirring text illustrations, cover design and colour frontispiece by George Mitchell.
Crown 4to (26cm). 160pp. Illustrations almost throughout. Original cloth-backed pictorial boards; some minor rubbing and mild wear; a few slight marks, but still overall a very good copy.

£50

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London : Macmillan & Co., (1971). First edition. Scholarly murder mystery set on an archaeological site on the east coast of England.
Post 8vo (21cm). (222),[ii]pp. Plan. Original lemon-yellow boards, ruled and lettered in black; very good in the original pictorial Bentley-Farrell-Burnett dust-jacket – price-clipped by the publisher and with a revised price over-sticker – and just very lightly marked and nicked.

£20

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London : Hart-Davis, MacGibbon, (1974). First edition. Murder mystery – a young woman dressed as a schoolgirl found dead in a Hampstead garden, the trail leads to an occult bookshop in Red Lion Square – Saltfleet of Scotland Yard investigates.
Demy 8vo (23cm). [vi],(202)pp. Original blue boards, lettered in silver; a very good copy in the dust-jacket – the jacket also very good.

£20

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