One of the Bestseller Mystery series (#B40) published during World Warr II using wartime paper restrictions. This is a complete and unabridged reprint of Dashiell Hammet's 1927 book, with a cover price of 25 cents. This edition appears to be its first appearance in book form. Spine is somewhat curved, text was bound in upside down. Covers show some edgewear and scuffing. Text is browned, with watermarks on corners.
When a million dollars is stolen from two banks in an afternoon, the Continental Detective Agency must solve the crime.; 12mo - over 6¾" - 7¾" tall View More...
Smal indent on top edge, bottom front corner bumped. A bright, attractive copy. "In the darkness of a December morning in lower Manhattan's Fulton Fish Market a mob rip-off is under way: Thousands of pounds of fish are calmly 'tapped' - stolen - from wholesalers on the street. It's the price of doing business. But detectives Joe Gregory and Anthony Ryan have not come to Peck Slip to stop fish tapping. They've come to watch a fifty-gallon drum being dumped into the East River by a mobster in a Mets hat. Convinced they're seeing a burial, Gregory and Ryan call in police divers and get... View More...
Spine slightly creased and slanted, corners bumped, a little darkening to edges, number written on ffep. "Little could Dr. Watson believe that the pathetic figure huddled before him was the great detective, Sherlock Holmes. Alas, it was his old friend Holmes, but a Holmes in bondage-not to any archvillian-but to a 7% solution of cocaine and sterile water. Driven by the drug to wild ravings, Holmes had to be duped into rehabilitation-before it was too late. John Hamish Watson was born in England in 1847. After a childhood spent abroad, he returned to England, where he took his medical d... View More...
"Who killed the dashing ladies' man? "But why should anyone want to murder dear Ernest?" Why indeed! Ernest was so debonair, so charming and so attractive. Why should some unknown party simply dash his brains out and not even have the decency to leave the murder weapon behind? And what could Superintendent Hannasyde do about it when the only man who could solve the crime was the killer himself?" View More...
Corners bumped, a little edge wear, bar code inside cover marked through, binding fairly tight. An attractive copy. "Acting jobs and cat-sitting assignments have been elusive for Alice Nestleton lately . . . but there's plenty of sleuthing work to be done. A prominent theater director has requested her help for his pet charity: Sustenance House. It seems an anonymous benefactor has vanished (along with his much-needed holiday donation), and Alice must find out what's going on before the homeless shelter has to close its doors to the poor forever. But when a board member shoots himself... View More...
Corners bumped, slight shelf wear. Jacket shows slight edge wear. A clean, tight, attractive copy. "It begins, dramatically enough, with a trial for murder. The distinguished criminal lawyer Venetia Aldridge is defending Garry Ashe on charges of having brutally killed his aunt. For Aldridge the trial is mainly a test of her courtroom skills, one more opportunity to succeed-and she does. But now murder is in the air. The next victim will be Aldridge herself, stabbed to death at her desk in her Chambers in the Middle Temple, a bloodstained wig on her head. Enter Commander Adam Dalglies... View More...
"Three mocking, self-confident punks have vandalized the Forrestiers' home. The actual damage is minimal, but Walter Forrestier's brush with crime, and with the criminal justice system, begins to corrupt all the values he holds sacred. Forced into action, Walter sets out on a course of vengeance that will destroy everything in his path."; 12mo - over 6¾" - 7¾" tall View More...
Spine/covers a bit creased, corners bumped, some edge wear, covers bowed out a bit. Owner's name stamped inside front cover, initials and dates inside back cover. "His wife, actress Stella Pinero, is being stalked. Adding to his worries, London's Second City is terrified by a cunning and inventive serial killer. Coffin has cast a wide net, but the killer is elusive. . . and continuing to kill. Somehow connected is a murder that occurred 20 years before. A young girl had witnessed the crime and testified. Now the killers are free and returning home, possibly for revenge. When Coffin's... View More...
"Did the son murder his father? That's what the southern country sheriff can't find out, and that's what brought two city cops off the pavement and into the swamplands. Detectives Parrish and Recks bushwhack their way through the backwoods, a southern plantation, and more suspects than they can handle -- mentally or physically. Soon they uncover blackmail, two wanted criminals, and become involved it -- as if they needed it -- a young couple with shaky marriage plans."; Remainder; 16mo - over 5¾" - 6¾" tall View More...
Spine curved and creased, covers show some soiling, edgewear and bumping. Inside covers yellowing with PO initials. Text is clean and unmarked. "A long-ago face from a faraway past -- Sam Taggart dropped in from nowhere on the girl he'd left behind -- and on his old buddy Travis McGee. And at one o'clock that night McGee opened the door to Taggart's cheap motel unit to find his friend's throat neatly cut from ear to ear and his body lying in a lake of blood smelling like freshly sheared copper. McGee was left to inherit the legacy: Taggart's vengeance-driven woman and an ancient Aztec g... View More...
Library of Congress surplus with stamp on front end paper and copyright page. Red cloth with gilt lettering, 204 pp. Slight spine slant, corners bumped, slight edge wear, light dampstain to front board with it bowing out a bit. Jacket in new Brodart, slight edge wear. A nice copy. "Peter Somerville-Large turns to the more relaxed world of black comedy. In particular to the world on the fringe of the antiques trade, where, he suggests, the antiques may just possibly be genuine but everything else is faked, and murder is as casually regarded by his characters as is short-changing a client. ... View More...
A paperback original. Top corner creased, minor edgewear/bumping. A bright, attractive copy. "Ex-husband, ex-army specialist, ex-everything, Matt Langley has come to New Orleans to lose his past. He's not looking for trouble --- just to make ends meet. But when Matt takes a six-bucks-an-hour security guard job on the waterfront, trouble finds him the first night, leaving him with a bullet hole and a lot of nasty questions. Before he knows what's happened, he's up to his ass in alligators. Smugglers, cops, the Feds, and a gang of Bourbon Street punks all want a piece of him. And the ... View More...
"Claire Malloy, reluctant director of Farberville's Miss Thurberfest beauty pageant, is being driven to distraction . . . So she's hardly prepared when a nail is driven into the stage for the present Miss Thurberfest to trip over, a sandbag crashes . . . a bullet . . . It can only end in murder and it does . . ." Spine shows a little creasing.; 12mo - over 6¾" - 7¾" tall View More...
Spine slanted, some creasing, corners bumped. Ex-library with minimal stamps. Text is clean, bright, and unmarked. "Val Leary is handsome, charming and broke. On the morning of April Fool's Day 1871, while walking through one of London's wealthiest districts, he notices a young maidservant scrubbing the steps of 53 Northbourne Park Villas. In that instant he conceives the idea for a remarkable case of burglary. The set-up seems perfect, but chance intervenes in a succession of coincidences that place the jewels further and further beyond the reach of Val and his cronies - until. . . ... View More...
Spine slanted and creased, some edgewear and bumping. Text yellowing, but clean and unmarked. "Things are looking sunny for 'The Turning Seasons.' Ratings have zoomed as a result of the TTS Trivia Contest that took the country by storm, and Nina McFall is more popular than ever. Even sharp-tongued co-star Angela Dolan is in a mellow mood - there's a suave, attractive man in her lonely life. It appears that the series of disasters that have plagued the show is finally at an end. But appearances can be deceiving. Angela's autumnal affair ends abruptly when her lover's lifeless body is ... View More...
Spine slanted, corners bumped, slight edge wear, owner's name on front free end paper. Jacket shows slight edge wear, sunning to spine, a little darkening. A fairly tight, attractive copy. Stated First American Edition, but number line starts with '2'. "What could be more pleasant, or indeed more healthy, than a skiing vacation high in the Alps at a delightfully secluded and quiet resort: or so thought Chief Inspector Tibbett and his wife, Emmy. Not so. Not when that exclusive little resort . . . may in fact be cover for the nefarious smuggling of who knows what kind of contraband-a de... View More...
Ex-library with typical stamps and labels, pocket pasted to rear end paper. Spine cocked, corners bumped, slight edge wear. Mylar cover has been removed except for the flaps which were glued to the pastedowns. Interior is clean and unmarked. A nice copy in large print. "Williams Adams is a killer who has never been convicted of murder. He has never confessed, even when convicted of rape and criminal assault. Nor has he admitted to the other attacks upon women. He feels no remorse, no pity for his victims. He despises them. Now, having served his sentence in full, he is free, with no super... View More...
0708932444 Spine somewhat slanted, ex-library but looks like it was never read. Pictorial cover, no jacket as issued. Also published as "Roots of Evil". A bright, attractive copy. "When the young town-planner was found dead after his car careered into a canal, the Coroner's verdict was that he had had a heart attack. But why won't the widow accept the verdict? And why, when she takes her worries to Chief Inspector Morrissey, is an attempt made to frighten her into silence? Morrissey's investigation uncovers a darker side of Malminster. Finally, when the mistress of a powerful... View More...
Ex-library with usual stamps, lightly used. Pictorial boards with no jacket, apparently as issued. Text is clean and unmarked. "Brock Potter of New York's top Brokerage firm of Price, Potter and Petacque, is facing a particularly tense and complex problem. Kevin Rand, an executive of Calthrop Industries, has been found guilty of passing Defence secrets to East Germans; and it was on Brock's strong recommendation that Rand, a family friend, had been appointed to the job. When Rand is murdered in prison, Brock is drawn into a highly dangerous investigation which nearly costs him his li... View More...
Spine very slightly slanted, PO name inside, map on front and back pastedowns. DJ price-clipped, minor edgewear with tiny tear. A bright, attractive copy. "Debbie Sheldon was twenty-five, attractive, and a free-lance commercial photographer. She lived back of her studio in a business section of London near Regent Street-which was fine, because at night, when the stores and offices were closed, everything was quiet. Then one night Debbie was awakened by the unusual noise of a car engine in the quiet street below. It was five minutes past four. Puzzled, she peered through the blinds, ... View More...