Death is a Lonely Business by Bradbury, Ray - 1985

E-260: Franklin Library. Very Good. 1985. Hardcover. Leather. 8vo. Published by The Franklin Library, Franklin Center, PA. 1985. 278 pgs. Signed by Ray Bradbury on the FFEP. First Edition/First Printing. Bound in leather boards with gold leaf design with raised bands, gilt titles and design to the boards and spine. Gilt edged, marbled endpapers and silken ribbon markers. Boards have light shelf-wear present to the extremities. No ownership marks present. Text is clean and free of marks. Binding tight and solid. Ray Bradbury, the undisputed Dean of American storytelling, dips his accomplished pen into the cryptic inkwell of noir and creates a stylish and slightly fantastical tale of mayhem and murder set among the shadows and the murky canals of Venice, California, in the early 1950s. Toiling away amid the looming palm trees and decaying bungalows, a struggling young writer (who bears a resemblance to the author) spins fantastic stories from his fertile imagination upon his clacking typewriter. Trying not to miss his girlfriend (away studying in Mexico) , the nameless writer steadily crafts his literary effort--until strange things begin happening around him. Starting with a series of peculiar phone calls, the writer then finds clumps of seaweed on his doorstep. But as the incidents escalate, his friends fall victim to a series of mysterious "accidents"--some of them fatal. Aided by Elmo Crumley, a savvy, street-smart detective, and a reclusive actress of yesteryear with an intense hunger for life, the wordsmith sets out to find the connection between the bizarre events, and in doing so, uncovers the truth about his own creative abilities. EB; Signed; 8.5 X 6.0 X 1.1 inches; 278 pages .