The Invisible Web: Strange Tales of the French Surete

New York: Stokes, 1929. First American edition. Hardcover. Very Good. First American edition (no statement as is correct for this publisher at that time). Hardcover in black cloth lettered in red. Frontispiece photographic portrait of Ashton-Wolfe and additional photographic plates throughout the text. xviii+284 pp. Rubbing and some fading to the cloth on front board and spine strip and a few very small worn spots front cloth. Offsetting to the title page. No jacket. Harry Ashton-Wolfe (1881-1959) was a "celebrity criminologist and true-crime writer.. of the Golden Age of detective stories" that became best-sellers in the 1920s and 30s. He claimed to known Arthur Conan Doyle, as well as leading detectives of Scotlkand Yard and the French Surete. He placed himself (at least in print) within the true tales, in this case of the French Surete, to relate such stories appearing in this book as "A Message From Ultra-Violet', "The Missing Canine", "The Frozen Alibi", "The Mystery of The Chinese Boxes", and others. His co-author, Edmond Locard was a psychologist, doctor, chemist, and criminologist called in the foreword as "the real life embodiment of that specialist, Sherlock Holmes". In fact Locard dedicated his work in this book to Arthur Conan Doyle.