Search Results: MYSTERY from Aardvark Rare Books

New York: Dodd, Mead & Co, 1966. Hardcover. Very Good Plus / Very Good. Octavo, 8.2 in. x 5.75 in., pp. 241. Olive cloth boards with gilt title to spine. LIghtly nudged bottom corners. Gentle crease vertically across preliminary pages. Light rubbing to dustjacket edges with a couple small closed tears to top and bottom of spine. Protected in mylar. "Watch Miss Marple's swift mind, like a homing pigeon, go straight to the hidden truth behiond the mystery." (from the dustjacket).

Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Company, 1970. Stated First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good Plus / Very Good. Octavo, 8.5 in. x 5.7 in., pp. 234. Black cloth boards with blue and gilt title to spine. Yellow endpapers. Colorful dustjacket design by John Alcorn. A few creases to dustjacket edges, with small chip to base of dustjacket spine. Protected in mylar.

New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc, 1954. Stated First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good / Very Good. Octavo, 8.25 in. x 5.75 in., pp. 258. Beige cloth boards with dark brown title to front and spine. Light moisture stain to top of spine and along base of rear board. Untrimmed fore-edge. Bokseller's sticker to rear pastedown. Light shelfwear to edges of dustjacket with a couple small chips to top of dustjacket spine. Protected in mylar. A dozen stories from the best of 1954, including tales by Erle Stanley Gardner, Ellery Queen, Oliver La Farge, and Evan Hunter.

New York: Scribner, 2004. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good Plus / Near Fine. Octavo, 9.5 in. x 6.2 in., pp. 369. Personally inscribed and signed by the late author on the title page. Dark blue paper boards over dark blue cloth spine. Gilt title to spine. Light rubbing to top/boottom of spine. Protected in mylar. Cliff Janeway, an antiquarian bookseller, returns for a second adventure as he seeks to solve a murder mystery.

Philadelphia, PA: J.B. Lippincott Company & Story Magazine, 1946. Stated First Edition. Hardcover. Good/None. Cornell Woolrich, writing as William Irish. A Story Press Book published by Lippincott in association with Story Magazine Octavo. Tan boards with blue lettering and design to spine. Front free endpaper bears 16 date stamps on one page, and 1 on the verso, from Stevenson's Book Store.

Stirling, UK: Lomax Press, 2013. Limited edition. Hardcover. Near Fine / Near Fine. Octavo, 9.5 in. x 6.25 in., pp. 206. Limited edition #149/300. Black cloth boards with gilt title to spine. Unmarked interior. Protected in mylar. First published in 1946 by John Westhouse (Publishers). This is the first re-publication. Ruthven Campbell Todd (1914-1978) was a Scottish scholar, poet and author, in US from 1947-1958, and then Majorca; his most important nonfiction work, Tracks in the Snow: Studies in English Science and Art (1946), effectively argued the imaginative power - when conjoined - of the two subtitled categories, instancing at length the work of William Blake (1748-1827) and John Martin; as R T Campbell, he wrote several detective novels, beginning with Unholy Dying (1945) [none contain fantastic elements, and are not listed below]; and as Todd, two metaphysical tales, both labouring under the 1930s misconception that Franz Kafka wrote allegories. The quest plot of Over the Mountain (1939),… Read More

Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Company, 1971. Stated First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good Plus / Very Good. Octavo, 8.5 in. x 5.7 in., pp. 240. Black cloth boards with silver title to spine. Endpaper map of crime scene. LIght rubbing to dustjacket edges. Small closed tears and creases to top and bottom of spine. Protected in mylar.

New York: Avon Book Company, 1947. Softcover. Fair. A magazine format publication (7 1/2 in. x 5 1/2 in.),card covers, quite worn, with a shallow 1/2 in. edge tear extending throughout the first 89 pages, shelfwear, yellowed but still supple pages. Previous owner's stamp (from Hawaii, which might explain it's rougher condition) to top of title page. Previous owner's penciled signature. 126 pp. "This book of stories by the author of "The Big Sleep" presents a real treat for all addicts of fastmoving, hard-boiled detective fiction. The title story itself is in the straight Chandler tradition -- a shrewd and aggressive private investigator, a big-shot politician with sinister connections,m a beautiful red-heard in a heap of trouble, assorted gamblers, con-men and thugs, and an unusual quota of chills and murders. Here is a thrilling, action-packed tale full of excitement and suspense, with a neat twist to the ending. "In addition you will find 'Smart-Aleck Kill,' a colorful murder yarn with a… Read More

London, England: Collins Crime Club, 2020. First Edition. Hardcover. Near Fine / Very Good Plus. Octavo, 9.3 in. x 6 in., pp. xxi, 522. Black paper boards with silver title to spine. Very light rubbing to dustjacket. Unmarked. "In celebration of the detection club's 90th birthday, ninety of its esteemed members share their experiences and advice about the art and graft of successful crime writing." (from the dustjacket) Collins Crime Club was an imprint of British book publishers William Collins, Sons and ran from 6 May 1930 to April 1994. Throughout its 64 years the club issued a total of 2,012 first editions of crime novels and reached a high standard of quality throughout. (from Wikipedia).

Boston, Mass: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1949. First American Edition. Hardcover. Near Fine in Good Jacket. 8vo. First American edition in first state binding. Orange boards with blue graphic to front board, blue . lettering to spine. Slight rubbing to extremities. One small corner nudge to bottom rear corner. Bright and bold Dustjacket design by Boris Artzybasheff, and original $2.50 price to front flap. Dustjacket shows edgewear to spine caps and along folds, with a l.75" x .50" chip extending from top of spine to rear panel. Bright, sharp copy. "When the reader...comes up for air, he doesn't know whether he's been on a two-day reefer jag, or given a mauling by the Bay City cops, or blinded by the neon-lighted slum called Hollywood..." (front flap notes).

London, England: Victor Gollancz Ltd, 1973. FIRST EDITION (NAP). Hardcover. Very Good Plus / Very Good. Colin Hay (Jacket illustrations). Octavo, 8 in. x 5.25 in., pp. 255. Navy blue cloth boards with gilt title to spine. Surface tears to front free endpaper (sticker removed?). Otherwise, interior unmarked. Light rubbing to edges of dustjacket (with fabulous front panel illustration by Colin Hay), and an inch or so of past bleed-through to top of front hinge (see photos). Price clipped. Peter Van Greenaway (1929 - 1988) was a British novelist, the author of numerous thrillers with elements of horror and satire. He was born and educated in London, worked briefly in commercial art and acted in theatre ... Van Greenaway is probably best known for The Medusa Touch, which was made into a film starring Richard Burton. The story's main character is a radically disenchanted novelist with highly destructive telekinetic powers. The Medusa Touch is one of several books featuring the character Inspector Cherry… Read More

New York: Simon and Schuster, 1956. STATED FIRST PRINTING. Hardcover. Very Good / Good Plus. Small octavo, 7.8 in x 4.8 in., pp. xvi, [2], 237. Signed by the author on title page. Black cloth-covered boards with copper title bands, and publisher's insignia to spine. Light rubbing to extremities. Small nudges to three corners. Pen scribble to upper top corner of front free endpaper. Age-toning to pages. "$3.00"price at bottom of dustjacket front flap. Rubbing to dustjacket; small chips to top/bottom of dustjacket spine and front corners. Two faint inked words to front panel of dustjacket. Protected in mylar.

New York: Brewer & Warren Inc, 1930. Second Printing Before Publication". Hardcover. Good Plus. Octavo, 7.7 in. x 5.2 in., pp. 344. Red cloth boards with black title and bold poison design to front and spine. Light shelfwear to top and bottom of spine; sunning to spine. Top front corner lightly nudged. Creasing to top corners of pp. 1-18 and 302-312. Between 1923 and 1939 Dorothy Sayers (1893-1957) wrote ten novels featuring the upper-class amateur sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey. In 1930, in Strong Poison, she introduced a leading female character, Harriet Vane, the object of Wimsey's love. Harriet appears sporadically in future novels, resisting Lord Peter's proposals of marriage until Gaudy Night in 1935, six novels later.