Search Results: FICTION / CRIME from Chilton Books

Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1953.. 1st Penguin edition. (US title: Wilful and Premeditated). (An Inspector French mystery). A murder which is committed during a flight over the English Channel. The identity of the killer is revealed quite early in the book (making it an early example of the inverted detective story or "howcatchem"), and the reader can watch the preparations for the crime and how the murderer tries to cover up his tracks. The final chapters of the novel are set in a courtroom and during a private function at a hotel, where a r�sum� of the whole case is given in front of a small group of police detectives, solicitors, and barristers. Pp.255, slight toning to pages. Paperback, creasing and toning to spine. G+.

London: Wright & Brown, 1943.. 1st edition. Ex 'Andrews' library. Murder mystery featuring 'Buddy Mustard'. Pp.220/4 (publisher's ads), front cover of original dustjacket pasted to front free endpaper, yellow library plate "A.W.Riches (Andrews) Newsagent. Stationer. Tobacconist. Toy Dealer. Church Street, Cromer" pasted to front pastedown, slight toning to pages. Red cloth, rubbed and soiled with remains of 'Andrews' A.W.Riches lable to lower front cover, wear to edges and bumps to corner tips. Scarce. Fair.** "Roland Daniel (1880-1969) was a British writer who also wrote romance novels as Sonia Anderson, He was born in London and grew up in Florida. He served with the Canadian scouts in the Boer War and the Royal Navy in WW1. He married Pearl Daniel in 1919 and toured England in acting companies during the 1920s. He was a prolific writer equally at home with British or American idioms. His series characters were Michael Grant, John Hopkins, Buddy Mustard, Brian O'Malle, Jack Pearson, The Remover,… Read More

Harmondssworth: Penguin, 1954.. 1st Penguin edition, and the first of Nicholas Blake's detective novels published under the Penguin imprint. "The finding of the body is a masterly scene of the macabre. Incidents, recalled one by one, are assembled into the story of a twisted life calculated to make anyone wince." (T.L.S. review). Pp.220/4(publisher's catalogue), pages toned. Paperback, a little dusty with toning to spine, small tear to top of spine and wear to spine edge. G+.

Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1953.. First Penguin edition. "Angus Campbell heavily insured his life with a policy containing a suicide-clause, and then deliberately threw himself to death from the top window of an old Scottish tower....Then came another suicide, and yet another. Dr Fell summoned by his friend Colin Campbell, by this time believed in murder, but the third suicide was even more convincing than the first two..." Pp.192, pages toned, small owner's name to inside front cover. Paperback, rubbed with small tears to top and tail of spine and creasing to lower front corner tip. G+.

Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1948.. 1st Penguin edition. This intriguing clue-laden third case for Sir Clinton Driffield has its origin in a dark scheme that reveals as much about the means for murder as its motivation. Pp.287, pages tanned with brittle edges and small edge tears. Paperback, rubbed and spotted with crease and small edge tear to front, spine worn with tears and small losses. Scarce. Fair.** "Alfred Walter Stewart (5 September 1880 � 1 July 1947) was a British chemist and part-time novelist who wrote seventeen detective novels and a pioneering science fiction work between 1923 and 1947 under the pseudonym of JJ Connington. He created several fictional detectives, including Superintendent Ross and Chief Constable Sir Clinton Driffield.

London: Collins For The Crime Club, 1967.. 1st ed. Second novel in the acclaimed 'Cat' series. "Newspaper reporter Qwilleran and Siamese cat Koko are again at work together on matters of robbery and murder - this time the sophisticated world of interior decoration." Pp.192, owners name to fep, minor spotting and toning to endpapers. Red cloth boards, d/w designed by Brian Russell has edge chipping and lifting to laminate to front spine edge. Scarce. VG/G.

London: Collins, 1951.. Fifteenth thriller featuring Berkeley Gray's hero Norman Conquest, who was known as 'a gay desperado'! Pp.192, pages tanned. Blue cloth, gilt title to spine slightly dulled, wear to spine edge, a couple of dark spots to front. Good.** "Edwy Searles Brooks (11 November 1889 � 2 December 1965) was a British novelist who also wrote under the pen-names Berkeley Gray, Victor Gunn, Rex Madison, and Carlton Ross. Brooks was born in Hackney, London. He is believed to have written around 40 million words. (wiki).

Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1948.. 1st Penguin edition. Third in the series of 35 books involving Sgt Bobby Owen. The curious crossword devised by Mr. George Winterton turned out to be part of a game for high stakes � it was the creation of a man whose brother had just drowned and who feared for his own life. Yet the dog hadn�t barked... Pp.254, pages toned with creasing to inner hinge of front free endpaper. Paperback, slight toning and wear to spine edge. Scarce.VG.

Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1948.. 1st Penguin edition. Third in the series of 35 books involving Sgt Bobby Owen. The curious crossword devised by Mr. George Winterton turned out to be part of a game for high stakes � it was the creation of a man whose brother had just drowned and who feared for his own life. Yet the dog hadn�t barked... Pp.254, pages toned with spotting to closed page edges, small marginal loss to lower foredge of pp.223/224. Paperback, spotting to cover, chipping to top and tail of spine. Scarce. Good.

London: Wright & Brown Ltd, nd. (c.1953).. 1st edition. Through the curse of a tortured slave, a terrible fate threatened every male Craig. The irascible Jonathan Craig met a horrible and untimely end when his wheelchair plunged over the cliff, and when the three surviiving Craigs met for the reading of his will, it seemed as though the Curse was being fulfilled with a vengeance. Following the disappearance of Martin and his cousin Paul in the haunted Tower room, for six years Inspector Brummel couldn't find a single clue which might provide an answer to the riddle.Then Roger, the last of the Craigs is shot dead... How Brummel pieced together the strange and thrilling story of the last Craigs makes an intriguing and unusual story, in which the reader's interest is sustained to the final paragraph. Ex Boots Booklovers Library. Pp.190, marks and wear to rear pastedown, mark to lower page edge. Green cloth, ink cross through Boots Booklovers Library shield to front board, metal ring hole to top of… Read More

Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1948.. 1st Penguin edition. Hugh Mattson is found dead at the bottom of an iron staircase in the Library of Congress in Washington. Apparent accident becomes certain murder. Peter Shane, and helper Francis Bonnamy uncover the truth. Pp.192, pages toned with spotting to closed page edges, owner's name to half-title page. Paperback, spotting to cover, wear to spine edge. Scarce. G+.** "Francis Bonnamy was the pseudonym of Audrey Boyers Walz (1906-1983), an American writer.".

New York: Published for the Crime Club by Doubleday & Company, 1983.. 1st edition. Edited and with an Introduction by Douglas G. Greene. "Nine never-before-published radio plays by the late John Dickson Carr....Here, all the hallmarks of Carr's classic detective novels are on display - locked rooms, "impossible" crimes, brilliant detection, and, in two of the dramas, his most famous detective, Dr Gideon Fell." Pp.181, inscribed by the editor "For Joan and Leslie Stringer, with affectionate regards of Doug Greene. 8 March, 1984" to front free endpaper, staining to endpapers. Brown boards, dustwrapper (designed by Roger Zimmerman) has staining to internal flaps, edge wear to corner tips and top and tail of spine but is in a removable clear protective wrap. Scarce. Good/Good."Douglas G. Greene (born 1944) is an American historian, editor, and author....Greene's biography John Dickson Carr: The Man Who Explained Miracles was nominated in 1996 for the Edgar Award Best Critical / Biographical Work." (wiki).

London: Secker & Warburg, 1985.. 1st edition. Crime thriller featuring Japanese Superintendent Otani. "A first-rate crime story and an exploration of Japanese society conducted with wit, sympathy, and formidable expertise." Pp.181. Black cloth, dustwrapper illustrated by Eric Rose. VG/VG.

Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1950.. 1st Penguin edition. "When young Doctor Peter Dunn first saw Mere Trouteaud raise the 'clameur' (as the islanders called it) in the market place, he little thought that this incident would be a link in a chain of events that meant murder." Pp.253, pages toned . Paperback, owner's name to front, toning and spotting to covers and tears and wear to top and tail of spine. Scarce. Good.

Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1949.. 1st Penguin edition. "Abel Pomeroy, the publican, was in a fine state of anger and outrage, particularly at the insidious remarks made be George Nark. As for Robert Legge, who had thrown the dart, he became very jittery indeed, poor man. Then there were the two friends of the murdered man, both knowing they were to inherit his fortune. There was motive enough. But no chance, as far as the police could tell, - for them - or for anyone - to have tampered with the fatal dart...." Pp.285, pages tanned. Paperback, slightly soiled, chipped tears to top and tail of spine, crease to lower front corner tip.Scarce in this edition. Good.

Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1950.. 2nd impression of Penguin edition. "The very simplicity of the crime was nullified by the complexity of reasons why it should be committed. Even the lawyers associated with these suspects were related to the murdered man, and lastly there was the macabre yet mystifying touch - why had Vereker's body been found in the village stocks?" Pp.251/5 (publisher''s catalogue), ttoning to pages. Paperback, spine toned with minor edge wear. G+.

Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1953.. 1st Penguin edition. Set during World War II, a network of German secret agents plans to derail a train carrying vital war supplies. Due to a delay another train is derailed instead, the intended one then being diverted safely round the blockage. Inspector French tracks down the conspirators, nearly losing his life in a heroic final action to prevent their escape.. Pp.256, pages tanned. Paperback, tanned with crease to lower front and scuffing to spine. Good.

London: Wright & Brown Ltd, 1947.. 1st edition. Murder mystery set in India. Pp.160, endpapers tanned, ex-libris bookplate to inside front cover, small worm-holes to lower page margins (not affecting text) minor stain to p.124. Pink cloth faded and discoloured, crease and worm trail mark to rear, spine darkened and spotted. Scarce. Good.Born in 1893, Anthony Parsons did military serivice in India during the First World War and was drafted into the Royal Flying Corps, which took him to North Africa. The 1920s saw him still on the 'dark continent' shooting elephants for a living. He then returned to England and started writing, becoming one of the most important Blake authors during the SEXTON BLAKE LIBRARY's difficult Second World War years. Parsons took over responsibility for the Blake villain Gunga Dass and created Superintendent Venner. In all, he wrote exactly 100 Sexton Blake tales. He died in 1963, aged 69.

London: Victor Gollancz Ltd, 1942.. 7th impression. 'Cheap War Edition'. The only one of Sayers's twelve major crime novels not to feature Lord Peter Wimsey, her most famous detective character. However, the forensic analyst Sir James Lubbock, who appears or is mentioned in several of the Wimsey novels, also appears in The Documents in the Case. An epistolary novel, told primarily in the form of letters between some of the characters, using the multiple narrative technique associated with Modernist novelists of the period. This collection of documents�hence the novel's title�is explained as a dossier of evidence collected by the victim's son as part of his campaign to obtain justice for his father. Pp.174, pages browned, owner's details to front free endpaper and final page. Blue cloth, dustwrapper spotted with edge tears and small losses to top and tail of spine but is in a removable clear protective wrap. G/G.

London: Bachman & Turner, 1975.. 1st ed. "Domino - the most ruthless unconvicted financial operator in both hemispheres. What happens when he comes up against Storm English, master criminologist, who claims he can stop the crime explosion?" Pp.208, mild spotting to closed page edges, slight toning to pages. Red boards, d/w edges rubbed. G+/G+.