Search Results: Authors starting with I from Ash Rare Books

London : Victor Gollancz, 1955. First edition. "I doubt if ever he has started a novel better than this; a man emerging from the sea to interrupt a lover's rendezvous, his pursuers sweeping the shore in obvious agitation, the thwarted lovers no less agitated, and for the first few pages no reader any the wiser and full of expectancy" (The Sphere, 12th February 1955). Crown 8vo (20cm). (224)pp. Original red boards, lettered in gilt; a very good, clean and sound copy in the dust-jacket - the jacket with a few slight marks and spots, but still bright and with minimal wear.

London : Victor Gollancz, 1954. First edition. Innes in anecdotal mood, with "Appleby's First Case", "The Spendlove Papers", "Tragedy of a Handkerchief", "A Derby Horse", and nineteen further stories. Later published in the USA as "Dead Man's Shoes". Crown 8vo (20cm). (224)pp. Original red boards, lettered in gilt; a few faint edge-spots, but otherwise a very good copy in the dust-jacket - the jacket price-clipped, with some minor wear, and a couple of unobtrusive short repaired tears, but still very presentable.

London : Victor Gollancz, 1984. First edition. Sir John Appleby has retired to the country, but a near neighbour is planning to disappear on the back of an extravagant fraud. Post 8vo (21cm). (184)pp. Original red boards, lettered in gilt; a few slight marks to text edges, but otherwise a very good copy in the Gollancz yellow dust-jacket - the jacket with a couple of tiny indentations, but also very good.

London : Victor Gollancz, 1972. A hardback reprint of Innes' scarce wartime classic, first published in 1942 – numerate horse stolen, two missing young women, Bloomsbury mansion rebuilt up the Amazon, experiments in the supernatural, etc. "An odd and startling piece of delicatessen to find in the meaty earthbound larder of detective fiction ... There is a brilliant madness in this book" (Punch). Post 8vo (21cm). [ii],(152),[ii]pp. Original red boards, lettered in gilt; mild bruising at foot; faint band of tanning to front endpaper; top edge a little spotted, but otherwise a very good copy in a very good dust-jacket.

London : Victor Gollancz, 1956. First edition. Eighteen short stories, including "Dangerfield's Diary", "False Colours", "Enigma Jones", "Murder on the 7.16", and "The Lombard Books", with its alarming suggestion of the uses of literary forgery. Crown 8vo (20cm). (190),[ii]pp. Original red boards, lettered in gilt; a touch bruised; some spotting and marking of edges and endpapers; a good copy in the dust-jacket - the jacket chipped at head and lightly tanned. Small bookseller's label of Parkers of Oxford on front pastedown.

London : Victor Gollancz, 1974. First edition. Innes introducing a new sleuth in Charles Honeybath - "An eminent portrait painter is persuaded to take a strange commission where he is smuggled off to an unknown destination for a fortnight. When he has completed his portrait and returns home, he finds himself wanted by the police" (Birmingham Daily Post, 28th November 1974). Post 8vo (21cm). 192pp. Original red boards, lettered in gilt; just slightly bruised; some faint marking to top edge, but overall a very good copy in the price-clipped and similarly slightly bruised yellow dust-jacket.

London : Victor Gollancz, 1981. First edition. "Rooted firmly in the most English of soil - perhaps explaining its attractive eccentricity ... No body is needed here to whip up the excitement of an aristocratic family thrown into confusion by a vanishing priceless miniature. Charmingly narrated, the story is full of wit and cheek" (Coventry Evening Telegraph, 24th July 1981). Post 8vo (21cm). 192pp. Original red boards, lettered in gilt; just a hint of bruising, but otherwise a very good, clean and sound copy in the dust-jacket - the jacket similarly with just a hint of bruising, but also very good.

London : Victor Gollancz, 1948. First edition. "A bewildering number of bodies ... a queer family that procreates in triplets ... Appleby, retired Yard man, urbanely says, 'A beautiful murder,' and solves the whole riddle in a night" (Hull Daily Mail, 27th March 1948). Crown 8vo (19cm). 208pp. Original blue cloth, lettered in gilt; spine lettering a touch dulled; top edge a little spotted; endpapers lightly tanned but overall a very good, clean and sound copy in the dust-jacket - the jacket slightly chipped at head and a little tanned, with a handful of faint marks and spots but also very good.

London : Victor Gollancz, 1946. First edition. A baronet murdered in his study. The tale told in part by his widow and in part by the police sergeant - "a triumph of storytelling, humour and wit. Impersonation and a visit to Australia is a tour-de-force. A passing reference to 'poor Insp Appleby' suggests the mood" (Barzun & Taylor 1901). Crown 8vo (19cm). (192)pp. Original blue cloth, lettered in gilt; spine a little sunned, and faded at tips where the jacket is a little damaged; endpapers lightly tanned; a few faint edge spots, but otherwise a very good and sound copy in the Gollancz yellow dust-jacket - the jacket a little worn and tanned at spine, with a short tear to the rear panel and a few faint marks and spots, but a welcome survival of a fragile item. Small stamp of D. A. McLean, Belfast bookseller, on rear endpaper.

London : Victor Gollancz, 1966. First edition. "John Appleby is perhaps the most sophisticated sleuth ever created, the hero of superior, old-style detective stories in which intellectual excitement and gut-level suspense are combined". Crown 8vo (20cm). 192pp. Original red boards, lettered in gilt; a little bumped at head; endpapers a touch tanned; old inked price on front free endpaper, but otherwise a very good and clean copy in the dust-jacket - the jacket price-clipped, a little worn, nicked and chipped, and with a couple of tears at folds.

London : Victor Gollancz, 1977. First edition. "Glimpses of the art world appear often in Mr Innes's thrillers and now he has an artist as a detective, Charles Honeybath, RA. The Haven is a private manor-house retiral home for the wealthy and the daft, which figures in Charles's plans until his old friend is murdered there. Elegantly dotty, intricate as old lace, wrought with loving care" (The Scotsman, 28th January 1978). Post 8vo (21cm). (192)pp. Original red boards, lettered in gilt; just a hint of bruising; small pen tick on front free endpaper; text edges with a few small and faint marks, and a touch of bruising, but otherwise a very good copy in the original yellow dust-jacket - also very good.

London : Victor Gollancz, 1980. First edition. "Michael Innes isn't so savage about his contemporary world, but is, as he has always been, a pleasure to read ... Paternal, but unsentimental, for the rebellious young. One of his young characters has become, without understanding why, entangled in a burglary, and his life is threatened by a criminal gang. An agreeable uncle, scholarly, cosmopolitan, sedentary, a good specimen of an Innes character, gets jerked out of his self-indulgent existence" (C. P. Snow in the Liverpool Daily Post, 24th January 1980). Post 8vo (21cm). 190,[ii]pp. Original red boards, lettered in gilt; a very good copy, clean and bright, in the yellow dust-jacket, printed in magenta and black - the jacket with just minimal signs of age and use, and also very good.

London : Victor Gollancz, 1968. First edition. "Elegant, urbane narrative festooned with ripe rural characters, sees Sir John Appleby solving the mystery of a corpse in the son et lumiere control box at a stately home" (Birmingham Mail, 23rd August 1968). "Strong talents at their best. The amount of ironic social criticism and deft characterisation of scenes and people would serve another author for six books" (Barzun & Taylor). Later published in the USA as "Death by Water". Post 8vo (21cm). (190),[ii]pp. Original red boards, lettered in gilt; a couple of tiny nicks to three leaves at rear, but otherwise a very good copy in the dust-jacket - the jacket just lightly used, with just a touch of wear to the extremities.

London : Victor Gollancz, 1978. First edition. Archivist searching for literary treasure in the family papers falls to his death from a castle overlooking a Cornish beach. Sir John Appleby is on the spot - "But the real appeal of the book to the connoisseur is the way Mr. Innes writes: no other writer in crime fiction has his confidence, or his skill at spinning words into long threads of literate, witty prose" (Birmingham Daily Post, 29th November 1978). Post 8vo (21cm). 192pp. Original red boards, lettered in gilt; very mild tanning of endpapers, but otherwise a very good, clean and sound copy in the distinctive Gollancz yellow dust-jacket - the jacket just faintly sunned, but with minimal wear and also very good.

London : Victor Gollancz, 1986. First edition. "The murder of Lord Osprey, stabbed with an oriental dagger, and in the library too. The conventions are properly observed. There's an omniscient butler, Bagot. The moat gleams darkly, guarding its secrets. Inspector Ringwood sets up his 'incident room' in the ballroom, which dazzles with mirrors, chandeliers and trompe l'oeil. The house guests include another title, a QC, and two or three experts on numismatics" - "As enjoyable as any encounter with an old and valued friend" (Rachel Laurence in the Liverpool Daily Post, 8th January 1987). Post 8vo (21cm). 188pp. Original red boards, lettered in gilt; a couple of tiny marks to fore-edge, but otherwise a very good, clean, and sound copy in the dust-jacket - the jacket with just a slight suggestion of creasing, but also very good.

London : Victor Gollancz, 1952. First edition. The murder of a modern painter and the theft of a priceless Vermeer. Appleby and his wife investigate. "Excellently done: Innes' undoubted masterpiece" (Barzun & Taylor, who included this volume in their Fifty Classics of Crime series). Later published in the USA as "One-Man Show" and "Murder is an Art". Crown 8vo (20cm). (224)pp. Original red boards, lettered in gilt; just a suggestion of a spine crease, but a very good and bright copy in the dust-jacket - a jacket a little sunned, with some slight marks on the rear panel, and some light wear and shallow chipping, but still good.

London : Victor Gollancz, 1976. First edition. "Rich tycoon brother is accidentally killed in storm. Feckless other brother, near twin, survives and returns to impersonate him and milk off all the lolly. Sir John Appleby, retired super-cop, the perfect gent of women's mag fiction, takes an interest when brother becomes a neighbour. Dry-sherryish, scholarly jokey, rambles a bit: keep your Catullus crib handy, baby" (The Scotsman, 11th December 1976). Post 8vo (21cm). 192pp. Original red boards, lettered in gilt; the palest of tanning to endpapers, but otherwise a very good, clean, and sound copy in the dust-jacket - the jacket just very faintly creased at head, but also very good.

London : Victor Gollancz, 1949. First edition. "He has a laboratory in which he cracks atoms much as you and I might crack nuts" - Innes in the atomic age, with stolen plans and foreign powers. "If Henry James had written a detective story, with crime, investigation and arrest complete, it would have been rather like a novel by Mr. Innes" (The Sketch, 6th July 1949). Crown 8vo (20cm). (326),[ii]pp. Original red boards, lettered in black; a touch bruised; tiny mark on front free endpaper, but still a very good and sound copy in the dust-jacket - the jacket worn, chipped, and neatly repaired, with some repaired short nicks and tears, and a little marking on the rear panel.

London : Victor Gollancz, 1969. First edition. Introducing Appleby's son, young Bobby - "Together they investigate an ingenious, amusing, and profitable art fraud with agreeable overtones of practical joke and problems of deduction ... pleasant characters behaving rather well; settings of various degrees of elegance; a whiff of 'Varsity nostalgia, and a clink of port glass and decanter. In short, civilized, beguiling reading ... consummate craftsmanship and expertise" (Illustrated London News, 11th January 1969). Later published in the USA as "Picture of Guilt". Post 8vo (21cm). (222),[ii]pp. Original orange-red boards, lettered in gilt; a touch of bruising to bottom edge, but otherwise a very good, clean and sound copy in the dust-jacket - the jacket price-clipped, a touch darkened, with some light wear and some short repaired tears, but still presentable.

London : Victor Gollancz, 1972. A hardback reissue of the scarce original 1941 publication. John Appleby finds himself on an island in the South Pacific, which has a number of interesting inhabitants including a group of archaeologists and a Nazi spy ring. "One transformation scene after another. It is all exciting and brilliant, and has the intelligence you expect" (Illustrated London News, 2nd August 1941). Post 8vo (21cm). (168)pp. Original red boards, lettered in gilt; small and faint mark to top-edge, but otherwise a very good, bright, clean and sound copy in the dust-jacket - the jacket just slightly bruised at tips, but also very good.