"There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. "
— Oscar Wilde
Crime & Thrillers
The Circular Study.
New York: McLure Phillips. 1900. First US Edition. Publisher's decorated bottle green ribbed cloth titled in gilt to spine and front board and decorated with a swirling art deco device surrounding an embossed key. Slight scuffing to extremities and spine ends, essentially a clean, tight copy. Page edges untrimmed, internally..... More
The Filigree Ball.
America, The Bobbs Merrill Co. 1903. 8vo. Publisher's dark green cloth with gilt titles to spine, decorative title in red with the subject of the title, the Filigree Ball, stamped in gilt to upper board. One illustration as frontispiece by C.M. Relyea. 21 pages advertisements to rear of text. Gentle..... More
The Confidential Agent.
New York, NY: The Viking Press, 1939. [Spy Thriller] FIRST US EDITION. Octavo (20 x 14cm), pp.[8] 302 [2]. Publisher's grey cloth with black titles to spine. Top edge yellow. Gently browned throughout. Light wear and marking to cloth, with some toning to spine. Very good. A British spy thriller..... More
The House of Silk.
London: Orion Books, 2011. [Detective Fiction] LIMITED FIRST EDITION. Octavo (24 x 16cm), pp.294. One of 1000 numbered copies, signed by the author on the half title. A fine/as-new copy in jacket, in a silver-titled black cloth slipcase, in the original shrinkwrap. Anthony Horowitz's first Sherlock Holmes continuation novel, followed..... More
The Black Tower.
London: Faber and Faber, 1975. [Crime thriller] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (21 x 14cm), pp.271; [1] blank. Publisher's grey cloth, gilt titles to spine, dust-jacket designed by Errol le Cain. Neat gift inscription and a Foyles label to pastedown, edges lightly toned otherwise internally clean and bright. Price clipped wrapper shows..... More
Crow Lake.
Toronto, ON: Alfred A Knopf, 2002. SIGNED TRUE FIRST EDITION. Octavo, pp.294. Fore edge untrimmed. Bound in publisher's teal paper-covered boards, in a photographic dustjacket depicting a lake. Fine condition. Spotless throughout, as new. Dustjacket in like. The book is signed by Mary Lawson to the title page. This edition..... More
The Little Drummer Girl.
London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1983. [Thriller] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (25 x 17cm), pp.430. Publisher's brown cloth, gilt titles to spine, top edge tinted brown, in bronze-effect dust-jacket. Edges lightly marked, jacket clipped. Notwithstanding, this is a fresh-looking copy. More
Hushed Up! A Mystery of London
London: Eveleigh Nash 1911. Crime novel. First UK edition. Crown octavo, pp.[vi]; 7-318; [2], blank; [8], advertisements. Publisher's green cloth cloth, blocked in gilt, with colour plate illustration laid down to upper cover. Light wear only, gilt to spine has toned; very good indeed. HUBIN; Crime Fiction IV. More
South by Java Head.
London: Collins, 1958. [Naval adventure] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (21 x 15cm), pp.320. Publisher's green cloth, gilt titles to spine, pictorial dust-jacket priced at 14s. Minor spotting, small scuff/sticker pull to flyleaf, jacket fine but for a tiny chip to crown. Shows well. A war-time adventure set on the South China..... More
They Wouldn't Be Chessmen.
London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1937. [Crime Thriller] FOURTH PRINTING, EX LIBRIS ANTHONY LEJEUNE. Octavo (19 x 13cm), pp.343 [1]. With a bookplate detailing provenance loose to preliminaries. Publisher's light blue cloth with black titles to spine. With the colour-illustrated dust-jacket, repriced to 4s with stickers to spine and front cover..... More
Child 44.
London: Simon and Schuster, 2008. [Crime Fiction] SIGNED FIRST EDITION. Octavo (24 x 16cm), pp.[6] 473 [1]. SIGNED by the author in black ink to title page. Maps to endpapers. Publisher's red cloth with silver titles to spine. With the photographic dust-jacket priced at £12.99. A fine copy. Nominated for..... More
The Silent Speaker.
The Crime Club, Collins, 1947. [Mystery] FIRST UK EDITION. Publisher's orange cloth, light wear, slightly sunned, very good indeed. In dustwrapper, price-clipped, lightly creased, small tears, spine sunned, a few small chips, overall very good. A Nero Wolfe novel. Another case for the eccentric oversized New York armchair detective Nero..... More
Jesse James' Narrow Escape Or; Ensnared by a Woman Detective.
Cleveland; The Arthur Westbrook Company. 1909. "Adventure Series" edition. 8vo. Publisher's illustrated paper wraps, light wear to extremties, strong, bright and unfaded. Internally clean although uniformly toned due to poor paper quality. A charming survival of a pulp western crime adventure. More
The Golden Lantern.
London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1958. [Thriller]. FIRST EDITION. Octavo (19 x 14cm), pp.192. Publisher's green cloth, gilt titles to spine, pictorial dust-jacket designed by C.H. Richard priced at 12s 6d. Some spotting to edges. Cloth a little bumped to spine ends. Dust-jacket shows well, some creasing to the top edge..... More
The Brading Collection.
London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1952. [Crime Mystery] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (19 x 13cm), pp.256. Publisher's red cloth with black titles to spine. With the colour-illustrated dust-jacket. Light offsetting to endpapers. Price-clipped jacket lightly rubbed to edges with some minor closed tears, tape to reverse. Near fine. The seventeenth of 32..... More
An Expensive Place to Die
Jonathan Cape, London, 1967. FIRST EDITION. Cold War -era spy thriller, set in Paris. 8vo. Publisher's cloth in original dust-wrapper. Near fine, with a slight lean to book and jacket sunned to backstrip. Includes the original loose 'In Transit Docket', designed by Raymond Hawkey. HUBIN; CRIME FICTION IV. Milward-Oliver; Len..... More
Murder Off Broadway.
London, John Hamilton Ltd. c 1930. 8vo. Publisher's bright orange cloth, lettered in black, in pictorial dust jacket. Minor bumping to extremities with slight fading to spine, trivial spotting to page edges, dust to top edge, very good. Attractive, rather fragile dust jacket with some chips and small losses, including..... More
Tiger Mark.
London: John Hamilton, n.d [c.1928]. Octavo. pp. [7], 224. Bound in publisher's orange cloth with black titles to spine. Pictorial dust wrapper shows a corpse lying at the foot of a man seated on a throne, and titles in black and red to front cover, attributed to Bert Wardle, titles..... More
No Honour.
London: John Hamilton Ltd., c.1930. SCARCE THIRTIES CRIME NOVEL. Octavo, pp. 224. Bound in green publisher's cloth with title, author's name, and publisher's logo in black to spine. In a pictorial dustjacket depicting a shocked suited gentleman encountering a policeman's body at night. Cloth boards in very good condition with..... More
A Nice Place to Die.
London: Published for the Crime Club by Collins, 1965. [Crime Fiction] FIRST EDITION, EX LIBRIS ANTHONY LEJEUNE. Octavo (19 x 13cm), pp.192. With a bookplate detailing provenance loose to preliminaries. Publisher's red cloth with gilt titles to spine. With the pink, white and green dust-jacket, priced at 15s. Light offsetting..... More
The Sign of the Four.
Chicago, MI: Donohue, Henneberry & Co., no date [circa 1900]. [Sherlock Holmes] PIRATE EDITION. Octavo (19 x 13cm), pp.192 [2]. Publisher's brown cloth with gilt titles to spine, and blind decoration to spine and upper. Hinges split with repairs. Heavily browned and brittle throughout. Light wear to cloth, with a...... More
The Sign of the Four.
Chicago, MI: Donohue, Henneberry & Co., no date [circa 1900]. [Sherlock Holmes] PIRATE EDITION. Sextodecimo (16 x 11cm), pp.229 [5]. Publisher's green cloth with silver titles and decoration to spine and upper. Patterned endpapers. Bookseller's sales label to front pastedown. Lightly browned throughout. Slightly bowed and cocked, with some speckling..... More
A Study In Scarlet.
New York, NY: William L. Allison Co., no date [circa 1900]. [Sherlock Holmes] PIRATE EDITION. Octavo (19 x 13cm), pp.175 [1]. Publisher's maroon cloth with gilt titles to spine. Top edge gilt. Heavily browned throughout. Spine toned, with some rubbing to head and tail. Very good. A Study In Scarlet..... More
A Study In Scarlet.
Rahway, NJ: The Mershon Company, no date [circa 1900]. [Sherlock Holmes] PIRATE EDITION. Octavo (19 x 13cm), pp.iv; 216 [4]. Publisher's maroon cloth with gilt titles to spine. Top edge gilt. Clean and bright internally, with just a hint of browning to endpapers. Some toning and water sprinkling to spine..... More
The House of the Whispering Pines.
London, Eveleigh Nash, 1910. 8vo. Uncommon British First Edition. Publisher's green cloth with titles in gilt to spine and to upper with colour illustration within a gilt frame. Slight rubbing to extremities. Edges dusty. A sound, attractive copy. Anna Katharine Green was one of the first writers of Detective Fiction..... More