Results
BETTER CORPSES: A RACE WILLIAMS STORY.
London: Robert Hale Limited, [1940]. Octavo, pp. [1-6] 7-286 [287-288: blank], publisher's black cloth stamped in red and silver. First edition. The final Race Williams book. "When better corpses are made, Race Williams will make them" - p. 186. A fix-up novel, the three-part Morse story arc which first appeared in Dime Detective 1935-36, featuring Daly's violent tough-guy detective, Race Williams, who "never bumped off a guy what didn't need it" and the Flame (The Girl with the Criminal Mind), "a woman of good -- a woman of evil. Take your choice." Carroll John Daly (1889-1958), one of the fathers of the modern hard-boiled private eye and an important BLACK MASK writer, "is not known for literary niceties -- his style can best be described as crude but effective ... Characterization is minimal and action is everything" (Crider and Pronzini). Race Williams was Daly's most successful creation, appearing in about 70 stories and eight novels. Lee Server (Encyclopedia of Pulp Fiction Writers, 2014) has called Race Williams "the single most popular private eye in the history of the pulps." There is apparently no equivalent U.S. edition. [Reference: Hubin, p. 210].
THE EMPEROR OF EVIL.
New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1937. Octavo, pp. [i-vi] vii-viii [ix-x] [1] 2-302, original black cloth, front and spine stamped in orange. First edition. The second mystery novel featuring detective Vee (Vivian) Brown who takes on the Black Death organization. Daly was an important contributor to Black Mask and published stories into the 1950s. He influence can be seen in many writers who followed him. "Daly’s contribution to the hardboiled genre was indeed monumental; far more than simply being the first at bat. And his impact was felt far beyond the private eye field alone. The Shadow, The Spider, The Phantom Detective—all the famous masked avengers of the pulps were merely gussied up versions of Race Williams. Daly took the two-gun American Hero from the wooly plains of the West and transplanted him in New York. He allowed his hero to retain all those traditional fantasy concepts of what the American Hero is and has been since the days of Cooper’s Natty Bumppo, and he gave him the desire and ability to back up his code of individualism, his distrust of authority and his interest in Justice over Legality, with a pair of smoking .44s." from "In Defense of Carroll John Daly" - Steve Mertz in The Mystery FANcier, May 1978 (Vol. 2, No. 3). [Reference: Hubin, pp. 210-211].
THE HIDDEN HAND.
New York: Edward J. Clode, Inc., [1929]. Octavo, pp. [i-vi] vii-vii 9-319 [320: blank], original blue cloth, front and spine stamped in gold, top stained dark blue. First edition. An episodic novel first published in Black Mask, featuring Race Williams. Race is on the trail of a crime organization headed by "The Hidden Hand," a super criminal. [Reference: Hubin, pp. 210-211].
THE HIDDEN HAND.
New York: Edward J. Clode, Inc., [1929]. Octavo, pp. [i-vi] vii-vii 9-319 [320: blank], jacket by Edward Caswell, original blue cloth, front and spine stamped in gold, top edge stained dark blue. First edition. An episodic novel first published as a series of stories in Black Mask, featuring Race Williams. Race is on the trail of a crime organization headed by "The Hidden Hand," a super criminal. [Reference: Hubin, pp. 210-211].
MR. STRANG.
New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company:, 1936. Octavo, pp. [i-vi] vii-viii [ix-x] 1-290 [291-294: blank], original orange cloth, front and spine stamped in black. First edition. First published in Detective Fiction Weekly as a series of novelettes, Mr. Strang metes out vigilante justice. "Mr. Strang is the punch packing story of a mysterious individual who sets out single handedly to break up the racket of Parole." from the jacket copy. Mr. Strang had further adventures in the pulp magazine. Hubin, pp. 210-211.
MR. STRANG.
New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company:, 1936. Octavo, pp. [i-vi] vii-viii [ix-x] 1-290 [291-294: blank], original orange cloth, front and spine stamped in black. First edition. First published in Detective Fiction Weekly as a series of novelettes, Mr. Strang metes out vigilante justice. "Mr. Strang is the punch packing story of a mysterious individual who sets out single handedly to break up the racket of Parole." from the jacket copy. Mr. Strang had further adventures in the pulp magazine. [Reference: Hubin, pp. 210-211].
MURDER FROM THE EAST: A RACE WILLIAMS STORY.
New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1935. Octavo, pp. [1-6] 1-312, original orange cloth, front and spine stamped in black. First edition. A Race Williams adventure. Race Williams battles foreign agents. [Reference: Hubin, pp. 210-211].
MURDER FROM THE EAST: A RACE WILLIAMS STORY.
New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1935. Octavo, pp. [1-6] 1-312, original orange cloth, front and spine stamped in black. First edition. A Race Williams adventure. Race Williams battles foreign agents. [Reference: Hubin, pp. 210-211].
MURDER WON'T WAIT.
New York: Ives Washburn, Publisher, [1933]. Octavo, pp. [1] [i-vi] vii-viii [1-2] 3-307 [308-310: blank], original light green cloth front stamped in blind, spine stamp in black and design. First edition. A Vee Brown novel. Vee (Vivian) Brown is a detective who works directly for the District Attorney's office and was well off due to the writing original popular music. [Reference: Hubin, pp. 210-211].
MYSTERY OF THE SMOKING GUN.
New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company:, 1936. Octavo, pp. [i-iv] v-vi {vii-viii] 1-312, original red cloth, front and spine stamped in black. First edition. A Detective Frank "Satan" Hall novel, which first appeared as five novelettes in Detective Fiction Weekly (1933) pulp magazine. Satan Hall is a New York city police detective who takes on a ruthless crime boss. [Reference: Hubin, pp. 210-211].
MYSTERY OF THE SMOKING GUN.
New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company:, 1936. Octavo, pp. [i-iv] v-vi {vii-viii] 1-312, original red cloth, front and spine stamped in black. First edition. A Detective Frank "Satan" Hall novel, which first appeared as five novelettes in Detective Fiction Weekly (1933) pulp magazine. Satan Hall is a New York city police detective who takes on a ruthless crime boss. [Reference: Hubin, pp. 210-211].
READY TO BURN.
London: Museum Press, n.d., [1951]. Octavo, original black cloth, spine stamped in silver and red. First edition. A Detective Frank "Satan" Hall novel, originally published as three short novels in Detective Fiction Weekly (1934-1935). Not published in the U. S. [Reference: Hubin, pp. 210-211].
THE TAG MURDERS.
New York: Edward J. Clode, Inc., [1930]. Octavo, pp. [i-vi] vii-vii [ix-x] 11-320, original red cloth, front and spine stamped in black. First edition. An episodic novel first published in Black Mask, featuring Race Williams. Race is on the trail of a murderer who leaves a metal tag pinned on the victims. This book also has the first appearance of Race Williams femme fatale, "The Flame," Florence Drummond, "The girl with the criminal mind." [Reference: Hubin, pp. 210-211].
TAINTED POWER: A RACE WILLIAMS DETECTIVE STORY.
New York: Edward J. Clode, Inc., [1931]. Octavo, pp. [i-vi] vii-vii [9-10] 11-319 [320: blank], original red mesh weave cloth, front and spine stamped in black, top edge stained green. First edition. Race Williams takes on several gangs who are trying to take over the criminal enterprises in New York. From stories first published in Black Mask magazine. [Reference: Hubin, pp. 210-211].
THEM THAT LIVES BY THEIR GUNS, THE SNARL OF THE BEAST, SHOOTING OUT OF TURN, IF DEATH IS RESPECTABLE, JUST ANOTHER STIFF and GANG MAN'S GALLOWS: THE COLLECTED HARD-BOILED STORIES OF RACE WILLIAMS.
Boston: Altus Press, 2015-2020. Octavo, six volumes, stiff pictorial wrappers. First editions. Oversize trade paperback format. The first six volumes (of seven) of this series. The first four volumes of stories are from Black Mask, volumes five and six has selections from Dime Detective.
THE THIRD MURDERER.
New York: Farrar & Rinehart Incorporated, [1931]. Octavo, pp. [i-vi] vii [viii] [1-2] 3-308 [309-312: blank], original light blue cloth, front and spine stamped in black, top edge stained red, fore edge uncut, bottom edge rough cut. First edition. A Race Williams novel, from the pages of Black Mask. [Reference: Hubin, pp. 210-211].
ANY SHAPE OR FORM.
New York, Toronto: Farrar & Rinehart, Inc., [1945]. Octavo, pp. [1-6] [1-2] 3-186, original gray-green cloth, front and spine stamped in green. Fore edge uncut, bottom edge rough cut. First edition. The ninth Henry Gamadge novel. "The murder is done in an enclosed rose garden, by means of a rifle shot. The reasons for this act and its locale are excellent and the tale stands rereading, even though a little wordy at the outset." - Barzun & Taylor, A Catalogue of Crime (1989), 1028. [Reference: Hubin, p. 211. Penzler, Bibliomysteries, p. 35].
DEATH AND LETTERS.
New York, Toronto: Rinehart & Company, Inc., [1950]. Octavo, boards. First edition. The fifteenth Henry Gamadge novel. "This is a well organized and appropriately atmospheric novel about a woman kept under drugs and restraint in a big Hudson River family mansion. Gamadge does a good job of work, and there are no embarrassing episodes of spiritualism or bibliomania to spoil the plot" - Barzun & Taylor, A Catalogue of Crime (1989), 1030. [Reference: Hubin, p. 211. Penzler, Bibliomysteries, p. 36].
DEATH AND LETTERS.
New York, Toronto: Rinehart & Company, Inc., [1950]. Octavo, boards. First edition. The fifteenth Henry Gamadge novel. "This is a well organized and appropriately atmospheric novel about a woman kept under drugs and restraint in a big Hudson River family mansion. Gamadge does a good job of work, and there are no embarrassing episodes of spiritualism or bibliomania to spoil the plot" - Barzun & Taylor, A Catalogue of Crime (1989), 1030. [Reference: Hubin, p. 211. Penzler, Bibliomysteries, p. 36].
THE COMPLETE CURIOUS MR. TARRANT.
Norfolk, VA: Crippen & Landru Publishers, 2003. Octavo, cloth. First edition. Part of the publishers "Lost Classics" series. Collects all twelve of the Trevis Tarrant stories, the eight first published in THE CURIOUS MR. TARRANT (1935) and four collected in book form for the first time in this volume. The first seven are locked room mysteries. With a new introduction by Ed Hoch. From Pronzini and Muller, 1001 Midnights, The Aficionado's Guide to Mystery and Detective Fiction, pp. 441, of the 1935 volume, "If wealthy amateur detective Trevis Tarrant is an unremarkable sleuth, the eight cases he investigates here are remarkable indeed." Also of note is the 1935 volume of eight stories is a Queen's Quorum title.
OBELISTS AT SEA.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1933. Octavo, pp. [1-20] [1-2] 3-328 [329: blank] [330: type information] [331-332: blank], original light gray cloth, front, spine and rear stamped in black. Later printing (stated first and second printing before publication). Golden age mystery with most of the action taking place on an ocean liner. The first of seven novels by this author. [Reference: Hubin, p. 469].
OBELISTS FLY HIGH.
New York: Harrison Smith & Robert Haas, 1935. Octavo, pp. [1-12] 11-337 [338: blank] [339: "The Clue Finder"] [340: blank] 341-343 [344-346: blank] [note: pagination correct], original pale green cloth, front and spine stamped in black. First edition. Golden age mystery with most of the action taking place on a transcontinental flight. [Reference: Hubin, p. 469].
TWO-GUN GERTA.
New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1926. Octavo, pp. [1-11] 12-252 [253: note to the reader] [254-256: blank] [note: pagination starts using the paste down], original brown cloth, front and spine stamped in gold. First edition. Western novel. First published book by Daly.