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THE GOLD STAR LINE ...
London, New York and Melbourne: Ward, Lock & Co Limited, 1899. Octavo, pp. [1-4] 5 [6-8] 9-310 [311-320: ads], 16 inserted plates with illustrations by Adolf Thiede, original pictorial bevel-edged blue cloth, front and spine panels stamped in gold, top edge untrimmed, other edges rough trimmed. First edition. Six criminous stories featuring George Conway, a purser serving aboard several Gold Star Line passenger steamers in the 1880s and 1890s. [Reference: Queen, The Detective Short Story, p. 74. Hubin (1994), p. 566].
A MASTER OF MYSTERIES ...
London, New York and Melbourne: Ward, Lock & Co Limited, n.d., [1898]. Octavo, pp. [1-6] 7-279 [280: blank] + 8-page undated publisher's catalogue inserted at rear, six inserted plates with illustrations by J. Ambrose Walton, original pictorial bevel-edged blue cloth, front and spine panels stamped in gold, top edge untrimmed, other edges rough trimmed. First edition. Six cases of John Bell, a private investigator of unusual and strange mysteries "now well known to all my friends as a professional exposer of ghosts, and one who can clear away the mysteries of most haunted houses." [Reference: Queen, The Detective Short Story, p. 74. Hubin (1994), p. 566].
THE SANCTUARY CLUB ...
London, New York and Melbourne: Ward, Lock & Co., Limited, 1900. Octavo, pp. [1-7] 8-297 [298: blank] [299-304: ads], eight inserted plates with illustrations by Sidney Paget, original pictorial bevel-edged blue cloth, front and spine panels stamped in gold, all edges untrimmed. First edition, first printing with title page dated 1900. Series of linked sensational crime stories first published in THE STRAND MAGAZINE, July -- December 1899 as "Stories of the Sanctuary Club." "Most of the stories apply a small scientific principle to a crime and do not qualify as science fiction ... [including] two detective stories in which scientific means are used to solve crimes. The sixth story, 'The Secret of the Prison House,' has elements of science-fiction." - Bleiler, Science-Fiction: The Early Years 1471. [Reference: Bleiler (1978), p. 137. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, p. 154. Suvin, Victorian Science Fiction in the UK, p. 114. Queen, The Detective Short Story, p. 74. Hubin (1994), p. 566].
THE HOME OF SILENCE.
London: Sisley's Ltd., n.d., [1907]. Octavo, pp. [1-4] 5-278 [279] [280: blank], original pictorial brown cloth, front panel stamped in orange and black, spine panel stamped in black, bottom edge untrimmed. First edition. A sensational romance novel set largely in Ireland concerning a hushed up family secret (an Irish ne'er-do-well murders a servant girl) that causes more tragedy (the murdered girl's brother, bent on taking revenge on the family's heir, drowns in a bog). [Reference: Hubin (1994), p. 566].