Mystery
DEAD MAN TWICE.
Garden City, NY: Published for The Crime Club, Inc. by Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 1930. Octavo, pp. [i-vi] ix-x [xi-xii] [1] 2-309 [310: Crime Club blurb] [note: pagination correct], original black cloth, front and spine stamped in orange. First U. S. edition. Bush had a long career and started writing during the "Golden Age" of detective fiction. A Ludovic Travers novel, the third published in the U. S. "The novels are remarkable in their ingenuity, their complexity, and their concentrated focus on the matter at hand. The tend to be unsensational, unfolding with scrupulous logic and eschewing the extremes of melodrama and fast or violent action. They are absorbing rather than thrilling, their appeal is more to the intellect than to the headier emotions." - St. James Guide to Crime & Mystery Writers (Fourth Edition), p. 137. Hubin, p. 122.
THE DEATH OF COSMO REVERE.
Garden City, NY: Published for The Crime Club, Inc. by Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 1930. Octavo, pp. [i-x] xi-xii [xiii-xiv] [1] 2-312 [313: Crime Club blurb] [314: blank], original black cloth, front and spine stamped in orange. First U. S. edition. Published in the U. K. as MURDER AT FENWOLD. The author's third mystery novel and second to be published in the U. S. Bush had a long career and with many novels from the "Golden Age" of detective fiction. A Ludovic Travers novel. "The novels are remarkable in their ingenuity, their complexity, and their concentrated focus on the matter at hand. The tend to be unsensational, unfolding with scrupulous logic and eschewing the extremes of melodrama and fast or violent action. They are absorbing rather than thrilling, their appeal is more to the intellect than to the headier emotions." - St. James Guide to Crime & Mystery Writers (Fourth Edition), p. 137. Hubin, p. 122.
THE PERFECT MURDER CASE.
Garden City, NY: Published for The Crime Club, Inc. by Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 1930. Octavo, pp. [1-12] 1-314 [315-316: ads], original black cloth, front and spine stamped in orange, top edge stained orange, red end papers with white logo. First U. S. edition. The author's second mystery novel and first to be published in the U. S. Bush had a long career and started writing during the "Golden Age" of detective fiction. In this novel a series of letters are sent to Scotland Yard saying the writer will commit the perfect murder. After the crime Ludovic Travers an independent investigator (the second book to feature the author's long time character) gets involved. "The novels are remarkable in their ingenuity, their complexity, and their concentrated focus on the matter at hand. The tend to be unsensational, unfolding with scrupulous logic and eschewing the extremes of melodrama and fast or violent action. They are absorbing rather than thrilling, their appeal is more to the intellect than to the headier emotions." - St. James Guide to Crime & Mystery Writers (Fourth Edition), p. 137. Hubin, p. 122.
KISS THE BLOOD OFF MY HANDS.
New York: Farrar & Rinehart, Inc., [1946]. Octavo, cloth. First U. S. edition. A dark mystery. The violent protaganist kills a man and eventually lands in jail for another crime. A woman whom, he can't stay away from, tries to keep him out of trouble. A witness to the murder comes forward and the woman murders him. "A tight narrative of recklessness, ruthlessness, which in its way is holding." - Kirkus Review, 28 February, 1946. Basis for the film noir of the same title with Burt Lancaster and Joan Fontaine. Hubin, p. 123. Johnson, The Dark Page (1), p. 42. Selby, Dark City: The Film Noir, 220. Silver and Ward (eds.), Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style (3rd edition), pp. 159-160.
KISS THE BLOOD OFF MY HANDS.
New York: Farrar & Rinehart, Inc., [1946]. Octavo, cloth. First edition. A dark mystery. The violent protaganist kills a man and eventually lands in jail for another crime. A woman whom, he can't stay away from, tries to keep him out of trouble. A witness to the murder comes forward and the woman murders him. "A tight narrative of recklessness, ruthlessness, which in its way is holding." - Kirkus Review, 28 February, 1946. Basis for the film noir of the same title with Burt Lancaster and Joan Fontaine. Hubin, p. 123. Johnson, The Dark Page (1), p. 42. Selby, Dark City: The Film Noir, 220. Silver and Ward (eds.), Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style (3rd edition), pp. 159-160.
THE VESEY INHERITANCE.
New York: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, 1975. Octavo, Hardcover. First U.S. edition. Victorian setting.
CROSS OVER NINE.
New York: The Macaulay Company, [1935]. Octavo, pp. [1-8] 9-255 [256: blank], original beige boards, front and spine stamped in orange. First edition. From the rear panel calling it a mystery-horror story. "It is the tale of John Witherby, physical superman, in a contest of strength and racing, smashing violence with a man called the Doctor, and his gorillas, for possession of John's inheritance and for the fancy of the Doctor's female decoy." The first mystery using this pseudonym. Hubin, p. 123.
THE NIGHT FLOWER.
New York: The Macaulay Company, [1936]. Octavo, pp. [1] [1-4] 5-7 [8] 9-311 [312-318], jacket art by Edward D'Ancona, original black cloth, front and spine stamped in red. First edition. After an armored car robbery in which guards are murdered, Charles Pursivant, a reformed criminal, is enlisted to recover the money and capture the criminals. E. C. Beckwith in the NY Times (16 August, 1936) wrote "This reviewer confidently chooses this book - as the best written, most artfully constructed and thoroughly interesting crime-adventure novel published thus far within the year." Second and final mystery using this pseudonym. Hubin, p. 123.
TNT FOR TWO bound with COUNTERFEIT CORPSE .
New York: Ace Books, [1956]. Small octavo, pictorial wrappers. First edition. Ace double D-197. Paperback original. The Byron title is the author's only crime novel. Jaffery, S., Double Trouble: A Bibliographic Chronicle of Ace Mystery Doubles, pp. 46.
DEVIL TAKE ALL.
New York: E.P. Dutton, 1966. Octavo, Hardcover. First edition.
CAREER IN C MAJOR.
New York: Avon Book Company, [1947, i.e. 1948]. Small octavo, pictorial wrappers. Later edition. New printing of Avon #141, some minor changes to cover art.
HARD CAIN: SINFUL WOMAN, JEALOUS WOMAN, THE ROOT OF HIS EVIL.
Boston: Gregg Press, 1980. Octavo, cloth. First edition. Introduction by Harlan Ellison. First American hardcover publication of JEALOUS WOMAN and THE ROOT OF HIS EVIL.
JEALOUS WOMAN.
London: Robert Hale Limited, [1955]. Octavo, boards. First hardcover edition. This also includes the first British hardcover publication of SINFUL WOMAN.
LOVE'S LOVELY COUNTERFEIT.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1942. Octavo, [1-8] [1-2] 3-218 [219-220: blank], original red cloth, front, spine and rear stamped in black, top edge stained red. First edition. The novel is "...a brutal picture of a corrupt, crime-ridden town in the manner of Hammett's RED HARVEST and McCoy's NO POCKETS IN A SHROUD..." - Pederson (ed.), St. James Guide to Crime and Mystery Writers, (4th ed.), pp. 144. Filmed in 1956 as Slightly Scarlet, a film noir, directed by Allan Dwan with John Payne, Rhonda Fleming and Arlene Dahl. Silver and Ward (eds.), Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style (3rd edition), pp. 259-260. Keaney, Film Noir Guide, p. 390. Johnson, The Dark Page II, p. 30.
LOVE'S LOVELY COUNTERFEIT.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1942. Octavo, [1-8] [1-2] 3-218 [219-220: blank], original red cloth, front, spine and rear stamped in black, top edge stained red. First edition. The novel is "...a brutal picture of a corrupt, crime-ridden town in the manner of Hammett's RED HARVEST and McCoy's NO POCKETS IN A SHROUD..." - Pederson (ed.), St. James Guide to Crime and Mystery Writers, (4th ed.), pp. 144. Filmed in 1956 as Slightly Scarlet, a film noir, directed by Allan Dwan with John Payne, Rhonda Fleming and Arlene Dahl. Silver and Ward (eds.), Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style (3rd edition), pp. 259-260. Keaney, Film Noir Guide, p. 390. Johnson, The Dark Page II, p. 30.
PAST ALL DISHONOR.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1946. Octavo, cloth. First edition. Adventure and suspense novel set in the American west of the silver boom.
RAINBOW'S END.
New York: Mason/Charter, 1975. Octavo, boards. First edition. Signed inscription by Cain on the half title page: "To-- / with love, / & the hope (?) / enjoy it / Jim / Hyattsville, Md / July 8, 1975."
FAST ONE.
New York: Avon Publishing Co., Inc., [1948]. Small octavo, pictorial wrappers. First edition thus. Avon #178. First Avon paperback edition, preceded in softcover by the Shaw Press digest edition. Classic hardboiled novel.
SEVEN [7] SLAYERS.
Hollywood, CA: Saint Enterprises Inc., [1946]. Octavo, pictorial wrappers. First edition. Paperback original, digest size format. Story collection, all from Black Mask magazine. Hubin, p. 125.
SEVEN SLAYERS.
Los Angeles: Blood & Guts Press, 1987. Octavo, cloth. First hardcover edition. One thousand copies printed, this is one of 250 numbered and signed by the author of the introduction William F. Nolan. This is copy number 11. Story collection, all hard boiled, all first published in Black Mask magazine.
THE COLD ROOM.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1977. Octavo, cloth backed boards. First U.S. edition. Review slip laid in. The author's second novel. Suspense novel set in East Berlin.
WHITE FOR A SHROUD.
New York: Parsee Publications, [1948]. Small octavo, pictorial wrappers. First paperback edition. Bleak House Mystery 22. Mystery novel. This looks to be the last Bleak House number.
BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE.
Greenwich, CT: Fawcett Gold Medal, 1970. Small octavo, pictorial wrappers. First edition. Fawcett # R2197. Paperback original. Suspense novel.
THE WEIRD PICTURE.
Boston: Little Brown, and Company, 1905. Octavo, p. [1-10] 1-283 [284: blank] [285-288, adds; 289-90: blank], frontispiece and three other illustrations, original light blue cloth, front stamped in black brown and yellow, spine stamped in gilt. First U.S. edition. Mystery novel centered around a picture depicting the death of Caesar and Pompey. This is also listed in the first Bleiler checklist, however I believe any supernatural element is rationally explained.
THE CAVALIER'S CUP.
New York: William Morrow & Company, 1953. Octavo, boards. First edition. Mystery novel featuring Sir Henry Merrivale, an investigator of "impossible" crimes. The last of this series. Adey, Locked Room Murders and Other Impossible Crimes (1991), 601.