Mystery
SWITCH.
New York: Linden Press/Simon and Schuster, 1984. Octavo, cloth backed boards. First edition. The second Frank Janek novel. "The Janek stories...have been of a high standard; literate, inventive, and distinguished by the author's sympathetic appreciation of the sometimes ragged human condition." - Pederson (ed.): St. James Guide to Crime and Mystery Writers (4th ed.), pp. 53-55.
THE MARDI GRAS MYSTERY.
Garden City, NY, and Toronto: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1921. Octavo, pp. [1-6] [1-2] 3-313 [314: colophon] [315-316: blank], jacket and frontis illustration by John Newton Howitt, original green cloth, front and spine stamped in black. First edition. Author's first mystery novel. Hubin, p. 60.
BUTCHER'S DOZEN: AN ANTHOLOGY BY THE CRIME WRITER'S ASSOCIATON.
London: William Heinemann, [1956]. Octavo, cloth. First edition. The first in this series of anthologies. Collection of 15 short stories.
PRECIOUS PORCELAIN.
New York, London: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1931. Octavo, cloth. First U.S. edition. Mix of supernatural, sf, mystery and thiller novel in which the main character discovered a means of isolating the various personality fragments within himself and projecting them as living beings." - Bleiler: The Guide to Supernatural Literature #122. Anatomy of Wonder (1995) 2-7.
THE DISTURBING AFFAIR OF NOEL BLAKE.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1932. Octavo, pp. [1-8] [1-2] 3-262 [263-264: blank] [note: last leaf is a blank], original light brown cloth, front and spine panels stamped in black. First U.S. edition. Unscrupulous psychologist regresses patient into ancestral personalities, whereupon his memories inspire bizarre -- and criminal -- behavior from less civilized times. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, p. 30. Stableford, Scientific Romance in Britain 1890-1950, p. 223. Bleiler (1948), p. 46. Not in Bleiler (1978). Reginald 01047. Hubin (1994), p. 62.
THE WINDOW WITH THE SLEEPING NUDE.
Kingston, New York: Quinn Publishing Company, Inc., [1950]. Small octavo, pictorial wrappers. First edition. Paperback original. The second published novel under his own name by this prolific writer, known for his hard-boiled stories, usually with plenty of slang and a touch of the comic. He published under numerous pseudonyms and is thought to have written as many as 3,000 stories (see-Pederson (ed.) - St. James Guide to Crime and Mystery Writers, 4th ed., pp. 63-64).
THE 25TH HOUR.
New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, Inc., [2000]. Octavo, boards. First edition. Contemporary crime novel, filmed in 2002 by Spike Lee.
THE 25TH HOUR.
New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, Inc., [2000]. Octavo, boards. First edition. Contemporary crime novel, filmed in 2002 by Spike Lee.
SQUEEZE PLAY.
New York: Avon, [1984]. Small octavo, pictorial wrappers. First Avon edition. Paperback. This was originally published in a very scarce softcover edition in 1982 by Alpha-Omega books. Hard boiled mystery novel.
SHERLOCK HOLMES IN NEW YORK.
New York: Ballantine Books, 1976. Small octavo, pictorial wrappers. First edition. Paperback original. Sherlockiana. Novelization of the made for television movie starring Roger Moore and Patrick MacNee. Photo cover.
THE SECOND CENTURY OF DETECTIVE STORIES.
London: Hutchinson & Co. (Publishers) Ltd., n.d., [1938]. Octavo, pp. [1-18] 19-761 [762: blank] [763-768: publishers ads], original light green cloth, front and spine stamped in black. First edition. An important anthology. "The author of Trent's Last Case" has done a remarkable job in sticking to real detection for this omnibus, but the biographical notes on the 30 authors are tantalizingly poor; one doubts that Bentley wrote them. Many good and inaccessible tales more than compensate for this lack. The items are drawn from Livingston's Dodd Cases, the Coles' Superintendent Wilson's Holiday, Wade's Here Comes the Copper, Bramah's Eyes of Max Carrados. Also: Knox's tale The Motive and H. Russell Wakefield's The Inevitable Flaw. One of F. Tennyson Jesse's rare Solange Stories is included, and samples from Bailey, Bell, Chesterton, Gribble, Keverne, Leacock, Oppenheim, Phillpotts, Wallace, plus well-known tales by Conan Doyle, Bramah, Bentley, Freeman and Sayers." - Barzun and Taylor: A Catalogue of Crime (1989), #3613. Queen, The Detective Short Story, p. 132.
THE FLOATING DUTCHMAN.
New York: Duell Sloan and Pearce, [1951]. Octavo, boards. First U. S. edition. Murder investigated by a secret operative for Scotland Yard. Filmed in 1952. Hubin, p. 67.
DUANE AND THE ART MURDERS.
London: Cassell, 1939. Octavo, cloth. First edition. Hubin, p. 67.
MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL.
New York: Random House, [1994]. Octavo, cloth backed boards. First edition. The author's first book. Made into a feature film in 1997 directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Kevin Spacey and John Cusack.
THE FAITHFUL.
New York: Random House, [2008]. Octavo, boards. First edition. Signed by Berenson on the title page. The author's first spy thriller and the debut of his character John Wells. Edgar award winner for best first novel.
THE GHOST WAR.
New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, [2008]. Octavo, boards. First edition. Signed by Berenson on a tipped in page. Spy thriller. The second to feature his character John Wells.
THE MIDNIGHT HOUSE.
New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, [2010]. Octavo, boards. First edition. Spy thriller. The fourth to feature his character John Wells.
THE SILENT MAN.
New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, [2009]. Octavo, boards. First edition. Spy thriller. The third to feature his character John Wells.
THE POISONED CHOCOLATES CASE.
Garden City, NY: Published for the Crime Club, Inc. by Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 1929. Octavo, pp. [1-10] 1-299 [230: blank] [231: Crime Club statement] [232: blank], cloth. First U.S. edition. Mystery novel featuring sleuth Roger Sheringham. "...it should appeal to those who like the combination of good characterization and armchair dectection". - Pronzini and Muller, 1001 Midnights, The Aficionado's Guide to Mystery and Detective Fiction, pp. 36-37. A Haycraft-Queen cornerstone volume.
THE WYCHFORD POISONING CASE.
Garden City, NY: Published for the Crime Club, Inc. by Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 1930. Octavo, pp. [i-vi] vii-viii [ix-x] 1- 308 [309: Crime Club statement] [310: blank], cloth. First U.S. edition. Mystery novel featuring sleuth Roger Sheringham, the second published (in England in 1926).
BOUCHER'S CHOICEST.
New York: E. P. Dutton, 1969. Octavo, Hardcover. First edition. A collection of Anthony Boucher's favorites from Best Detective Stories of the Year. Introduction by Allen J. Hubin.
THE GHOST HOUSE.
New York: St. Martin's Press, [1979]. Ocatvo, boards. First U.S. edition. Review copy with review slip laid in. A mystery novel involving heroin smuggling and an alleged haunted house, which in the end is rationalized. First published in 1940, according to the copyright page this is a "completely rewritten version." This edition is would be the first American edition.
TENDER LOVING RAGE.
Houston: Tafford Publishing, Inc., [1991]. Octavo, cloth. First edition. Posthumously published novel written and set the late 50s. A suspense novel.
THIEVES' MARKET.
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1949. Octavo, cloth. First edition. The novel concerns the world of hauling produce in California and the criminal element that controls the marketplace. Filmed as "Thieve's Highway" a noir film by Jules Dassin. Hubin, p. 70. Johnson, The Dark Page, p. 24.
WORD FOR WORD AND LETTER FOR LETTER: A BIOGRAPHICAL ROMANCE ...
London: Gay & Bird; Philadelphia: Drexel Biddle, 1898. Octavo, pp. [i-vii] viii [9-13] 14-207 [208: blank] [209-212: publisher ads] [note: title page is a cancel], six inserted plates with illustrations by Edward Holloway, title page printed in red and black, original pictorial tan cloth, front and spine panels stamped in red and gold, t.e.g. First edition. A short murder mystery novel, with settings in Philadelphia, Newport (Rhode Island) and the island of Madeira, whose importance as a center of lace manufacture figures in the plot. An extended dream sequence in chapter six gives the book some relevance to the fantastic genre. Of interest to Sherlockians, perhaps, will be the protagonist's affectionate reference to A STUDY IN SCARLET (on pages 185-186). Hubin (1994), p. 70. Wright (III) 517.