Forest Fire by Stout, Rex - 1933

NY: Scribners, 1962. First Edition . Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. 1st, brick cloth, vg (slt. cocked, discolored top edge) in vg dj w/ $3.95 price. Dj has minor wear and one short tear at top of spine, and a wrinkle aat the bottom of the rear panel. 254 pp. SIGNED on the title page.

London: Macmillan, 1977. First edition. Hardcover. Near Fine/fine. A very nice copy of the first Brother Cadfael novel. In this book Edith Pargeter combined her excellent historical novel abilities with her nom-de-plume Ellis Peters' well-constructed mysteries and started the boom in historical mysteries that continues to this day. There are many earlier examples of the form, but this is where it takes off and becomes a major publishing category. Historically important, well written, and a scarce book to find in nice condition. This copy has a previous owner's minuscule inscription on the front free endpaper (signature and date of 10 Dec 77, and the cryptic notation "F.E." indicating it was purchased through British bookseller Francis Edwards Ltd.), and very slight bumping to the spine, both head and tail, creasing the jacket slightly. The jacket is unclipped, and the book was not read more than once or twice. A nice copy of a cornerstone volume. Any photo attached to my listings are of the actual… Read More

New York: Harper & Brothers, 1902. First Edition. Hardcover. Illustrated by Hitchcock, Lucius. 179pp. Red cloth stamped in gold on cover and spine, top edge gilt, tissued frontispiece. Front endpapers are state B, rear endpapers state A. Illustrations by Lucius Hitchcock. With the bookplate of noted Ohio journalist and investment banker Claude Meeker, engraved by A. N. MacDonald, on the front pastedown endpaper. Sherlock Holmes investigates a murder involving his nephew Fetlock Jones. Light wear to spine head, two short creases to spine panel. A near fine copy. BAL 3471. In Hubin, 1994, p. 812.; Octavo.

First edition 1st printing. A Mystery Introducing Dr. Kay Scarpetta. Fine minus, unread book with just a touch of shelf wear bottom edges and a small, light sopt of binding glue near spine top edges; in a Near Fine jacket that has light rubbing, and a very slight scratch on front panel that can just be seen from certain angles. Beautiful copy of Cornwell's first mystery that has been fully and legibly signed, with middle initial, on the title page.

Garden City, New York: Doubleday, Doran & Company / The Crime Club, 1930. Book. Near Fine. Hardcover. 1st Edition. Publisher's black cloth, front board and spine stamped in red. Top edge stained red. In the original price-clipped dust jacket. Binding is firm and bright, spine with light crease and spine ends slightly pushed. Dust jacket has vibrant colors with slightest wear to front corner tip. 289 pp. Dust jacket now in protective mylar cover. .

New York: Random House (1962).. First Edition . Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. Signed by Westlake. A couple of minor bumps to boards. Dust jacket has a couple of tiny chips. The price is intact. Contents clean and tight. "My personal favorite of [Westlake's] hard-boiled period and, to my mind, the first book in which he found a voice that was uniquely his." - Lawrence Block

Portishead, Bristol: UK: Scorpion Press, 1991. 1st ed. A fine, unread copy, in clear protective jacket. Very scarce. ONLY 20 LETTERED DELUXE COPIES were produced for private distribution and were SIGNED BY BOTH GASH and H.R.F. KEATING who wrote the appreciation. This is LETTER "K". Features the likeable antiques trader Lovejoy. Cream leather with light pastel green marble paper sides, hubbed spine, green top edge and tan end papers. Laid in is a note on Scorpion Press letterhead describing the De Luxe Specifications : "The de luxe presentation copies are produced in small numbers as they are intended primarily for the use of the author, contributor, editor, publisher and others associated with the authors work. These books are given a letter rather than a number and are especially handsome, bound in goatskin rather than bonded leather with five raised bands. The spine blocking is horizontal because of the raised bands. In addition these books contain the signature of… Read More

Publisher’s lettered limited edition, Near Fine to Fine book with slight edge crease to middle of a couple pages around p. 150, tiny spot front page edges, and slight push top of spine, in a similar slipcase with slight shelf and edge wear; no dust jacket as issued. This is Hillerman’s completely out of series mystery. The story is about a man’s search for a relative, a missing grandchild,  that takes him into Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. He has taken the liberty of naming the characters based upon his comrades in the 410 Infantry, C Company of WWII.
This is one of the very rare Harper lettered limited editions of which 26 were done for the last three limited titles produced by Harper (i.e., there were only 78 such lettered editions). The lettered limiteds were not for sale but were reserved for private distribution by the publisher and Hillerman. This copy originally belonged to dust jacket artist, Peter Thorpe. Thorpe did the jacket and slipcase designs for all the Harper Hillerman… Read More

New York:: St Martin's,, 1994.. SIGNED hardcover first edition -. Fine in fine dust jacket (appears unread.). First US printing. The hard to find third Rebus mystery, one of the best police detective series currently being written, and notable for its wonderful evocation of Edinburgh. SIGNED by Rankin on the title page. 269 pp.

Collectors lettered limited edition – this is copy "B" of 26 such books. A Fine, unread book bound in simulated brown leather that has been crafted so that lettering and designs appear to have been hand-tooled to the leather; book is housed in a Fine, matching clamshell box. The over-size book is a beautiful production (box measures 11 ½ by 9 by 2 ½ inches). In addition to the Introduction and Afterword, content includes: All titles of the Arapaho Ten Commandments series; ten other short stories, and two essays. Parks has provided 66 illustrations (many of these are the same as appeared in the Ten Commandments Series. The original drawing for the third illustration ("You are my younger sister, she said") is mounted inside the box, opposite the book. All three authors and Parks have signed on the limitation page. The A.S.A.P. hardcover with jacket and the lettered editions are the true first printing
of this collection – there was a Berkley trade paperback edition in 2013. The trues firsts are… Read More