Hardcover. NY, Bantam Books, 1st, 1995, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Like new. Investigating the mysterious death of the local librarian, Ellie Haskell is entranced by the arrival of romance cover model Karisma, whose muscle-bound fund-raiser is upended by second and third murders.
Hardcover. Boston, Little, Brown and Company, 1st, 2015, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Whether they're cops or conmen, savage killers or creative types, gangsters or God-fearing citizens, George Pelecanos' characters are always engaged in a fight for their lives. They fight to advance or simply to survive; they fight against odds, against enemies, even against themselves. In this, his first collection of stories, the acclaimed novelist introduces readers to a vivid and eclectic cast of combatants. A seasoned claims investigator tracks a supposedly dead man from Miami to Brazil, only to be thrown off his game by a kid from the local slum. An aging loser takes a last stab at respectability by becoming a police informant. A Greek-American couple adopts an interracial trio of sons and then struggles to keep their family together, giving us a stirring bit of background on one of Pelecanos' most beloved protagonists, Spero Lucas. In the title novella - which takes its name from Hollywood slang for the last shot of the day, the one that comes before the liquor shots begin - we go behind the scenes of a television cop show, where a writer gets caught up in a drama more real than anything he could have conjured for a script.
Hardcover. London, Constable & Co., 1st UK, 1989, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bight, unclipped dust jacket. SIGNED BY AUTHOR on title page ("Rodney Wingfield 1990"). The first of the author's Inspector Frost mysteries, originally written in 1972 at the prompting of Macmillan (and spurred on by a non-refundable advance of GBP50), the manuscript was promptly rejected, before eventually being published in Canada in 1984. This UK edition followed some five years later and the Yorkshire Television adoptions staring David Jason appeared soon after. Bright, clean copy.
Softcover. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1st, 2014, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 223 pages. Over the course of a fifty-year career, Donald E. Westlake published nearly one hundred books, including not one but two long-running series, starring the hard-hitting Parker and the hapless John Dortmunder. In the six years since his death, Westlake's reputation has only grown, with fans continuing to marvel at his tightly constructed plots, no-nonsense prose, and keen, even unsettling, insights into human behavior. With The Getaway Car, we get our first glimpse of another side of Westlake the writer: what he did when he wasn't busy making stuff up. And it's fascinating. Setting previously published pieces, many little seen, alongside never-before-published material found in Westlake's working files, the book offers a clear picture of the man behind the books-including his thoughts on his own work and that of his peers, mentors, and influences. The book opens with revealing (and funny) fragments from an unpublished autobiography, then goes on to offer an extended history of private eye fiction, a conversation among Westlake's numerous pen names, letters to friends and colleagues, interviews, appreciations of fellow writers, and much, much more. There's even a recipe for Sloth a la Dortmunder. Really. Rounded out with a foreword by Westlake's longtime friend Lawrence Block, The Getaway Car is a fitting capstone to a storied career and a wonderful opportunity to revel anew in the voice and sensibility of a master craftsman.
Softcover. Miami Beach FL, Dennis McMillan, 1st pbk., 1987, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, the second book in the authors' series of YA mysteries set at the Mohonk Mountain House in upstate New York. In 125 pages with photos throughout & a quiz, Introduction by Stephen King (who also mysteriously appears in a photo). Cover illustration by famed cartoonist Gahan Wilson, back cover by Joe Servello. Clean, like new.
Hardcover. NY, Random House, 1st, 1978, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, lightly worn dust jacket. The second and hardest-to-find book in Jackson's highly-praised mystery-crime series featuring Detroit Detective Sgt. Fang Mulheisen, this time dealing with the murders of five railroad trainmen in a spectacular freight train crash and a hijacked boxcar loaded with automatic rifles as well as several distractions such as a dozen Cuban revolutionaries, a greedy mob boss and a luscious Polish housewife. Light tan spotting area to front fly leaf and front board. Otherwise clean.
Hardcover. Roslyn NY, Walter J. Black, Book Club Ed., 1981, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, pictorial boards. Three mystery novels in one volume. Detective Book Club Series. Clean, bright copy. No markings.
Hardcover. Roslyn NY, Walter J. Black, reprint, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, illustrated boards. Three complete unabridged mysteries in one volume. Detective Book Club Edition. Clean, bright copy.
Hardcover. NY, St Martins Press, 1st, 1990, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. When Richard Coburn, the despised co-owner of the fashionable Avanti nightclub, is shot to death, his widow, sultry Dierdre Coburn, hires Dwyer to investigate. Clean copy.
Hardcover. NY, Thomas Dunne Book/St. Martin's Press, 1st, 2003, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 356 pages. SIGNED BY CRABBE on the title page. August, 1889. A man lies dead in a darkened construction site near Madison Square Park. The murderer, Jim Tupper, a Mohawk of the Iroquois nation, flees back to the vast Adirondack wilderness. But he has left a trail of death behind, pointing north, straight to where Tom Braddock and his family are vacationing. Worlds collide when Tom's son is caught up in the murder of a young maid at the hotel. To clear him, Tom must capture the killer, whom he believes to be Tupper, launching an epic chase across more than a hundred miles of lakes, rivers, and forest. Clean copy.
Hardcover. NY, Coward McCann & Geoghegan, 1st, 1982, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. SIGNED BY PRONZINI on the title page. Discussion of the really bad English and American crime novels of 20th century. Introduction by Ed McBain. Index, bibliography. Clean copy.
Hardcover. NY, Minotaur Books, 1st, 2014, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. INSCRIBED BY MAYOR on the title page. Ben Kendall was a troubled man. Coming back from Vietnam with PTSD and scars that no one else could see, he hid away from the world, filling his house with an ever-increasing amount of stuff, until finally, the piles collapsed and he was found dead, crushed beneath his own belongings. But what at first glance looks to be a tragic accidental death of a hoarder, may be something much more-and much deadlier. Ben's cousin, medical examiner Beverly Hillstrom, unsettled by the circumstances of his death, alerts Joe Gunther and his Vermont Bureau of Investigation team. Clean copy.
Hardcover. NY, Library of America , 4th pr., 1997, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. 990 pages. James M. Cain's pioneering novel of murder and adultery along the California highway, The Postman Always Rings Twice (1934), shocked contemporaries with its laconic toughness and fierce sexuality. Horace McCoy's They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1935) uses truncated rhythms and a unique narrative structure to turn its account of a Hollywood dance marathon into an unforgettable evocation of social chaos and personal desperation. In Thieves Like Us (1937), Edward Anderson vividly brings to life the dusty roads and back-country hideouts where a fugitive band of Oklahoma outlaws plays out its destiny. The Big Clock (1946), an ingenious novel of pursuit and evasion by the poet Kenneth Fearing, is set by contrast in the dense and neurotic inner world of a giant publishing corporation under the thumb of a warped and ultimately murderous chief executive. William Lindsay Gresham's controversial Nightmare Alley (1946), a ferocious psychological portrait of a charismatic carnival hustler, creates an unforgettable atmosphere of duplicity, corruption, and self-destruction. I Married a Dead Man (1948), a tale of switched identity set in the anxious suburbs, is perhaps the most striking novel of Cornell Woolrich, who found in the techniques of the gothic thriller the means to express an overpowering sense of personal doom. Clean copy.
Hardcover. NY, Crown, 1st, 1989, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 339 pages. INSCRIBED BY CAUNITZ on the half-title page. A tale of high-level international art smuggling machinations which involve a copy of Homer's Iliad that belonged to Alexander the Great. A planned assassination outside Athens that turns into a massacre and the simultaneous murder of a shady Greek dealer send Major Andreas Vassos of the Greek police off to New York to pursue leads that involve a brutal Irish gang and some smooth operators with ties to the State Department and the wartime OSS. Throw in a tough New York police lieutenant, a beautiful art historian and a villainous collector, and you have the makings for a fast-moving thriller. Clean copy.
Hardcover. New York, Simon & Schuster, 1st, 2004, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 337 pages, like new in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. SIGNED -MORE LIKE INITIALLED - BY SMITH on the title page.
Hardcover. New York, Henry Holt, 1st, 1989, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 261 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. Clean, tight copy with minor wear to edges.
Hardcover. Boston, Little Brown, 1st, 1998, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. SIGNED BY AUTHOR. 391 pages. A very clean, tight copy. In Blood Work, Michael Connelly introduces a new character, Terry McCaleb, who was a top man at the FBI until a heart ailment forced his early retirement. Now he lives a quiet life, nursing his new heart and restoring the boat on which he lives in Los Angeles Harbor. Although he isn't looking for any excitement, when Graciela Rivers asks him to investigate her sister Gloria's death, her story hooks him immediately: the new heart beating in McCaleb's chest is Gloria's. Blood Work won the Grand Prix, the highest honor for a mystery novel in France. It also won the Anthony Award and Macavity Award for Best Novel of 1998.
Hardcover. New York, Mysterious Press, 1st, 1999, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 339 pages. SIGNED BY AUTHOR on title page. Lovely copy with only minor edgewear to dust jacket.
Hardcover. London, Orion, 1st UK, 2005, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 295 pages. SIGNED BY AUTHOR on title page. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket.
Hardcover. New York, Harper & Brothers, 1st US, 1863, Book: Fair, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover. 278 pages. Black & white illustrations by John McLenan. Frontispiece of Collins with tissue guard. Previous owner's signature front end paper. Water stain to top corner of pages throughout. Front hinge cracked at top. Spots of discoloration throughout. Soiling and rubbing to covers. Fading to spine.
Hardcover. New York, World Publishing, 1st, 1971, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 358 pages. Ink stain (printers flaw?) at edge of text on page 215. Otherwise clean, tight copy. Clear acetate cover has very minor chips missing at top of spine. Author's first book.
Hardcover. New York, Arbor House, 1st, 1981, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 269 pages. SIGNED BY AUTHOR ON TITLE PAGE. Clean, tight copy. A novel of terror set during Mardi Gras in New Orleans.
Hardcover. Boston, Little, Brown and Company, 1st, 1931, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 256 pages. Previous owner's inscription front fly leaf. U. S. O. stamp inside front and back covers. Remnants of label on back end papers. Black cloth covers with green lettering on front and spine. Some white spots on covers. Clean. Scarce. No dust jacket.
Hardcover. New York, Warner Books, 1st, 1997, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. SIGNED by BALDACCI.
Hardcover. NY, Scribners, 1st US, 1981, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Review copy w/slip laid-in. Very good in a bright, unclipped dust jacket.
Hardcover. London, Sinclair-Stevenson, 1st, 1995, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 440 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. Clean, tight copy with minor wear to covers.
Hardcover. New York, St. Martins, 1st, 1996, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 304 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. SIGNED BY SAYLOR on title page. Tight copy.
Hardcover. London, Heinemann, 1st, 1981, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover. Previous owner's bookplate on front fly leaf, small ink checks on rear dust jacket flap. Otherwise clean.
Hardcover. New York, Doubleday, 1st, 2000, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, bright copy in an unclipped dust jacket. SIGNED BY CRAIS on title page.
Hardcover. NY, Ballantine Books, 1st, 1995, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. Previous owner's ink numbers on front fly leaf, otherwise VG.
Hardcover. New York , Doubleday, 2nd pr., 1999, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket. In the fifth of Dianne Day's acclaimed mysteries, the intrepid Fremont's first joint sleuthing adventure with her partner, Michael, has explosive consequences that almost prove fatal for them both. Fremont Jones and her "partner in love and work," Michael Archer, have been hired to look into a series of petty vandalisms plaguing the Southern Pacific Railroad. They are riding a train incognito when it is blown to smithereens just east of Salt Lake City. Michael, luckily, suffers only a broken collarbone, but Fremont simply disappears. Holding stubbornly to the belief that she is still alive, Michael sets out to find her.
Hardcover. London, Hodder and Stoughton, 1st, 1960, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover, 222 pages. Dust jacket edge wear and tear. Price clipped. Minor spotting on front flyleaf, title page and dedication page. Clear protective cover and in overall clean condition.
Hardcover. NY, Morrow, 1st, 1992, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. INSCRIBED BY BLOCK on title page.
Softcover. NY, Ace Books, 1st, 1958, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Paperback, Two mystery novels bound back-to-back. D-279, 139, 149 pages. Small ink notation to first leaf on both titles. Excellent condition.
Softcover. New York, Graphic Publications, 1st, 1950, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 190 pages. Paperback. A Graphic Mystery # 26. Moderate wear to pictorial wrappers. Pages tanned. Light chipping to spine and edges.