Softcover. Berkeley CA, Black Lizard Books, reprint, 1989, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, mass market paperback, 171 pages. "No one writes a better crime novel than Charles Willeford" Elmore Leonard THE BLACK MASS OF BROTHER SPRINGER tells the story of Sam Springer, a drifter novelist who meets Jack Dover, the retiring Abbot of the Church of God's Flock. Dover's final official act is to ordain Springer and send him off to serve as pastor of an all-Black church in Jacksonville, Florida. Springer soon becomes entangled in the city's growing civil rights movement . . . and with the church deacon's earthy young wife, Merita. The Washington post calls this darkly humorous novel by Charles Willeford, one of the great crime writers of the 20th century, "his masterpiece." Light wear, book store stamp, price on first page, crease to rear cover. Otherwise clean.
Hardcover. NY, Doubleday, 1st, 1970, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Who died at High Beck Cottage? Two old ladies had lived there for so long that friends foundit difficult to tell them apart. One was murdered- the other one vanished. A young girl comes from America to unravel the plot. One of the ladies may be her aunt. Clean copy.
Hardcover. NY, Donald I. Fine, 1st, 1988, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. The first mystery featuring maverick lawyer Steve Winslow. Clean, like new. When out-of-work lawyer Steve Winslow enlists himself as a New York City cab driver to pay the bills, he thinks he's hit rock-bottom. That is until Sheila Benton, heir to a multimillion dollar fortune, finds his number in the yellow pages and calls upon Steve to defend her. Of course her case is only a minor one. It seems that a blackmailer was found in her apartment in an uncomfortable position -- with a knife in his back.
Hardcover. NY, Forge/Tom Doherty Associates, 1st, 1997, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Quinn Fawcett is the name used by Bill Fawcett and Chelsea Quinn Yarbro. Their first novel, featuring Sherlock Holmes's older brother Mycroft. Clean copy.
Hardcover. NY, HarperCollins, 1st, 1992, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Author's first book, a mystery introducing Long Island detective JoeLaLuna, a "great cop who has hit a bad spot." And then he discovers that the wealthy husband of his former high school sweetheart has been murdered - and she is the most likely suspect.
Hardcover. NY, Bantam Books, 1st, 1988, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Like new. Meet Ellie Haskell, nee Simons, thin woman, newlywed, potential murderess. Her life in charming Chitterton Fells promises nothing but endless bliss--until she meets two of the most cunning and unlikely private eyes ever to track down a diabolical killer. Misses Hyacinth and Primrose Tramwell of Flowers Detection Agency have been called in by a major insurance company to investigate the deplorably high incidence of sudden death among the married men of this picturesque municipality. The spinster sleuths soon discover that all the husbands had been unfaithful and their deaths neatly arranged by an enterprising social organization called The Widows Club. But to find the mastermind behind this insidious ring, the Tramwells need an unhappy and betrayed wife. Enter Ellie, who will endanger life and husband to join The Widows Club and arrange to have her dearly beloved . . . dead. The second Ellie Haskell mystery.
Softcover. Ashland OR, Blackstone Publishing, reprint, 2018, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, pictorial wraps. Ms. Moxie Mooney is Hollywood royalty--and she's in trouble. At the summons of his on-again, off-again lover, Fletch drops in on Moxie's film set, located in sunny Florida. If being called up for help by the box office beauty isn't work enough, Steve Peterman, Moxie's sleazy manager, is murdered while the cameras are rolling, and no one managed to see a thing. Despite the obvious lack of evidence, the rumor mill is still quick to churn up a potentially plausible suspect: Moxie. Realizing the need for a little R&R away from prying eyes, he hastily flies Moxie and her drunken father off to Key West. But trouble follows Fletch, in every sense of the word, and soon enough he's playing host to a full house of Hollywood's brightest.I n true Fletch style, he delves into the investigation, dodging police inquiry, betting on race horses, taking a leisurely sail, and talking up his elite houseguests to get the dirt and solve this perplexing murder.
Hardcover. London, Michael Joseph, 1st, 1991, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, SIGNED BY FRANCIS on half-title page. Clean copy. Peter Darwin, a young First Secretary in the Foreign Office, returns from Tokyo for some quiet leave before taking up a new post. On the way he stops briefly in Miami, and there becomes entangled in a fracas which involves his going back not just to England but to Gloucestershire, scene of the long-buried memories of his childhood.
Softcover. NY, Carroll & Graf, reprint, 1995, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Paperback, 298 pages. Beside the dead body of Sir Maurice Lawes are the shattered fragments of a snuff-box that once belonged to Napoleon. These fragments tell a tale, or rather two tales, one true and one false. Now, an English expert in criminology forces the evidence to tell the truth about what happened and to point out the real murderer. Clean copy.
Hardcover. NY, Doubleday & Company, 1st, 1957, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, in a lightly worn dust jacket. 189 pages, a Tommy Hambledon mystery, some fading to dust jacket. Clean.
Hardcover. NY, Viking, 1st , 1986, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. This seventh novel in the Gabe Wager, Denver PD Homicide series has Wager trying to help one of his childhood heroes, Tommy Sanchez, an aging ex-rodeo star find his two adult sons who may be on the wrong road, endangering themselves and Wager. Clean copy.
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. Martin's Press, 1st, 1987, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. Private detective Dwyer agrees to help Karen Lane, his high school crush, to recover a lost suitcase. Still lovely after 25 years, Karen is also greedy for money and status, but the disillusioned Dwyer takes the assignment, which puts his life in danger. When Karen dies suddenly, the detective goes after evidence that she has been murdered, and perhaps others with knowledge of the facts behind the death of their schoolmate, Sonny Howard, whose drowning has been officially declared a suicide. The tensions multiply, with Dwyer baiting a trap for criminals willing to buy the suitcase holding the source of blackmailer Karen's wealth. Clean, bright copy.
Hardcover. NY, Morrow, 1st, 1993, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Matt Scudder title. SHAMUS AWARD WINNER. Block's recovering alcoholic Matt Scudder is an example of an evolving series character. Once isolated by guilt, angst, and booze, Scudder was the quintessential loner. Now, as his never-ending recovery continues, his world has begun to expand. He has a true friend in Mick Ballou, a sidekick in street urchin T. J., and a lover in former hooker Elaine. Hired by the brother of a mentally handicapped vet accused of the murder of attorney Glenn Holtzmann, Scudder finds that the victim was both less and more than he appeared to be. Much to his surprise--because he loves Elaine--Scudder becomes involved with Holtzmann's widow. The resolution of the case is a logical surprise that will leave readers contemplating an indifferent universe.
Softcover. NY, Little, Brown & Company, reprint, 2014, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 204 pages. Originally published by Lion Books as a paperback in 1954. By the time Jim Thompson was sixteen years old, he had been a newspaper boy, a burlesque show hawker, a plumber's helper, a comedian in two-reel pictures, a night bellboy in a luxury hotel and over a dozen other occupations. By the time he was eighteen, he was driving across America in a broken-down Ford without a penny to his name and his mother and his kid sister Freddie in tow, looking for just one more paycheck to keep them all alive. A bittersweet comedy of a hard-won American life, ROUGHNECK chronicles the many jobs, near-criminal escapades, and downright unlawful grifts of the man who would become one of crime fiction's most enduring writers, in a larger-than-life literary memoir--or wildly entertaining tall tale--as only Thompson could tell it. Hard times have never sounded so good. Clean, unread copy.
Hardcover. London, The Folio Society, 1st illust. thus, 2001, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, decorated blue cloth in a slipcase. 254 pages, 10 b&w illustrations by Paul Hogarth. Introduction by Antonia Fraser. First published in 1948. This is the story of an investigation of a kidnapping of a young woman and the abuse by a mother and daughter who live in a house called The Franchise. The young woman gives a detailed description of the attic room where she was supposedly kept and abused, but, Inspector Alan Grant of the Scotland Yard is not so sure.
Hardcover. NY, Grove Press, 1st, 1993, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. "In transposing to an Iranian setting the conventions of the thriller--the hard-drinking detective, the threatened heroine, the frantic escape from a brutal adversary--Koenig invests his story with unusual resonance. Here the familiar figure of the honest cop plays his role in the unfamiliar milieu of Teheran's fundamentalist Islamic society, as he becomes a threat to the government itself. Conducting a routine murder investigation to solve the death of a sexually mutilated young woman, chief homicide detective Darius Bakhtiar discovers the existence of a state-sponsored terrorist group, the Brides of Blood. This secret sorority of virgins, fanatical in their religious devotion, are trained to martyr themselves in terrorist aggression. After Bakhtiar uncovers evidence of sanctioned efforts to arm Iran with biological weapons, he and Maryam Lejavardi, the beautiful former Bride he has begun to protect and love, are tortured in Iran's feared Evin prison. The unimaginable horrors of Iran's torture factory might have overwhelmed a lesser novelist, but Koenig artfully blends assiduous research and superbly maintained suspense as he builds to the thrilling, unrelenting--and very cinematic--final pages."
NY, St. Martin's Press, 1st, 1994, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. A young New York illustrator leaves behind a promising career and returns to her hometown in the Florida panhandle to help the great-aunt who raised her resolve a puzzling series of events suddenly plaguing their decaying family home. Clean copy.
Hardcover. NY, Fawcett Columbine, 1st, 1995, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. SIGNED BY PERRY on the title page. As Police Superintendent Thomas Pitt investigates the leak in the Colonial Office, he quietly looks into the tragic death of his childhood mentor, Sir Arthur Desmond. Pitt believes he was murdered, and that the crime is connected with the treachery in the government. He makes little progress...until a second murder reverberates through London. Clean copy.
Hardcover. London, Hutchinson, 1st UK, 1992, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 305 pages, in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. The true first (UK). Paper tanning slightly at edges.
Hardcover. New York, A Dutton Book, 1st, 1991, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 246 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. INSCRIBED/SIGNED BY AUTHOR. Clean, tight copy.
Hardcover. New York, Scribner, 1st, 2004, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 369 pages. SIGNED BY AUTHOR ON TITLE PAGE. Lovely copy. Minor shelf-wear to dust jacket, else like new.
Hardcover. Boston, Little Brown, 1st, 1997, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 264 pages. SIGNED BY AUTHOR on title page. Lovely copy with only minor wear to dust jacket.
Hardcover. New York, Mysterious Press, 1st, 1993, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 311 pages, INSCRIBED BY AUTHOR on title page. Minor foxing on top and fore edge, light dust jacket edge wear, otherwise, very clean and tight copy.
Hardcover. New York, Harper & Row, 1st, 1971, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 247 pages. Clean, tight copy in a very nice dust jacket.
Hardcover. New York, Delacorte Press, 1st, 2001, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a dust jacket, 414 pages. SIGNED BY AUTHOR ON TITLE PAGE. Clean, bright copy.
Hardcover. London, Simon & Schuster, 1st, 1996, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 298 pages. Black cloth covers with gilt titles to spine, color illustrated dust jacket with silver and blue metallic titles, acetate protective covering to dust jacket. Very slight rubbing to dust jacket, covers and pages crisp, clean and unmarked, spine stiff and tight; clean, tight copy in excellent condition.
Hardcover. London, Longmans, Green & Co., 1st, ND (1915), Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 55 pages, 6 b&w tipped-in illustrations by Raemaekers. English and French rendered in black and red calligraphy by Margaret Calkin. Thin white cloth covers with gilt design, light soil. A short mystery play written by the noted Belgian playwright and Great War poet, inspired by a visit he paid to the Belgian trenches during Christmas week and written in the style of a Nativity Play: it depicts the Virgin and Child amongst ordinary soldiers in a miserable Western Front dug-out.
Hardcover. NY, Simon & Schuster , 1st, 1991, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket. The betrayals and radicalism of the 1970s come back to haunt Bay Area attorney Willa Jansson when she becomes involved in the machine-gun slaying of Christine Rugieri, a woman who twenty years before had testified against her husband and his extremist cohorts.
Hardcover. NY, Atlantic Monthly , 1st, 1994, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Remainder line bottom edge.
Hardcover. New York, St. Martin's Press , 1st, 1991, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. 1st book, SIGNED BY ERMELINO. Stamped #s on front end paper, & half-title page.
Hardcover. NY, Scribners, 1st, 1996, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclpped dust jacket. When her revenge-hungry ex-husband, Jilly, is unexpectedly released from jail, Ann Kalkadonis fights for her four-year-old daughter's life when the latter is kidnapped by Jilly and a former cellmate.
Hardcover. London, Faber & Faber, 1st, 1993, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, BOOKPLATE SIGNED BY DIBDIN on front fly leaf.
Hardcover. New York, Delacorte Press, 1st , 1992, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. SIGNED BY PRONZINI on title page.
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