Vintage & Collectible Mystery Books

Softcover. New York, Pocket Books/Permabooks, 1st, 1961, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 195 pages. Paperback. Pocket Book #6087. Creasing along spine.

Softcover. Hollywood, CA, Saint Enterprises, 1st, 1946, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, 128 pages. Paperback. Chartered Mystery #25. Pencil notation on first page. Light soil and warping to spine. Digest size 5x7. Abrasion on rear wrapper.

Hardcover. Boston, David Godine, 1st, 1985, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 282 pages. A fast-paced thriller about a psychopath stalking Brooklyn. Clean, bright copy in a dust jacket.

Hardcover. NY, Mysterious Press, 1st, 1995, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. The sixth Joe Gunther mystery.

Hardcover. NY, Pantheon, 1st US, 1973, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Translated from Swedish by Alan Blair.

Hardcover. NY, World, 1st US, 1972, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Originally published in the UK in 1953 under the pseudonym Michael Halliday. A man is blamed for the death of the husband of the woman he loves. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Cleveland, World Publishing, 1st thus, 1946, Hardcover in black cloth. "Deadline at Dawn", a "Tower Mystery", was made into a film by RKO Radio Pictures, starring Susan Hayward, Bill Williams and Paul Lukas. Book is illustrated with black and white photographs from film. Black cloth with green titling on spine, green illustration on front, end papers and title page illustrated with black and white photographs, four pages of black and white photographs in text, as well as several black and white line drawings of clocks. 220 pages. Text pages have tanning due to the cheap paper. Lacks dust jacket.

Hardcover. NY, Simon & Schuster, 1st, 1976, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright unclipped dust jacket. Remainder stamp on bottom edge. Lieberman's fifth novel features Dr. Paul Konig, New York City Chief Medical Examiner, studying the grisly remains of two -- or is it three -- people pulled out of the East River even as he learns his daughter has been kidnapped and he is thrust into a situation beyond all his considerable experience.

Hardcover. Philadelphia, J. B. Lippincott, 1st, 1919, Book: Very Good, Hardcover, pictorial green cloth with large, striking design of a dragon in yellow on front; lettered in yellow on front and spine; 380 pages. Color frontispiece by Gayle Hoskins (Originally published in Munsey's Magazine). Scarce copy of a mystery pulp writers' first book. Clean.

Hardcover. NY, Farrar & Rinehart, 1st, 1930, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, black cloth with red lettering. The acclaimed crime writer's last book (he died in 1930), a collection of courtroom stories featuring Colonel Braxton, "great lawyer, great detective, and gallant gentleman ", and set in Virginia in the 1850's. Both Howard Haycraft and Ellery Queen considered Post second only to Poe as an American writer of detective fiction. Clean, square copy.

Softcover. London, Hard Case Crime, 1st thus, 2015, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, colorful wraps with a retro-style illustration by Robert McGinnis. Now retired and happily married, Quarry turns down a million-dollar contract to assassinate a presidential candidate. It's not the sort of assignment you can just walk away from without consequences--but coming after Quarry has consequences, too. Like new.

Softcover. London, Hard Case Crime, 1st thus, 2008, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, colorful wraps with a retro-style illustration by Glen Orbik. First publication ever! By the Edgar award-winning author of SONGS OF INNOCENCE and LITTLE GIRL LOST (written as "Richard Aleas")Told in 50 chapters, each chapter named after one of the first 50 books in the series.Featuring a full-color insert section containing images of the first 50 Hard Case Crime covers! Publishers Weekly on FIFTY-TO-ONE: "High-speed action and nonstop thrills highlight the 50th novel from Hard Case Crime...Ardai sets an impressive standard for the new wave of pulp crime fiction...Breathless action and entertaining characters make this a page-turner from start to finish. " Like new.

Softcover. London, Hard Case Crime, 1st thus, 2009, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, colorful wraps with a retro-style illustration by Chuck Pyle. Once an art smuggler, now a respectable art dealer, Ovid Wiley awoke to find his former partner stabbed to death on his gallery floor. That was strange enough--but when a CIA agent showed up to spring him from NYPD custody, things got a lot stranger. Now the CIA is offering to clear up the murder charge, but only in return for a favor: They want Ovid to fly to Vatican City and trace the trail of a renegade priest who has gone missing with millions in church funds. What's the connection? The priest's lover, a woman Ovid knew in his smuggling days. Like new.

Softcover. London, Hard Case Crime, 1st thus, 2015, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, colorful wraps with a retro-style illustration by Gregory Manchess. He'd been a promising piano prodigy, once. Now he was just an addict, barely scraping by, letting his hunger for drugs consume him. But a man's life can always get worse--as Ray Stone discovers when he wakes up beside a beautiful nightclub singer only to find her dead...and 16 ounces of pure heroin missing. On the run from the law, desperate to prove his innocence, Ray also faces another foe, merciless and unforgiving: his fierce and growing craving for a fix. Ed McBain was one of the most popular mystery writers of all time, creator of the 87th Precinct series and recipient of the Mystery Writers of America's Grand Master Award. SO NUDE, SO DEAD was his very first crime novel--and this is its first appearance in print in more than half a century. Remainder line on bottom edge, otherwise very good.

Softcover. London, Hard Case Crime, 1st thus, 2009, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, colorful wraps with a retro-style illustration by Ricky Mujica. THE ONLY THING HARDER THAN GETTING INTO THE MOB...IS GETTING OUT. For Anthony Russo, an Atlantic City mobster's son, the chances of escaping a life of crime are slim. They hinge on his plan to back a washed-up boxer's comeback bid, and that, in turn, hinges on winning the help of a sexy round card girl who's gone toe-to-toe with the current champion--in the bedroom. New York Times best-selling author of Slipping Into Darkness, Slow-Motion Riot, and The Intruder. Winner of the Edgar Award for best first novel. Like new.

Softcover. NY, Vintage Crime/Black Lizard, reprint, 1991, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 244 pages. Lou Ford is the deputy sheriff of a small town in Texas. The worst thing most people can say against him is that he's a little slow and a little boring. But, then, most people don't know about the sickness--the sickness that almost got Lou put away when he was younger. The sickness that is about to surface again.

Softcover. NY, Fawcett Gold Medal, reprint, 1970, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, mass market paperback, 255 pages. A lovely young girl steps in front of Travis McGee's headlights. McGee misses the girl but lands in ten feet of swamp water. As he's limping along the deserted road, someone in an old truck takes a few shots at him. And, when he goes to the local sheriff to complain, the intrepid Travis McGee finds himself arrested and charged with murder. And he can't help but ask himself, is this what they call southern hospitality...? Mild wear to covers, otherwise VG, clean.

Hardcover. NY, Simon & Schuster, 1st, 2003, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Sent by the CIA to 1950s Cuba to eliminate young revolutionary Fidel Castro, ex-Marine hero Earl Swagger finds himself confronting outdated ideals about honor and duty as the world around him erupts into early Cold War violence. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, HarperCollins, 1st, 1993, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. SIGNED BY TROCHECK on the title page. The second mystery featuring cleaning lady and sometime sleuth Callahan Garrity Set in Atlanta, Georgia.

Hardcover. London, Allison & Busby Limited, 1st, 2005, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. SIGNED BY MARSTON on the title page. In Victoria's England, a rowdy crowd boards the Great Western Excursion train on their way to an illegal bare-knuckles fight in Maidenhead north of London . A brutal murder on the train brings Scotland Yard's Detective Inspector Robert Colbeck to stop the train murders, by a murderer who uses a noose as a death weapon--is this a 'public execution, a retribution killing? Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Bantam Books, 1st, 1992, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, SIGNED AND DATED BY DAVIDSON on the half-title page. Goldy Bear is the bright, opinionated, wildly inventive caterer whose personal life is a recipe for disaster, with bills taking a bite out of her budget and her abusive ex-husband making tasteless threats. Determined to take control, Goldy moves her business to the ritzy Aspen Meadow Country Club. Soon she's preparing decadent dinners and posh society picnics--and enjoying the favors of Philip Miller, a handsome local shrink, and Tom Schulz, her more-than-friendly neighborhood cop. Until, that is, the dishy doctor drives his BMW into an oncoming bus. Convinced that Philip's bizarre death was no accident, Goldy begins to sift through the dead doc's unpalatable secrets. But this case is seasoned with unexpected danger and even more unexpected revelations--the kind that could get a caterer killed. Clean copy

Hardcover. NY, Viking, 1st, 2000, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Like new. Ellie Haskell visits three elderly women, the bridesmaids from her late grandmother's wedding, who have informed her that her grandmother needs to communicate a message to her from beyond the grave.

Softcover. Ashland OR, Blackstone Publishing, reprint, 2019, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, pictorial wraps. Someone is looking to wreck the nation's economy, and they're spending a lot of money to do it. With every lead going nowhere, Flynn's most dizzying logic is put to the test. The remarkable undercover agent and Boston detective Francis Xavier Flynn returns in this second installment of the darkly comedic series. Out on ''medical leave'' from the Boston police department, Flynn has actually been called up once again by his longtime friend and handler, N. N. Zero, to solve a most perplexing occurrence. Someone has been picking small towns throughout the United States and delivering packages of money -- $100,000 to be exact -- to every man, woman, and child in residence. As Flynn flies to Texas to start investigating the first incident, even more people begin to receive large manila envelopes full of ''cash money,'' including an entire department at the Pentagon.Now under pressure from the president, Flynn is up against the clock to crack this crisis before the US economy is propelled into total disarray.

Hardcover. London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1st, 1991, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. The sequel to A Real Shot in the Arm which won the 1989 John Creasey Award for best crime novel. It features the heroine Chris, a middle-aged housewife turned local journalist/sleuth, determined to uncover a murder mystery. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, St. Martin's Press, 1st, 1990, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. The first Edwina Crusoe, R.N., medical mystery at the venerable Chelsea Memorial Hospitalin New Haven, CT. The heated custody battle between two couples over the true parentage of 10-year-old Hallie Dietz takes an unexpected turn when, minutes after the remarkable results of a tissue match are in, the lab technician and a teenage volunteer are shot and the records disappear.

Hardcover. NY, Doubleday & Company, 1st, 1951, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Fair, Hardcover, red textured boards with black lettering on spine. Dust jacket present in fair to poor condition with chipping, tape repairs. Tommy Hambledon is back, and again he's in Germany, posing as a camera- toting tourist while trailing renascent Fascists. The investigation started in Cologne when a corpse was found hung out like a batch of wash from the bare girder of a ruined building. Bookplate on inside front cover, no markings.

Hardcover. NY, Dutton, 1st, 1997, Book: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. A cultured, upper-class man finds himself drawn to the beautiful, helpless plaintiff in an assault case for which he is juror, only to be lured into a world in which nothing is what it seems. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1st, 2003, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Meeting a former lover whose real-estate husband has disappeared and been pronounced dead, Doc Ford investigates the woman's suspicions of foul play and finds himself deep in the Everglades, where a big business owner is hatching a scheme to promote his cash flow and personal power. Clean copy.

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, Harper & Row, 1st, 1989, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. A perilous round-the-globe chase ensues when a pair of astrologers discover a priceless stolen painting at a client's home. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, William Morrow, 1st, 1990, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcopver in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. The eighth novel in Block's award-winning and critically-praised crime-thriller series featuring New York private detective and recovering alcoholic, Matt Scudder, this time searching for the psychopath who has vowed to kill him -- after he has murdered any woman with any connection, no matter how small, to the detective. Clean copy.

Softcover. NY, Little, Brown & Company, reprint, 2014, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 235 pages. Orphaned by a tragic accident at sixteen, Tommy Burwell's been scraping out a meager existence working dead-end jobs for years. When he and fellow nomad Four Trey Whitey get jobs working with dynamite, making way for a new pipeline across the deserted plains of Far West Texas, disaster ensues. In a matter of days, Tommy is brutally beaten and witness to an act of cold-blooded murder the law can't be bothered to investigate. When Carol, a knockout beauty, shows up looking to follow the caravan of workers, Tommy falls for her almost immediately. There aren't any jobs for women on the pipeline, but Carol knows a few things she could do for the workers to keep afloat -- an arrangement that Tommy can't bear for long. As Tommy's about to find out, when you're South of Heaven, you're far from grace - -and sometimes the only way out is down. Clean, unread copy.

Hardcover. NY, Mysterious Press, 1st, 1990, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. SIGNED BY THOMAS on the title page. Actor/detective Granville Haynes and his friends from the notorious bar Mac's Place move through a Washington labyrinth of deceit and murder when the memoirs of Granville's CIA father threaten to come to light. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, William Morrow & Company, 1st, 1998, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Author's fourth book. Basis for the movie by the same name starring Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike. The Dorchester neighborhood is no place for the innocent, the young, the defenseless or the pure. This is a territory of broken families, bitter cops, whacked out ex-cons, and a mother who watches herself on the nightly news as her missing child floats further and further into the unkown. Boston private investigators, Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro, don't want this case. But after pleas from the child's aunt, they embark upon an investigation and ultimately risk losing everything- their relationship, their sanity, and even their lives-to find this little-girl-lost. Capturing the voices that echo within blue collar Boston, Dennis Lehane is a master storyteller, who weaves together embittered people, tattered emotions, and brutal crime to create relentless, heart-pounding novels of suspense. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Penzler Publishers, reprint, 2022, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 266 pages. When Quinn first meets Bricky, she's working as a partner-for-hire at a dance hall and he's struggling to shake the anxiety of his guilty conscience. Earlier that day, the young man took advantage of a found key and used it to rob a stranger's home. Now, with the purloined money in his pocket, Quinn is unable to escape the memory of his wrongdoing-and not even a night spent dancing is enough to silence his nagging thoughts. When the dance hall closes, he and Bricky-linked, after many intimate hours, by a budding romance-return to the scene of the crime intending to restore the stolen fortune and begin a new life together, only to discover, upon arrival, that the owner of the property has been murdered. There's evidence present that easily links Quinn to the crime, and he expects that, as soon as day breaks and the authorities learn of the gruesome scene, he will be arrested straight away. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1st, 1975, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. A provocative British Secret Service agent called Cadbury uses her sex the way James Bond uses a gun, with equally devastating results. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Boston, Little Brown , 1st US, 1933, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 303 pages, hardcover with gray cloth covers with black lettering, decoration. Light spotting to covers otherwise very good, clean.

Softcover. Atlanta GA, Longstreet Press, 1st, 1997, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 279 pages. SIGNED BY AUTHOR ON TITLE-PAGE.

Hardcover. New York, Dutton, 1st, 1983, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 229 pages. SIGNED BY AUTHOR on title page. Beautiful copy in clear mylar sleeve.

Hardcover. London, Orion, 1st UK, 1998, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 335 pages. SIGNED BY AUTHOR on title page. Lovely copy with only minor wear to dust jacket.

Hardcover. NY, Dutton , 1st, 1991, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 308 pages. Remainder line top bottom edge, else a clean, tight copy in a dust jacket.

Softcover. Cleveland OH, Arthur Westbrook Co., 1st US, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, Paperback pulp detective mystery from about 1920. A sequel to the author's "The Coral Pin". Yellowing paper and a poor printing job, typical of these dime novels. An attractive color cover with light creasing, edgewear. Back cover missing.

Hardcover. New York, St. Martin's, 1st, 2000, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 294 pages. SIGNED BY AUTHOR ON TITLE PAGE. A clean, bright copy in a dust jacket.

Hardcover. London, Picador, 1st, 2008, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 185 pages. SIGNED BY AUTHOR (JOHN BANVILLE AS BENJAMIN BLACK) ON TITLE PAGE. Clean, bright copy.

Softcover. New York, Norton, uncorrected proof, 1995, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 224 pages. SIGNED BY DOBYNS ON TITLE PAGE. Manilla covers, perfect binding. Extremely slight rubbing to covers, binding stiff and tight, crisp and unmarked pages.

Hardcover. NY, Doubleday , 1st, 1991, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket.

Hardcover. Franklin Square PA, Franklin Mystery, reprint, 1989, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Clean, tight copy. Gilt decorated covers.

Hardcover. NY, Viking, 1st, 1988, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Review slip, author photo laid-in.

Hardcover. NY, St. Martin's Press , 1st, 1988, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 288 pages in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Author's 1st book.

Hardcover. NY, Delacorte Press, 1st, 1986, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in an unclipped dust jacket. Nice, bright copy.