Vintage & Collectible Mystery Books

Hardcover. NY, Knopf, 1st, 2000, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclpped dust jacket. Cassidy Sanderson is a scout for the Los Angeles Dodgers--the only female scout in the major leagues. Hard-living and hard-drinking, a gifted athlete herself, she takes pride in successfully competing in a male world. But recently she has been losing prospects on the sign, and her job security is teetering on the edge. When she gets a tip from a close friend and fellow scout about Alberto Cruz, a young phenom in the Dominican Republic, she impulsively catches a flight to Santo Domingo--even though it is out of her territory and she will undoubtedly incur her boss's wrath. If Alberto Cruz is as good as she's been told, the trip will be worth the risk.The risk starts quickly. Not only has Cruz "got it all--the heart, the guts, the aptitude," he may also have "a bad spirit on him." And he's not the only man Cassidy meets on the island who might change her life for good or ill. The other is Joe Galinis, a powerful financier and real estate developer, "one of the most provocative men she has ever met." When Cassidy returns to Los Angeles, she finds herself entangled in a blackmail scheme laced with otherworldly vodou and real-life violence: a tightening triangle of suspicion and deception that leads her to the back rooms (and backstabbing) of high-stakes sports and finance--where she is about to discover that there is a thin line between a competitor and a killer.

Softcover. Berkeley CA, Black Lizard, reprint, 1984, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Paperback, tight and square, clean and bright. Unread mass market reprint of the Thompson classic.

Hardcover. NY, Dutton, 1st, 1995, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. SIGNED BY BLOCK on the title page. Clean.

Softcover. NY, Ace Books, 1st, 1960, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Paperback, Two mystery novels bound back-to-back. D-439, 112, 144 pages. Mild crease to Punchbowl cover. Excellent condition.

Hardcover. NY, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 2nd Ed., 1991, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 152 pages. Bright copy in an unclipped dust jacket. Translated by Stuart Gilbert. A stand alone novel from the author best known for his Maigret detective series.

Softcover. New York, Five-Star Mysteries, 1st, 1946, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 157 pages. Paperback. Five-Star Mystery # 45. Moderate wear to pictorial wrappers. Pages tanned. Staple binding visable on front and rear hinge. Spine faded and frayed. Scarce. Chipped at edges.

Softcover. Greenwich, CN, Crest Book/Fawcett Publications, 1st, 1960, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 144 pages. Paperback. Fawcett/Crest #403. Light rubbing to edges, spine shows moderate wear.

Softcover. New York, Pocket Book, 1st, 1943, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 214 pages. Paperback. Pocket Book #249. Light soil to rear wrapper, spine creasing and fading. Gutter crack on first page.

Softcover. New York, Popular Library Mystery, 1st, 1951, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 222 pages. Popular Library Mystery # 381. Moderate wear to paper wrappers. Pages tanned. Hinge creases, minor soil to front cover. Stamp inside front cover.

Softcover. New York, Dell Publishing, 1st, 1944, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 239 pages. Paperback. Dell Book #25. Minor wear to paper wrappers. Cover art by Gerald Gregg. Map on back. Light crease and fade to spine and front cover.

Softcover. New York, Dell Publishing, 1st, 1957, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 159 pages. Paperback. Dell Book #A144. Minor wear to paper wrappers. Light crease to front cover. Cover art by Victor Kalin.

Softcover. New York, Dell Publishing, 1st, 1946, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 240 pages. Paperback. Dell Book #111. Minor wear to paper wrappers. Creasing to covers and spine. Map on rear cover. Small ink notation on first page. Cover art by Gerald Gregg.

Softcover. Greenwich, CT, Fawcett Gold Medal Publishing, 1st, 1958, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 144 pages. Paperback. Gold Metal Book #814. Cover art by Milton Charles. Light creasing to paper wrappers.

Softcover. Greenwich, CT, Fawcett Gold Medal Publishing, 1st, 1959, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 128 pages. Paperback. Gold Metal Book #862. Small ink notation on 1st page. Light creasing to paper wrappers.

Softcover. New York, Dell Publishing Company, 1st, 1956, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 222 pages. Paperback. Dell Mystery Book #909. Cover art by Arthur Sussman. Light warping and creasing to paper wrappers.

Softcover. New York, New American Library of World Literature, 1st, 1959, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 128 pages. Paperback. Signet Book #1654. Cover art by Bayre Phillips. Light crease to covers. A Carter Borwn Mystery Series.

Softcover. New York, Popular LIbrary, 1st, 1957, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 158 pages. Paperback. Popular Library Eagle Book #EB96. Spine edge tanned. Ink notation on first page. Creasing to cover wrappers.

Hardcover. Los Angeles, Sherbourne Press, 1st, 1968, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover, 192 pages. An exotic dancer gets murdered and hard-boiled P.I. Bart Challis is on the case. Very good in a lightly soiled dust jacket.

Hardcover. NY, Mysterious Press, 1st, 1984, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. Six novellas, one written for this edition, about Brooklyn cop Abe Levine.

Hardcover. NY, Doubleday Crime Club, 1st, 1951, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a lightly worn, unclipped dust jacket.

Hardcover. NY, Viking, 1st, 1984, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Front flap of dust jacket creased, otherwise clean, like new.

Hardcover. NY, Harper & Row, 1st US, 1953, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover, 243 pages. Original quarter black cloth and violet paper-covered boards. Dust jacket chipped, edgeworn, rubbed. Clean internally.

Hardcover. Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1st, 1976, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket.

Hardcover. London, Macmillan, 1st UK, 1979, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. 191 pages. "This is a complex and thrilling story that unfolds in the highways and byways of Athens; the stunning heat and savage demands of a city in ferment come alive off the page."

Hardcover. NY, Walker & Co., 1st, 1989, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Navarro and Briggs mystery. "Missing drawings by a German artist of the '20s and '30s and art masterpieces hidden by the Nazis provide the motive for two murders in this absorbing mystery.A tough female police detective, a triple-crossing dame and an alleged Mafia biggie complicate Navarro's and Briggs's task..."

Softcover. London, Hard Case Crime, 1st thus, 2020, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, colorful wraps with a retro-style illustration by Mark Eastbrook. It's been 33 years since the world-class thief known only by his last name--Nolan--last appeared in a novel by Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Max Allan Collins. Since then, the big man has gone straight and even proposed to his longtime lover, Sherry. But when their honeymoon plans take them to a Las Vegas casino with Mob connections, it's going to take all of Nolan's survival instincts--and the help of his old friend and frequent accomplice, Jon--to keep him from an unmarked grave in the unforgiving desert. Like new.

Softcover. London, Hard Case Crime, 1st thus, 2018, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, colorful wraps with a retro-style illustration by Paul Mann. It isn't easy going to jail for a practical joke. Of course, this particular joke left 20 cars wrecked on the highway and two politicians' careers in tatters--so jail is where Harold Kunt landed. Now he's just trying to keep a low profile in the Big House. He wants no part of his fellow inmates' plan to use an escape tunnel to rob two banks. But it's too late; he's in it up to his neck. And that neck may just wind up in a noose. HELP I AM BEING HELD PRISONER is Donald E. Westlake at his funniest and his most ingenious, a rediscovered crime classic from the MWA Grand Master returning to stores for the first time in three decades. Like new.

Softcover. London, Hard Case Crime, 1st thus, 2007, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, colorful wraps with a retro-style illustration by Gregory Manchess. What beautiful 18-year-old would want to spend her life taking care of an invalid? Not Shirley Angela. But that's the life she was trapped in--until she met Jack.Now Shirley and Jack have a plan to put the old man out of his misery and walk away with a suitcase full of cash. But there's nothing like money to come between lovers--money, and other women. Like new.

Softcover. London, Hard Case Crime, 1st thus, 2013, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, colorful wraps with a retro-style illustration by Gregory Manchess. On a secret island in the Caribbean, bioengineers have devised a vacation resort like no other, promising the ultimate escape. But when Dr. Roger Clark investigates, he discovers the dark secret of Eden Island and of Advance Biosystems, the shadowy corporation underwriting it. Like new.

Softcover. London, Hard Case Crime, 1st thus, 2013, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, colorful wraps with a retro-style illustration by Gregory Manchess. American radiologist Peter Ross just wanted a vacation. But when he meets the beautiful Angela Locke on a Spanish beach, he soon finds himself caught in a murderous crossfire between rival gangs seeking a precious artifact. From Barcelona to the rain-swept streets of Paris, from the towers of the Alhambra to its darkest catacombs, Peter Ross is an ordinary man in desperate circumstances: racing to uncover a secret lost for centuries, before he becomes its next victim. Remainder dot bottom edge, otherwise 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.