Vintage & Collectible Mystery Books - pg. 18 including Dying for Chocolate (SIGNED COPY)by: Diane Mott Davidson

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, Bantam, 1st, 1993, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. SIGNED by author Diane Mott Davidson directly on the title page; 303 pages. This delightfully wicked mystery features food expert Goldy Bear, seen last in Dying for Chocolate . Goldy, 31 and the divorced mother of a 12-year-old son and the owner of Goldilocks Catering ("Where Everything Is Just Right!") in Aspen Meadow, Colo., caters as many as three events a day, even while solving a murder or two. After catering the senior class dinner at the exclusive but undistinguished Elk Park Prepatory School, Goldy discovers the body of the class valedictorian, Keith Andrews, strangled by one of her extension cords. Tom Schulz, gourmet cook, Goldy's lover and head homicide detective for the Aspen Meadow police, quickly discovers that Keith may have been an extortionist and a thief. Probing further, he and Goldy find that the senior class (oddly restrained in their response to the murder) and their rancorous parents are a group for whom obsession with grades, nasty competition over college slots and blatant bribery are the norm. The book proves to be a light but delicious combination of unique personalities, first-rate recipes and sustained suspense, with only a surfeit of red herrings for leftovers. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Mysterious Press, 1st, 1992, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Part of the Nicholas Barlow series. When his star author turns up dead and his million-dollar manuscript disappears, publisher Nicholas Barlow helps homicide detective Lt. Scanlon search for clues, with Nick's bedridden brother masterminding the investigation from Connecticut. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Kensington Publishing , 1st, 2022, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. The options for the penniless daughter of a deceased earl are few indeed in Regency England. So, following the suspicious death of her father, the Earl of Morton, and the discovery that she and her much younger sister have been left without income or home, Lady Caroline takes a post as a lady's companion to the wealthy widow Frogerton. Mysterious intrigue ensues in this series debut. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Surrey UK, Severn House Publishers, 1st, 2014, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Cannell offers an Agatha Christie-like whodunit with touches of Olde World England and a soupcon of romance. Young Florence Norris is thrilled to become a housemaid at Mullings, home of the respected Stodmarsh family. Although she leaves service to marry, her husband dies in the war, and she's drawn back to Mullings, where she becomes the trusted housekeeper and confidante of young master Ned Stodmarsh. The years pass happily enough until the terrible day when Lady Stodmarsh dies unexpectedly. Florence suspects Lady Stodmarsh was murdered, but without evidence, she can't take her case to the police. Shortly after his wife's tragic death, Lord Stodmarsh takes a holiday to assuage his grief--and shocks everyone by returning home with a new wife. While Lord Stodmarsh is alive, his new wife is all sweetness and light, but when he dies unexpectedly, she reveals her true, wicked nature. When more violent murders occur, Florence can no longer keep her suspicions to herself. With a multistranded plot, strong characters, and echoes of Rebecca, this mix of romance and crime will appeal to a wide range of readers. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Bloomsbury USA, 1st, 2009, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. The third installment to Downie's Roman Empire series--the second-century saga of a witty and courageous army surgeon, Gaius Ruso, and his smart and loyal lover, Tilla, a barbarian woman from Britannia--continues in gripping fashion. Ruso returns to his family home in southern Gaul, summoned by a forged letter pleading for his immediate return. Once Ruso and Tilla return, Ruso is thrust into a dangerous quagmire involving a missing ship, huge family debts and, before long, the murder of the family's principal creditor--a crafty phony named Severus--who is poisoned in Ruso's home. While Ruso and his family are quickly suspected of the murder, Ruso and Tilla's attempts to solve the crime are hampered by interfering family members, a lying politician, a greedy banker and a pair of too-eager investigators sent from Rome. Ruso and Tilla must also deal with prejudice, envy and a new religion, Christianity. The plotting is clever and suspenseful, with subtle clues and lots of action, while the setting and supporting cast are vividly drawn. Clean copy.

Softcover. London, Bloomsbury, 1st UK, 1997, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, illustrated card wrappers. What better place to hide a collection of priceless jewels than among the glitter and ostrich feathers of Rio's Carnival parade? The film-director narrator suddenly finds himself the custodian of such a valuable horde after the nocturnal visit of a young dancer who is soon found murdered. First published in 1988, the novel was a bestseller in Fonseca's home country of Brazil, as well as in Italy and Mexico. The English edition I read was published in 1997 in Britain, translated by Clifford Sanders.

Hardcover. Berkeley CA, Counterpoint, 1st, 2013, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Dr. Crandall Taylor--or rather the actor who plays him--is enjoying a cushy new life in the City of the Lights where his now-cancelled American soap opera has become a prime time retro cult hit. This newfound stardom isn't wasted on him. Anxious to keep his brutal past a secret from fans, he's enjoying all the fruits that fame has to offer: adulation, entree into the trendiest clubs, and sex. What he really wants is to fund a feature film.Crandall uses his charm and intellect to draw into his narcissistic web four women: a horny network executive; an internet porn star; a bookish university student with a nasty bent; and the fetching starlet wife of an arms dealer. Crandall accepts both the crime lord's cash and his beautiful wife's advances. Big mistake. Now Crandall must channel his violent, megalomaniacal dark side just to stay alive--and on the run.

Hardcover. NY, William Morrow , 1st, 1997, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. INSCRIBED BY LEVINE on the half-title page. Pro football player turned lawyer Jake Lassiter is savoring a drink at a South Beach bar when a beautiful young woman shoots the man on the next bar stool and faints in Lassiter's arms. It's one way to get clients, he figures. The woman, Chrissy Bernhardt, is charged with the first-degree murder of her father, whom Chrissy believes abused her as a child. Lassiter takes the case, which is complicated by the fact that Chrissy's repressed memories of her father's abuse have been "unlocked" with the help of a therapist who turns out to be her late mother's former lover. The seventh Lassiter novel continues the series' steady improvement. Lassiter is smart, tough, funny, and very human. He's coming on fast as one of the most entertaining series characters in contemporary crime fiction. Clean copy.

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. NY, Bantam Books, 1st, 1990, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Like new. When her husband, Ben, drags her to the States for a gourmet cooking competition, the nervous and pregnant Ellie Haskell encounters mystery and murder in the American Midwest.

Hardcover. NY, Bantam Books, 1st, 1997, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Like new. When her husband, Ben, drags her to the States for a gourmet cooking competition, the nervous and pregnant Ellie Haskell encounters mystery and murder in the American Midwest.

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.

Hardcover. NY, Viking, 1st, 1999, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Like new. Ellie Haskell returns for another hilarious mystery that begins when Ellie's long-vanished father reappears in her life, carrying the ashes of his lost love and drawing Ellie into a murderous puzzle. The ninth Ellie Haskell mystery.

Hardcover. NY, Viking, 1st, 1998, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Like new. Ellie Haskell and husband Ben live in Chitterton Fells, where he runs a restaurant and she keeps house, tends their three-year-old twins, and occasionally investigates local murders. While attending a club meeting, Ellie discovers the fallen body of her new chairwoman, immediately suspects murder, and begins some insistent interrogating. The ninth Ellie Haskell mystery.

Hardcover. NY, Viking, 1st, 2007, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Like new. Ellie and Ben Haskell, along with their employee Mrs. Malloy, travel to Cragstone House in Yorkshire after Ariel Hopkins, daughter of Ben's cousin, Tom, asks for Ellie's help in investigating the strange, somewhat ghostly goings-on at the gothic manor. Tom and his wife, Betty, recently purchased the manor from the financially strapped Lady Fiona after they won the lottery. Betty is convinced Lady Fiona murdered her husband, who has disappeared. With the cook laid up with an injured ankle, Ben takes over the cooking, and Ellie handles the investigating. Ellie's life becomes more complicated when Ben meets up with an old girlfriend, and it seems the flame has been rekindled. Humor, quirky characters, and gothic underpinnings. The 12th Ellie Haskell mystery.

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.

Hardcover. NY, St. Martin's, 1st, 2008, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Like new. In her twelfth adventure, Ellie Haskell leaves her family at Merlin's Court to travel to her old boarding school, St. Roberta's, at the request of her former headmistress, Mrs. Battle. Someone has stolen the Loverly Cup from St. Roberta's trophy case. The cup is awarded to the winner of the lacrosse championship match, and for the first time in nine years, St. Roberta's has lost the cup and needs to pass it along to the winning school. Ellie returns to St. Roberta's, without her trusty housekeeper and sleuthing partner, Mrs. Malloy, on the pretext of needing some rest. She investigates staff, students, and some former graduates of the school while trying to come to terms with her guilt over her past failure to speak for a fellow student who was wrongly expelled. During the investigation, a beloved teacher, Ms. Chips, dies. Is it an accident, or is it murder?

Hardcover. London, Allison & Busby Limited, 1st, 2008, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. SIGNED BY MARSTON on the title page. On the LNWR train a criminal is being escorted to his appointment with the hangman. But the wily Jeremy Oxley, con-man, thief and murderer, has one last ace up his sleeve: a ruthless accomplice willing to do anything to save her lover. Clean copy.

Hardcover. London, Allison & Busby Limited, 1st, 2010, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. SIGNED BY MARSTON on the title page. Yorkshire 1855. Colonel Aubrey Tarleton is a man respected by his neighbors in the small Yorkshire village of South Otterington - as much for his heroic feats in the army as for his social position. So the community is left stunned when Tarleton, deliberately, walks into the path of a speeding train. He is crushed to death on the track, but it is not his broken limbs that attract the attention of the train driver; rather, it is the note pinned to his chest, fluttering in the breeze: 'Whoever finds me, notify Superintendent Tallis of the Detective Department at Scotland Yard'. The famous Railway Detective, Inspector Robert Colbeck, finds his superior officer in great distress when he arrives at the Yard the following morning. Tallis is clutching a letter from his now-deceased friend. In it, Tarleton makes it clear that he no longer wishes to live if he has to do so without his beloved wife, who has disappeared. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Berkley Prime Crime, 1st, 1997, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. SIGNED BY AUTHOR on title page. The 6th mystery set in the small town of Pecan Springs, Texas, featuring former attorney and now herbalist, China Bayles. Bayles investigates the murder of retired Texas Ranger Roy Adcock which hits surprisingly close to home. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Berkley Prime Crime, 1st, 1995, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. SIGNED BY AUTHOR on title page. Driving out to Rosemary's house on an errand, China discovers her accountant has been murdered. With one abusive ex-husband and plenty of former clients in the picture, there's no shortage of suspects. And with a vengeful ex-convict on the loose, there's plenty for China to worry about. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Viking, 1st, 2002, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Like new. Ellie Haskell has had her ups and downs with housekeeper Mrs. Malloy, but she misses her when the corpulent, caustic cleaning lady starts moonlighting in a private detective's office--nosing into his homicide files as she dusts them. The ninth Ellie Haskell mystery.

Hardcover. NY, Library of America, 1st, 1995, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 1199 pages, ribbon marker. In Raymond Chandler's hands, the pulp crime story became a haunting mystery of power and corruption, set against a modern cityscape both lyrical and violent. Now Chandler joins the authoritative Library of America series in a comprehensive two-volume set displaying all the facets of his brilliant talent. In his first novel, The Big Sleep (1939), the classic private eye finds his full-fledged form as Philip Marlowe: at once tough, independent, brash, disillusioned, and sensitive--and man of weary honor threading his way (in Chandler's phrase) "down these mean streets" among blackmailers, pornographers, and murderers for hire.In Farewell, My Lovely (1940), Chandler's personal favorite among his novels, Marlowe's search for a missing woman leads him from shanties and honky-tonks to the highest reaches of power, encountering an array of richly drawn characters. The High Window (1942), about a rare coin that becomes a catalyst by which a hushed-up crime comes back to haunt a wealthy family, is partly a humorous burlesque of pulp fiction. All three novels show Chandler at a peak of verbal inventiveness and storytelling drive. Stories and Early Novels also includes every classic noir story from the 1930s that Chandler did not later incorporate into a novel--thirteen in all, among them such classics as "Red Wind," "Finger Man," The King in Yellow," and "Trouble Is My Business." Drawn from the pages of Black Mask and Dime Detective, these stories show how Chandler adapted the violent conventions of the pulp magazine--with their brisk exposition and rapid-fire dialogue--to his own emerging vision of twentieth-century America. Clean copy.

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. NY, Walker Books, 1st, 2006, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. In Sallis's beautifully written second book to feature Turner, an ex-cop and ex-con (after 2004's Cypress Grove), Turner is working as a deputy sheriff in Cripple Creek, Tenn., a small town where crime is minor and strictly local. Then, late one night, Sheriff Don Lee arrests drunk driver Judd Kurtz with $200,000 in a nylon gym bag hidden in the trunk of his car. Kurtz breaks out of the town jail, seriously wounding two officers in the process. Turner's investigation leads him to an organized crime connection in nearby Memphis that enmeshes him in a web of escalating violence.

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.

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.

Softcover. Ashland OR, Blackstone Publishing, reprint, 2018, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, pictorial wraps. Fletch, as unbridled as ever and still living the good life in Italy on his ill-gotten fortune, gets a surprising visit from two surly FBI agents. The pair offers him a deal: either he attend the American Journalism Alliance convention and work as an undercover spy for them, or be shipped back to headquarters and face jail time for tax evasion. Reluctantly agreeing to the scheme, he catches a red-eye flight back to the States. But just as rubber hits tarmac in Virginia, news breaks on a murder at the convention. The victim -- a newspaper tycoon and former employer of I. M. Fletch -- was no stranger to enemies. And at a hotel full of reporters who'd all had their dealings with the tyrannical leader, everyone's a suspect.

Softcover. Ashland OR, Blackstone Publishing, reprint, 2018, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, pictorial wraps. Fletch, as unbridled as ever and still living the good life in Italy on his ill-gotten fortune, gets a surprising visit from two surly FBI agents. The pair offers him a deal: either he attend the American Journalism Alliance convention and work as an undercover spy for them, or be shipped back to headquarters and face jail time for tax evasion. Reluctantly agreeing to the scheme, he catches a red-eye flight back to the States. But just as rubber hits tarmac in Virginia, news breaks on a murder at the convention. The victim -- a newspaper tycoon and former employer of I. M. Fletch -- was no stranger to enemies. And at a hotel full of reporters who'd all had their dealings with the tyrannical leader, everyone's a suspect.

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.

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.

Softcover. Ashland OR, Blackstone Publishing, reprint, 2019, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, pictorial wraps. Fletch's newfound son Jack has just heard from an old flame who's about to marry a billionaire's son -- that is until her future father-in-law suffers several near-fatal accidents. The potential victim -- the inventor of the perfect mirror, which allows people to see themselves exactly as others do -- lives in his own secluded compound, so Jack gets a job as pool hand on the estate to get closer to the action. Now Jack's life may be in danger, and he will need his inimitable father's help to discover -- before it's too late -- whose reflection hides a killer's heart.

Softcover. Ashland OR, Blackstone Publishing, reprint, 2019, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, pictorial wraps. Fletch's newfound son Jack has just heard from an old flame who's about to marry a billionaire's son -- that is until her future father-in-law suffers several near-fatal accidents. The potential victim -- the inventor of the perfect mirror, which allows people to see themselves exactly as others do -- lives in his own secluded compound, so Jack gets a job as pool hand on the estate to get closer to the action. Now Jack's life may be in danger, and he will need his inimitable father's help to discover -- before it's too late -- whose reflection hides a killer's heart.

Softcover. Ashland OR, Blackstone Publishing, reprint, 2018, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, pictorial wraps. Young Fletch is less than pleased to be writing a business story, something that's well outside his field of expertise. Eager to get back out on the streets, he quickly compiles what he thinks is a well-executed article, complete with quotes from the chairman of the board's recent memos. But when he fails to do his due diligence when researching the company and its associates, he finds himself in hot water ... and now out of a job. The chairman has been dead for over a year. Realizing his mistake, he visits the widow Bradley to make amends -- and to ask a few simple questions. But her strange demeanor and puzzling answers leave Fletch perplexed. He can't help but wonder: Why would a dead man still be writing memos to his associates? Is he even dead? With his interest now thoroughly piqued, fueled by his desire to get the real story and take back his job, Fletch puts his reporting skills to work as he dives into the mystery surrounding the Bradleys' past.

Softcover. Ashland OR, Blackstone Publishing, reprint, 2018, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, pictorial wraps. Young Fletch is less than pleased to be writing a business story, something that's well outside his field of expertise. Eager to get back out on the streets, he quickly compiles what he thinks is a well-executed article, complete with quotes from the chairman of the board's recent memos. But when he fails to do his due diligence when researching the company and its associates, he finds himself in hot water ... and now out of a job. The chairman has been dead for over a year. Realizing his mistake, he visits the widow Bradley to make amends -- and to ask a few simple questions. But her strange demeanor and puzzling answers leave Fletch perplexed. He can't help but wonder: Why would a dead man still be writing memos to his associates? Is he even dead? With his interest now thoroughly piqued, fueled by his desire to get the real story and take back his job, Fletch puts his reporting skills to work as he dives into the mystery surrounding the Bradleys' past.

Hardcover. NY, William Morrow, 1st, 2020, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. In six intense short novels connected by the themes of crime, corruption, vengeance, justice, loss, betrayal, guilt and redemption, Broken is #1 international bestseller Don Winslow at his nerve-shattering, pulse-pounding, heartbreaking best. In Broken, he creates a world of high-level thieves and low-life crooks, obsessed cops struggling with life on and off the job, private detectives, dope dealers, bounty hunters and fugitives, the lost souls driving without headlights through the dark night on the American criminal highway. With his trademark blend of insight, humanity, humor, action, and the highest level of literary craftsmanship, Winslow delivers a collection of tales that will become classics of crime fiction. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Charles Scribner's, 1st US, 1989, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Set in a windblown resort in Cornwall, a tale of passion, greed, and murder unfolds as Lennox Kemp is drawn to a beautiful, mysterious women, a gruesome killing takes place, and he searches for clues. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Little, Brown and Company, 1st, 2006, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Francis X. Loughlin is an aging police detective haunted by a twenty-year-old homicide involving a young female doctor. A man named Julian Vega was put away for that crime, possibly without sufficient evidence, when he was seventeen. As Blauner's novel opens, Vega has just been released from prison, on a technicality, when Loughlin is called to investigate a crime that bears an uncomfortable resemblance to the earlier murder. Though the book sometimes takes the easy way out (the climactic twist feels both generic and arbitrary), it is elevated by Blauner's surefooted characterization of Julian. Newly free, struggling to find his way, dependent on the (somewhat tenuous) kindness of strangers, he is both sympathetic and tough; his portrait has a complexity that few authors could achieve. Clean, bright copy.

Hardcover. NY, Pocket Books, 1st, 1993, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. SIGNED BY SHANKMAN on title page.Distraught over her ex-boyfriend, Harry's new girlfriend, Samantha Adams, is eager to forget her troubles at a friend's blowout engagement party but finds them multiplying when the prospective groom is kidnapped and held for ransom. Sixth novel in the Samantha Adams series - this one is set in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Clean, like new.

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.

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

Hardcover. London, Gollancz, 1st, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. SIGNED BOOKPLATE BY AUTHOR laid in. Clean copy. "The extraordinary tale of Edward Moon, stage conjuror and detective, his silent associate the Somnambulist, a mysterious and shadowy figure, The Sleeper, shrouded in inscrutable mystery and veiled behind half-truths and hinted-at destiny, and a devilish plot to bring the British Empire crashing down." (from the inside flap of the front cover).

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.

Hardcover. London, Bantam Press, 1st, 1994, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. SIGNED BY FYFIELD on title page. Sarah Fortune, first encountered in "Shadows on the Mirror", is sent to Merton-on-Sea in Norfolk to sort out the inheritance problems of the small town's premier family. But she discovers much more than just an ambiguously-worded will - and also has to confront the pain of her own past. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1st, 1994, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. SIGNED BY AUTHOR on title page. "Narrator Kyle Malachi, writing as Stokes Moran, is a syndicated mystery reviewer working on his first mystery novel. His "beautiful agent, " Lee Holland, convinces him to take a $25, 000 assignment from Playboy to find and interview a reclusive bestselling mystery author. The only clue to Seymour Severe's whereabouts is the New Orleans setting of his books. Kyle goes there, spends some time in a dark gay bar, passes out and wakes up in bed next to a naked, dead boy. He flees back to Connecticut, but Lee convinces him he's been hoaxed and must return to the Crescent City where the puzzle finally assembles itself--without any help from Kyle". Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Harper & Brothers, 1st, 1957, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, edgeworn dust jacket with light chipping. This is a historical mystery novel about a police officer who is transported back in time to 1829 when the British police was first formed. Carr considered this one of his best impossible crime novels.

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, Forge Books, 1st, 2007, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. SIGNED BY MARTIN on the title page. Rare book expert Peter Fallon and his girlfriend, Evangeline, are back for another treasure hunt through time. These main characters from previous books "Back Bay" and "Harvard Yard", are in search for an early, annotated draft of the Constitution which was stolen and smuggled out of Philadelphia. Clean copy. Autographed copy sticker on front cover.