Mysteries mystery

Hardcover. NY, Charles Scribner's Sons, reprint, 1906, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, red cloth covers, gilt title on spine. 585 pages, 4 b&w plates by Bayard Jones. A novel by the nineteenth-century French detective fiction writer Emile Gaboriau, whom Andre Gide referred to as "the father of all current detective fiction". A captivating mystery novel that delves into the intricate web of honor, betrayal, and justice within the context of French literature. Gaboriau's novel follows a gripping narrative centered around a detective's quest to unravel the secrets and intrigues surrounding a family's honor. Set against the backdrop of France, the story unfolds with meticulous detail, drawing readers into a world of suspense and psychological depth. As the detective delves deeper into the case, he uncovers layers of deception and familial secrets, leading to shocking revelations and unexpected twists. Name on front fly leaf, otherwise clean.

Softcover. NY, Little, Brown & Company, reprint, 2014, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 235 pages. Luane Devore's days are numbered. All her neighbors in the declining seaside resort town of Manduwoc want her dead. Some, like her young husband Ralph and his girlfriend Danny, want the thousands of dollars she keeps hidden under the mattress she spends her days resting on. Others want her to stop her malicious gossip--some of which could ruin lives. Told from multiple perspectives, The Kill-Off tells the story of a woman not long for this earth--but who will finally take matters into their own hands, and when? THE KILL-OFF was the basis of Maggie Greenwald's critically acclaimed film of the same name. Clean, unread copy.

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.

Hardcover. Boston, Little, Brown, 1st, 2003, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 422 pages. Moving their family to a safe and tranquil suburb, Lynn and Barry Schulman are horrified to discover the town's sinister side, which is revealed after an old friend is murdered and an old boyfriend begins to stalk Lynn. Clean copy.

Softcover. NY, Vintage Crime/Black Lizard, reprint, 1988, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 244 pages. Tough, hard-boiled, and brilliantly suspenseful, The Last Good Kiss is an unforgettable detective story starring C. W. Sughrue, a Montana investigator who kills time by working at a topless bar. Hired to track down a derelict author, he ends up on the trail of a girl missing in Haight-Ashbury for a decade. The tense hunt becomes obsessive as Sughrue takes a haunting journey through the underbelly of America's sleaziest nightmares. aclean copy.

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, Charles Scribner's Sons, reprint, 1906, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, red cloth covers, gilt title on spine. 376 pages, 4 b&w plates by Jule Guerin. A novel by the nineteenth-century French detective fiction writer Emile Gaboriau, whom Andre Gide referred to as "the father of all current detective fiction". The story is set in France and revolves around the mysterious murder of the Countess de Tremorel. The Countess is found dead in her bedroom at the Chateau d'Orcival, and all evidence points to her husband, the Count de Tremorel, as the killer. However, the Count claims to have been asleep at the time of the murder, and there are several other suspects with motives for the crime.The investigation is led by detective Lecoq, who is known for his keen intellect and deductive reasoning. He is assisted by his colleague, Monsieur Tabaret, who is also known as "Old Tabaret" and is a master of disguise. Name on front fly leaf, otherwise clean.

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.

Softcover. NY, Vintage Crime/Black Lizard, reprint, 2005, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 263 pages. Larry Dolman is a rather literal minded ex-cop who now works private security. Eddie Miller is an airline pilot who's studying to get his real estate license. Don Luchessi is a silver salesman who's separated from his wife but too Catholic to get a divorce. Hank Norton is a drug company rep who gets four times as many dames as any of the other guys. They are all regular guys who like to drink, play cards, meet broads, and shoot a little pool. But when a friendly bet goes horribly awry, they find themselves with two dead bodies on their hands and a homicidal husband in the wings--and acting more like hardened criminals than upstanding citizens. Mild shelf wear, clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Knopf, 1st, 2020, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. This installment in the delightful, internationally acclaimed series featuring Chief of Police Bruno will take all of Bruno's resolve and quick thinking to untangle a mystery that will reach its deadly denouement at the chateau of an aging rock star. But in true Bruno fashion, at least lunchtime is never in danger. It's summer in the Dordogne and the heirs of a modest sheep farmer learn that they have been disinherited. Their father's estate has been sold to an insurance company in return for a policy that will place him in a five-star retirement home for the rest of his life. But the farmer dies before he can move in. Was it a natural death? Or was there foul play? Chief of Police Bruno Courreges is soon on the case, embarking on an investigation that will lead him to several shadowy insurance companies owned by a Russian oligarch with a Cypriot passport. Clean copy.

Softcover. NY, Little, Brown & Company, reprint, 2014, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 238 pages. Originally published in paperback by Signet Books, December 1961. Deputy sheriff Tom Lord knows by now that far-west Texas is the place he'll always call home. He's spent too much time in the region's small towns to adapt to another place. And that's all right with him. What's not all right is being a deputy sheriff, where if it weren't for family misfortune, he might have been a doctor instead. Lord's got one ace-in-the-hole -- the land deed that makes him the biggest landowner in the county, just as the oil companies have started to move in. When Tom's approached by Aaron McBride of Highlands Oil and Gas with a contract to set up pipelines on his property, he's more than happy to sign on the dotted line with barely more than a cursory glance at the paperwork -- it just might be Lord's way out of a life he never wanted in the first place. But when Lord finds out just what that contract entailed, things start to go sour for Aaron McBride -- and fast. Because in this Texas town, Lord's the law -- and there's nothing more dangerous than a cop with nothing left to lose. Clean, unread copy.

Softcover. NY, Vintage Crime/Black Lizard, reprint, 2007, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 245 pages. In a rundown house in Santa Monica, Mrs. Samuel Lawrence presses fifty crumpled bills into Lew Archer's hand and asks him to find her wandering daughter, Galatea. Described as 'crazy for men' and without discrimination, she was last seen driving off with small-time gangster Joe Tarantine, a hophead hood with a rep for violence. Archer traces the hidden trail from San Francisco slum alleys to the luxury of Palm Springs, traveling through an urban wilderness of drugs and viciousness. As the bodies begin to pile up, he finds that even angel faces can mask the blackest of hearts.Filled with dope, delinquents and murder, this is classic Macdonald and one of his very best in the Lew Archer series. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Henry Holt, 3rd pr., 2015, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 333 pages. First novel written by Price using this pseudonym. Story of a "New York City police detective under siege - by an unsolved murder, by his own dark past, and by a violent stalker seeking revenge. . . in the mid-1990s, when a young Billy Graves worked in the South Bronx as part of an aggressive anti-crime unit known as the Wild Geese, he made headlines by accidentally shooting a ten-year-old boy while struggling with an angel-dusted berserker on a crowded street. Branded as a loose cannon by his higher-ups, Billy spent years enduring one dead-end posting after another." Now he finds himself involved in a murder investigation that will tear apart old friendships. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Charles Scribner's Sons, reprint, 1906, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, red cloth covers, gilt title on spine. 436 pages, 4 b&w plates by Louise L. Heustis. A novel by the nineteenth-century French detective fiction writer Emile Gaboriau, whom Andre Gide referred to as "the father of all current detective fiction". Emile Gaboriau created master detective Monsieur Lecoq, who would appear in a number of books. In The Widow Lerouge (L'Affaire Lerouge), however, Lecoq was a young man on the police force, and it is his senior and mentor Pere Tabaret (also known as Tirauclair) who is center stage. The book begins with the murder of the Widow Lerouge and young inspector Lecoq is on the scene straightaway. The complexity of the case however forces Lecoq to invite detectives Tabaret and Daburon to help and they bring their own methods to the case. Name on front fly leaf, otherwise clean.

Softcover. NY, Carroll & Graf, reprint, 1990, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, mass market paperback, 192 pages. The Woman-Chaser has one of the most interesting plots ever for a crime thriller. Richard Hudson, a crooked, arrogant and vicious car salesman who is really good at his job panics at a meeting of aspiring young reps. He realizes that he is wasting his life in the 9 to 5 grind. It dawns on him that we are on this planet to be creative. So he writes a script with help from his step-father and decides to direct a film based on the script. But when his edited film fails to meet the six reel 90 minute length standard, the studio tries to interfere in the film's future. The crazed car salesman/movie director embarks on a rampage of destruction. Bookseller's stamp on inside front cover, otherwise a clean, bright copy.

Hardcover. NY, William Morrow, 1st, 1992, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 284 pages. The fifth novel in the "Madoc Rhys and Janet Rhys" series. Clean copy.

Hardcover. UK, The Chicken House, 1st UK, 2002, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 348 pages, hardcover with dust jacket. SIGNED BY AUTHOR on half title page. First English translation of German mystery novel. Faint age toning to top and bottom text block edges. Scarce. A tight copy.

Hardcover. NY, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1st, 1995, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. SIGNED BY PARKER with his usual scrawl on the title page. When Lisa St. Claire, the beautiful young bride of a Boston police detective vanishes mysteriously, Spenser joins the search for the missing woman, following a dangerous trail that leads him to a sociopathic Latino ex-lover and into a deadly confrontation with Lisa's dark past. Clean copy.

Softcover. New York, A Signet Book, 1st, 1956, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 144 pages. Paperbook. Signet Book #1434. Light wear on edges. Light creases on wrapper corners and spine.

Hardcover. Woodstock VT, Foul Play Press, 1st, 1999, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 284 pages. Previous owner's light marking on front fly leaf. "Possibly she even realized, or half-realized, that there was something wrong with her life.... She wondered whether what had happened to the park had happened to her: a dark, rushed change that would never change back." This is England's mystery writer Bill James describing a 13-year-old girl known as Noon, soon to be shot dead while working as a drug courier near a rundown park. Her death sets off a series of explosions in James's latest book in his wonderfully dark and exquisitely written Harpur & Iles series.

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.

Softcover. New York, Pocket Book, 2nd, 1945, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 249 pages. Paperback. Pocket Book #237. Light soil to rear wrapper, spine creasing and fading. Tight copy.

Softcover. New York, Ace Books, 1st, 1958, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Paperback. Double Novel. 135/121 pages. Ace Double Novel #D-321. Previous owner's markings on first pages of each side. Light wear to pictorial wrappers. Pages lightly tanned. Creasing and wear to spine.

Softcover. New York, Dell Publishing, 1st, 1959, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 192 pages. Paperback. Dell Book #D280. Minor wear to paper wrappers. Light crease and fade to spine and front cover. Small notation on first page.