Mysteries mystery

Softcover. New York, Dell Publishing, 1st, 1953, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, 224 pages. Paperback. Dell Book #745. Minor wear to paper wrappers. Chipping to top corner. Light wave to pages.

Hardcover. NY, Penzler Publishers, reprint, 2020, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 342 pages. When New Orleans coffee merchant Louis Durand first meets his bride-to-be after a months-long courtship by mail, he's shocked that she doesn't match the photographs sent with her correspondence. But Durand has told his own fibs, concealing from her the details of his wealth, and so he mostly feels fortunate to find her so much more beautiful than expected. Soon after they marry, however, he becomes increasingly convinced that the woman in his life is not the same woman with whom he exchanged letters, a fact that becomes unavoidable when she suddenly disappears with his fortune.

Softcover. New York, Dell Publishing, 1st, 1958, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 159 pages. Paperback. Dell Book #978. Minor wear to paper wrappers. Photographic cover art. Light crease to spine and front cover.

Softcover. New York, Dell Publishing, 1st, 1963, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 192 pages. Paperback. Dell Bo0k #768. Minor wear to paper wrappers. Cover art by Robert Stanley.

Softcover. New York, Popular Library Mystery, 1st, 1946, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 220 pages. Popular Library Mystery # 72. Light wear to paper wrappers. Pages tanned.

Softcover. NY, Little, Brown & Company, reprint, 2014, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 241 pages. In trouble more often than not, guilty of assault, manslaughter, and honorably discharged from the military by the skin of his teeth, David "Bugs" McKenna can't seem to help doing the right thing at the wrong time--or the wrong thing, every chance he gets. But when he drifts his way into Ragtown, Texas, things seem to finally be turning around for Bugs. He gets his first job in years as the hotel detective of the landmark Hanlon Hotel. But now that Bugs owes deputy sheriff Lou Ford a favor, things are likely to get ugly, fast--and odds are, it'll have something to do with the bombshell wife of his Bugs' new employer. In WILD TOWN, Jim Thompson returns to the characters from THE KILLER INSIDE ME that made his reputation, in a virtuoso, multi-character portrait of how one man's life can take a turn for the worse. Clean, unread copy.

Hardcover. NY, Pantheon Books, 1st US, 2009, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. After hearing her mother's deathbed confession and following the dreary funeral, Maria Adler realizes she has no other option but to seize upon her mother's imperative to do something. Dissolving the life she loathes, Maria changes her appearance and disappears. When she emerges, revenge is her sole occupation. Inspector Van Veeteren and his associates are left bewildered by the curious murder of a man shot twice in the heart and twice below the belt. He was a quiet, utterly dull man, and the only suspicious activity his surviving wife can recall is a series of peculiar phone calls. Repeatedly the telephone would ring, offering nothing but the words of an obscure pop song from the 1960s. This siren song is linked to an identical murder, but the true link between these heinous crimes remains unknown, while a daughter's pride grows with the satisfaction of vengeance and another detective's lover offers telling insights that only an outsider could deduce. With the critical eye and cool observation necessary for a successful chess match, Van Veeteren pursues his subject across the country, wading through outrageous leads and fruitless tips. A breathless thriller full of deception, blackmail, and cold murder, Woman with Birthmark is a chilling read.