1255. Sayer, Paul: The Comforts of Madness

Published by Constable, 1989

Hardback reprint. Price clipped dust wrapper, small dent to front board otherwise fine. Winner of the 1988 Whitbread Award, "The Comforts of Madness" is narrated by a catatonic who never speaks. To the rest of the world he is an inert body and is subjected to a variety of experiments, but his own consciousness is vital and reflective.

1256. Sayers, Dorothy L.: Hangman's Holiday

Published by Gollancz, 1948

Hardback, fifteenth impression of the 1933 1st. Very good in a scarce d/w which is darkened at the spine edge worn and has some loss but mainly to the front flap. Poisoned port . . . pet cats in peril . . . purloined pearls . . . Lord Peter Wimsey solves the mysteries of the man who was blown into the fourth dimension and the murder in fancy dress. He pursues miscreants across several countries and into unexpected hiding places. Dorothy L. Sayers' other detective, Montague Egg, encounters a fugitive murderer and uncovers a killer in an Oxford cloister. The travelling salesman extraordinaire solves puzzles with a unique combination of matter-of-fact practicality and brilliant deduction.

1257. Sayers, Dorothy L. and Robert Eustace: The Documents in the Case

Published by Gollancz, 1948

Hardback, 4/- cheap edition. Eighth impression. Good+ d/w has some small closed tears to top and toe of spine and some fading. The book is very good. The bed was broken and tilted grotesquely sideways. Harrison was sprawled over in a huddle of soiled blankets. His mouth was twisted . . .Harrison had been an expert on deadly mushrooms. How was it then that he had eaten a large quantity of death-dealing muscarine? Was it an accident? Suicide? Or murder?The documents in the case seemed to be a simple collection of love notes and letters home. But they concealed a clue to the brilliant murderer who baffled the best minds in London.

1258. Saylor, Steven: A Murder on the Appian Way

Published by Robinson, 1997

1st edition hardback, fine in a near fine dust wrapper. 52 BC and Rome is in turmoil. Rival gangs prowl the streets as Publius Clodius, a high-born populist politician, and his arch-enemy Titus Milo fight to control the consular elections. But when Clodius is murdered on the famed Appian Way and Milo is accused of the crime, the city explodes with riots and arson. As accusations and rumours fly, Gordianus is charged by Pompey the Great with discovering what really happened on the Appian Way that dark January night. Was it murder? And if so, should the perpetrator be condemned as a villain - or hailed as the saviour of the Roman Republic? For on the truth of that hangs the fate of Titus Milo . . .

1259. Scottoline, Lisa: Running From the Law

Published by Collins, 1996

1st edition hardback, both book and dust wrapper very near fine in condition. As a fast-talking, wisecracking rebel with a cause, Rita Morrone makes one tough poker player - and an even tougher trial lawyer. Whether she's at a card table or before a jury, she loves taking risks and hates to lose - a volatile mix in the City of Brotherly Love. Morrone takes on the defence of a distinguished federal judge, the Honourable Fiske Hamilton, who's been accused of sexually harassing his young secretary in one of the most high-profile cases in the country. And it's no coincidence that Morrone and Judge Hamilton's son are romantic roommates. Then the action turns deadly, and Morrone finds herself at the centre of a murder case. The judge is the prime suspect, with a big-time motive and a see-through alibi. Though criminal law is not her game, Morrone probes deep into the murder, uncovering a secret life and suspects in shocking places. When the killer viciously ups the ante, Morrone decides to end this lethal game. She lays it all on the line for the highest stakes ever - her life.

1260. Seymour, Henry: In The Still of the Night

Published by John Gifford, 1966

Hardback 1st edition. Nr fine in very good+ unclipped very slightly edge worn dust wrapper has a couple of closed tears with some small chips lost at the tips. She was blonde, very dead and very chilled. Finding her killer had seemed easy to Chief Inspector Tuttle until he discovered that Jack Usher, his chief suspect was innocent. It took Cromwell Ross, a private eye with an inglorious past and a decidedly doubtful future to prove it, a job that led him to Rio de Janeiro and a flirtation with pretty Succo Mirano, and forced him to mix with human snakes who thought paradise too dull for their tastes and ambitions. Finding the killer seemed hard to Ross, hard but not impossible, although there were many who tried to prevent him doing so and almost succeeded…

1261. Siler, Jenny: Easy Money

Published by Orion, 1999

Hardback 1st edition. Some slight surface marks to the unclipped jacket otherwise as new in condition. A dazzling debut thriller. Allie, a narcotics courier and former addict, lives on the edge. She delivers her packages without question, so, when her boyfriend asks her to pick up a computer disk, she thinks nothing of it until her contact turns up dead. Someone will stop at nothing to conceal what's on the disk.

2115. Simenon, Georges: Four Days in a Lifetime

Published by Hamish Hamilton, London, 1977

1st edition UK hardback. Near fine book in a very good unclipped dust wrapper. The dust wrapper is very slightly sunned at the spine. A novel of blackmail and exploitation.

2131. Simms, Chris: Killing the Beasts

Published by Orion, London. 2005

1st edition UK hardback. The book leans slightly but is otherwise near fine in a near fine unclipped dust wrapper. Manchester, 2002. The Commonwealth Games are coming to town and the city is alive with possibilities. Caught up in the commercial feeding frenzy is Tom Benwell, account manager at an advertising firm. The pressure is getting to Tom - too many deals to make and lies to tell, and the passion for his job is waning. Meanwhile his friend, DI Jon Spicer, is on the fast track, showing a commitment to the job that borders on obsession, or so his girlfriend Alice tells him. Then, in the aftermath of the Games, a series of brutal killings shatters the city's new found spirit. Jon Spicer gets the case. Each victim has been murdered in the same bizarre and grotesque manner, yet the lack of motive leaves the police utterly baffled. With the race on to catch the killer, both men find themselves caught up in a nightmare where the most innocent action can cost the highest price. In this nail-biting crime thriller, Chris Simms draws us into the shadows that lurk behind the city's shiny new exterior, then plunges us into the mind of a madman.

1262. Simpson, Dorothy:: Element of Doubt

Published by Michael Joseph, London. 1987

1st edition hardback in fine condition. The pages are slightly browning but otherwise fine and unmarked. The dust wrapper is not clipped but shows no price or barcode at the rear. One of the novels featuring Inspector Luke Thanet, of which "Last Seen Alive" won the 1985 Crime Writers' Silver Dagger Award. Mrs Nerine Tarrant has everything a woman could wish for, but when her body is discovered below the balcony of her palatial country home, there is no shortage of suspects.

1263. Slate, John (pseudonym of John Russell Fearn): Thy Arm Alone

Published by Rich & Cowan, c1947

Hardback 1st edition. No date. Very good edge worn d/w slightly chipped, now protected. Blue paper boards. Previous owner name & address to front pastedown otherwise fine. The fourth Black Maria adventure.

335. Smith, D W: Fathers' Law

Published by Macmillan, London, 1986

1st edition hardback book in very good condition, there is shelfwear and slight browning to page edges, the book has no previous owner names or inscriptions.. The dust wrapper is in very good condition, a little rubbing to the dustwrapper edges and a small water stain to the back at the top of the wrapper, it has not been price clipped. A Detective Inspector Harry Fathers mystery, involving murder, robbery, kidnapping and a mysterious missing American. A nice clean example of the authors first fictional work.

1264. Spencer, Charles: Under The Influence

Published by Allison & Busby, 2000

Hardback 1st edition. Fine in a like unclipped d/w. For Will Benson, life cannot get much worse. Cuckolded, overweight and in career meltdown he is at his lowest ebb. Attempting to concentrate on his column in the shambolic trade rag, Theatre World, through a fog of lunchtime drinking, he recalls wistfully his halcyon days as a cub reporter when life was all so different. Bacchanalian romps in the countryside, illicit trysts, shared secrets; the world was his for the taking. But when the past comes knocking at Will's door, the reality is suddenly far removed from his memories. His old friend Nicholas is dying and Henry - Will's youthful hero - has stolen a valuable Vermeer painting and is on the run. Impelled to track Henry down, Will reluctantly takes up the trail. But Henry has always been a slippery customer and along the way Will must endure an Oxford Gaudy, a bizarre heavy metal gig and the worst dentist in the world before the full extent of Henry's Machiavellian plans are revealed...

1265. Stallwood, Veronica: Oxford Letters

Published by Headline, London. 2005

1st edition hardback in fine condition. There are no previous owner names or other marks. The dust wrapper is not price clipped. When Kate Ivory returns from holiday, a phone call from a concerned friend gives her some rather alarming news. Apparently Kate's normally vibrant and energetic mother Roz is a shadow of her former self, and looks very ill indeed. When Kate visits her mother, Roz sends her away, insisting that her new friends, the Freemans, are taking care of her. Although the couple seems kind-hearted, something about them disturbs Kate. Are they more interested in her mother's new-found wealth than in her health? Kate decides to look into the Freemans' background. In an investigation that takes her right across the country, she uncovers a trail of deception and soon realises that her mother may not be the only one in danger…

1266. Steed, Neville: Tinplate

Published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1986

Hardback 1st edition. Near fine book and dust wrapper. Pages slightly browned. Peter Marklin, owner of a Toy Emporium finds his life interrupted when antique toys are stolen. Faced with threats from their owner, he sets out to recover them but finds himself up against more than the greed of unscrupulous collectors.

1267. Stout, Rex: Bad for Business

Published by Collins (Crime Club), 1945

Hardback 1st edition. Corners bumped otherwise very good book and unclipped d/w. Spine of d/w is colour faded. Poison in the pate. Someone was doctoring cans of Tingley's Tidbits right in the factory. The doses weren't lethal to the customers--- but they would be to Tingley's reputation if the sabotage didn't stop. It looked like a case of cutthroat competition when private detective Tecumseh Fox took the job --- and then a throat was really cut!

297. Stout , Rex: Champayne For One

Published by Collins Crime Club, London, 1959

First edition hardback in very good condition, inscription on front end paper, slight browning to page/page edges, lacks the dust wrapper. "Champagne for One" finds that huge, orchid-loving detective on the top of his form, dealing with a baffling and fascinating case in his inimitably successful way.

1270. Symons, Julian(editor): Verdict of 13: A Detection Club Anthology

Published by Faber, 1979

1st edition hardback, pages browned otherwise very good in a very good dust wrapper. Introduction by Julian Symons. Includes stories by P.D. James, Gwendoline Butler, Dick Francis, Michael Gilbert, Christianna Brand, Michael Innes, Patricia Highsmith, Celia Fremlin, H.R.F. Keating, Michael Underwood, Ngaio Marsh, Peter Dickinson and Julian Symons. £0.00

1271. Symons, Julian: Death's Darkest Face

Published by Macmillan, 1990

1st thus, hardback, fine in a fine dust wrapper. Symons plays a role in his own novel when central character Geoffrey Elder entrusts him with secrets about a poet's murder. ''The president of Britain's Detective Club brings all the experience of his distinguished literary career to the writing of a fine novel, while the 'fictional' Symons brings sleuthing skills to bear on the crime, producing a satisfying solution,''

1273. Taylor, Andrew: The Mortal Sickness

Published by Hodder & Stoughton, 1995

Hardback, 2nd impression. Fine book and unclipped d/w. When a spinster of the parish is found bludgeoned to death in St John's, and the church's most valuable possession, the Lydmouth chalice, is missing, the finger of suspicion points at the new vicar, who is already beset with problems. The glare of the police investigation reveals shabby secrets and private griefs. Jill Francis, struggling to find her feet in her new life, stumbles into the case at the beginning. But even a journalist cannot always watch from the sidelines. Soon she is inextricably involved in the Suttons' affairs. Despite the electric antagonism between her and Inspector Richard Thornhill, she has instincts that she can't ignore . . .

2094. Taylor, Andrew: Naked to the Hangman

Published by Hodder & Stoughton, London. 2006

1st edition hardback in fine, unmarked condition. The unclipped dust wrapper is also fine. As a young police officer in Palestine during the closing months of the Mandate - the cradle of Middle Eastern terrorism - Richard Thornhill saw and did things which still haunt his dreams and make him fear for his sanity. Is he himself a killer? Now, when a retired police officer is found dead in the ruins of Lydmouth Castle, the past has come back to claim Detective Inspector Thornhill, and he is under suspicion of another murder. His wife Edith and former lover Jill Francis join forces in an uneasy alliance to try to help him. But there are many complications - scandalous allegations have been made about Miss Awre's School of Dancing; the Ruispidge Charity's annual dance for young people is under threat; teenagers haunt the newly opened Italian coffee bar and yearn for fumbled intimacies in the sheltering darkness of the Rex Cinema; an Oxford don is looking for love; the Angel of Death wears khaki shorts and drives a Ford van. And the spring floods are rising higher than they have in living memory, drowning a multitude of secrets . . .

1274. Thomas, Donald: The Ripper's Apprentice

Published by Macmillan, 1986

1st edition hardback, very good in a very good dust wrapper. Second book in the Inspector Swain series.

Published by Macmillan, London. 1997

UK hardback 1st edition in very good condition. There is a small tear at the top of the front fold and a couple of cuts at the rear panel have been tape repaired. There are corresponding marks to the rear board otherwise very good. The dust wrapper is not price clipped. For more than two decades, Sherlock Holmes played a vital, though secret, role in solving the major crimes and scandals of his day - some too damaging to the monarchy, the government or the security of the nation to be fully revealed at the time. Compiled in narrative form by Dr Watson soon after the great detective's death, Holmes's notes have been kept under lock and key at the Public Record Office in Chancery Lane. Now, seventy years later, we can finally open the secret casebook of Sherlock Holmes.

1275. Thomas, Ross: The Fourth Durango

Published by Mysterious Press, 1990

1st edition hardback. Slight edge wear to dust wrapper. Book has slight lean. Otherwise very good. Fourth Durango is an isolated beach town in California. To make money, the beautiful mayor, B.D. Huckins, and her chief of police have gone into the hideout business, selling sanctuary to rich fugitives on the run from ruthless assassins. Then a priest arrives in town - and the killings start.

411. Todd, Marilyn: Man Eater

Published by Macmillan, London, 1997

1st edition hardback in fine, as new condition.The book has no previous owner names or inscriptions. The dust wrapper has not been price clipped and still retains the original £16.99 net price, it has some creasing to the bottom corner. The 3rd Claudia Seferius Mystery

1276. Todd, Marilyn: Jail Bait

Published by Macmillan, 1999

Hardback 1st edition, fine in fine unclipped dust wrapper. A roman murder mystery. Claudia "borrows" 3000 sesterces from Sabbio Tullus, and leaves town for the spa resort of Atlantis. There she meets Cal, but after a little flirting she finds Cal is dead, and realizes from the gossip that Atlantis is far more dangerous than the disease-ridden streets she has left behind.

2136. Tope, Rebecca: Slaughter in the Cotswolds

Published by Allison & Busby, London. 2009

Hardback 1st edition. Both book and the unclipped dust wrapper are in fine condition. In this, the sixth Cotswold mystery, Thea throws herself into house-sitting for Babs and Cedric Angell in Lower Slaughter following her beloved father's death - anything to keep her busy and away from some of her rather difficult relatives. And while feeling lonely, keeping the house in order and looking after the Angell's menagerie of animals does the trick for a short period of time. But when Thea's prickly elder sister turns up on her doorstep after witnessing a horrific murder, the tentative tranquillity in Lower Slaughter vanishes, replaced by the sinister connotations of the town's name.

1277. Tracy, P. J.: Snow Blind

Published by Michael Joseph, London. 2006

1st edition hardback in very good condition. The book leans slightly otherwise very good. The dust wrapper is not clipped retaining the original £12.99 price at the front flap. There are no previous owner names or marks. P. J. Tracy is a pseudonym for mother and daughter writers P. J. and Traci Lambrecht. When the first snow falls in a small Minneapolis town, the whole community takes part in a carnival of innocent fun. By the end of the day, the park is full of snowmen. But when the snow melts, it becomes graphically obvious that somebody's fun wasn't entirely innocent! Two bodies are found in the snowmen, and a day later, in a nearby county, rookie sheriff Iris Rikker makes a similar discovery. Soon Detectives Gino and Magozzi are heading north in the midst of the worst blizzard seen in Minneapolis for years to join the two investigations. But some things should remain buried. And as the cases unravel, it seems the snowmen weren't alone in hiding dark secrets. The old barn next to Sheriff Rikker's isolated farmhouse also appears to have some strange connection to the killings.

Published by Collins, London. 1988

1st edition hardback in fine condition. The dust wrapper is not clipped but shows no price and is also fine. There are no previous owner names or marks. A Collins Crime Club novel. Book 5 in the series featuring Glasgow's P Division. PC Phil Hamilton of P division finds a corpse on a stretch of rain-sodden waste ground, its severed head resting neatly on its chest. Forensic evidence revealed that the murdered man, a meticulous, hard-working accountant, had been killed elsewhere, and his body washed and laid out in immaculate new clothing.

1278. Underwood, Michael: Anything but the Truth

Published by Macmillan, London. 1978

UK 1st edition hardback in very good condition. A little bumped and rubbed at the tips, no previous owner names or inscriptions. Dust wrapper (very good condition) has general shelf wear, rubbed at the edges, it has not been price clipped and still retains the £3.95 net price. The witness gave his evidence with bravado and arrogance, secretly pretending to be governed by conscience. The man in the dock was accused of killing a man by reckless driving and not stopping to report the accident.

306. Underwood, Michael: Crooked Wood

Published by Macmillan, London, 1978

UK 1st edition hardback in very good condition, bumping/rubbing to spine edges/corners, no previous owner names or inscriptions. Dustwrapper (very good condition) has general shelfwear, it has not been price clipped and still retains the £3.50 net price.Clive Donig was on trial for the murder of Stanley Fulmer, senior partner in a very shady firm of solicitors. The prosecution contended that Donig was a professional killer, hired to kill fulmer, probably by one of Fulmer's crooked clients who had, in his time, been cheated by Fulmer.

1279. Underwood, Michael: The Fatal Trip

Published by Macmillan, London. 1977

UK 1st edition hardback in very good+ condition, no previous owner names or inscriptions. Dust wrapper (very good+ condition) has general shelf wear, slight mark on front, it has not been price clipped and still retains the £3.25 net price. A Detective Sergeant Nick Attwell Mystery.

1280. Valin, Jonathan: Life's Work

Published by Mysterious Press, 1988

Hardback 1st edition. Very good book in like unclipped d/w a little browned at the edges. While tracking down a missing football star-turned-murderer, hard-boiled detective Harry Stoner explores the sordid world of drugs among the rough players of Cincinnati's professional football team.