1088. Cornwell, Patricia: Hornet's Nest
Published by Little Brown, 1997
1st edition hardback very good, creases across top of front cover otherwise fine. Deputy Chief Virginia West likes and respects her boss, Hammer, but with an increasing number of visiting businessmen being murdered in her city by a maniac with a penchant for painting his victims bright orange, she finds it hard to accept Hammer's edict that a rookie reporter should ride on patrol with her to better relations with their citizens. Her worst fears are confirmed when the reporter, Brazil, presses the button to activate the boot-release rather than the siren on their first outing. He's not the only blight on her life right now: her cat's angsty, her hormones are misbehaving, her opposite number in the uniformed division is behaving like a jackass, the radio dispatcher is determined to trip her up, and the D.A. is in the middle of a hot battle with the trial schedule. And orange coloured corpses keep turning up on her patch.
1087. Cornwell, Patricia: Southern Cross
Published by Little, Brown, 1999
1st edition hardback fine d/w, near mint book. Police Chief Judy Hammer and colleagues Virginia West and Andy Brazil, make an assured return in this up-tempo sequel to Hornet's Nest. The locale this time is Richmond, Virginia, and Cornwell quickly immerses us in the personal lives and politics of a big-city police force reeling from corruption and intrigue. Hammer is there to reduce the crime rate, but is still trying to come to terms with the death of her husband. And when a gang of juvenile killers starts creating havoc, she finds herself dealing with both public scrutiny and the resentments of her staff.
1089. Cornwell, Patricia: From Potter's Field
Published by Little Brown, 1995
1st edition hardback with dust wrapper in fine condition. The body was naked, female and found propped against a fountain in a bleak area of New York's Central Park. Her apparent manner of death is chillingly familiar, suggesting that a sadistic serial killer is back at work.
1090. Cornwell, Patricia: Point Of Origin
Published by Little Brown, 1998
1st edition hardback very good with one very small tear to top edge of the dust wrapper otherwise fine. A farmhouse destroyed by fire. A body amongst the ruins. Dr Kay Scarpetta, Chief Medical Examiner and consulting pathologist for the federal law enforcement agency ATF, is called out to a farmhouse in Virginia which has been destroyed by fire. In the ruins of the house she finds a body which tells a story of a violent and grisly murder. The fire has come at the same time as another, even more incendiary horror: Carrie Grethen, a killer who nearly destroyed the lives of Scarpetta and those closest to her, has escaped from a forensic psychiatric hospital. Her whereabouts is unknown, but her ultimate destination is not, for Carrie has begun to communicate with Scarpetta, conveying her deadly - if cryptic - plans for revenge.
1091. Crofts, Freeman Wills: Inspector French's Greatest Case
Published by The Detective Club, C1930
Hardback no d/w or date early re-issued pocket edition. Slightly edge worn blue boards with gilt print & decoration to spine & upper. 1/2" crack to bottom of rear hinge otherwise very good. At the offices of Duke and Peabody in London's Hatton Gardens, the body of old Mr Gething is discovered along with an open safe. The diamonds that he had locked away, however, are gone. It is a perplexing case, and obviously one for Inspector Joseph French of Scotland Yard. As the meticulous Inspector puts his full powers behind the investigation, he criss-crosses the continent from London to many locales of Europe. In pursuit of an unknown criminal, will French be able to deduce just who has the diamonds?
1092. Crofts, Freeman Wills: Enemy Unseen
Published by Hodder & Stoughton, 1945
Hardback 1st edition. Minor loss to a slightly edgeworn but unclipped d/w. Nr fine book in very good d/w. "Two thefts inside ten days...do you think can be any connection?" A quiet Cornish village and its law abiding community are rocked by a series of strange events in the summer of 1943. While on a standard Home Guard training manoeuvre, Arthur Wedgewood discovers that supplies of explosives are missing from his stores. When the local police fail to take the necessary steps, Inspector French takes charge to untangle the threads of the crime perpetrated by an Enemy Unseen...
1093. Crookes, Gary: The DNA Murders
Published by The Sotok Press, UK. 2004.
Hardback, first reprint of the 2003 1st edition. Both book and unclipped dust wrapper are in fine condition. The book is signed at the title page by the author. Special Agent Matthew Greenwood of the FBI is haunted by failure. For almost two years he, with his partner Mary Jane Piper, have tracked an unidentified murderer from one coast of the United States to the other; from the Great Lakes to the blistering heat of Florida. Their fugitive is precise, elusive, clever, but above all ruthless. Gruesome corpses litter his path, marking the course of his passing for the impotent Special Agents to follow.But something is happening. The murderer is changing his patterns, leading them on a trail that will take them away from America. Will the change bring about unforeseen opportunities for the FBI, or will they lose him forever? Is this the chance they have been waiting for?
2374. Davidson, Lionel: The Chelsea Murders
Published by Jonathan Cape, London, 1978
1st edition hardback. Both book and unclipped dust wrapper are in very good condition. The dust wrapper has at some point been wet but is otherwise fine and unclipped. The pages are browned as is common with this title otherwise fine. There are no previous owner names. When a young art student loses her head completely, the press dub the cause of her unhappiness "the Chelsea maniac". The method is as gruesomely bizarre as it is effective, and it seems as though no one in the area is safe. This novel won Lionel Davidson one of his three Golden Dagger Awards.
1094. Davis, Lindsey: Three Hands in the Fountain
Published by Century, 1997
1st edition hardback near fine d/w & book. 'The fountain was not working. Nothing unusual in that...' Marcus Didius Falco and his laddish friend Petronius find their local fountain has been blocked- by a gruesomely severed human hand. Soon other body parts are being found in the aqueducts and sewers. Public panic overcomes official indifference, and the Aventine partners are commissioned to investigate. Women are being abducted during festivals, with the next Games only days away. As the heat rises in the Circus Maximus, they face a race against time and a strong test of their friendship. They know the sadistic killer lurks somewhere on the festive streets of Rome- preparing to strike again.
1095. Davis, Lindsey: The Accusers
Published by Century, London. 2003
UK 1st edition hardback in very good condition, very slight browning to page edges, no previous owner names or inscriptions. Dust wrapper (very good condition) has general shelf wear, it has not been price clipped and still retains £16.99 net price. Having returned from his trip to Londinium, Falco takes up employment with Paccius Africanus and Silius Italicus, two lawyers at the top of their trade. For the trial of a senator they need Falco to make an affidavit confirming repayment of a loan. Having been out of the country and starved of Forum gossip for some time, Falco has little interest in this trial, so he makes his deposition and then leaves. The prosecution are successful and a large financial judgement is made, but one month later the senator is dead, apparently by suicide. The heirs are now in a situation of not having to pay up, and the prosecutor Silius Italicus suddenly decides to seek out Falco. With a little coercion, Falco joins the prosecution in seeking to persuade a magistrate to instigate a new trial against Metellus' son. Blinded by the vision of rich pickings to be gained by the prosecution, Falco temporarily forgets that, if they fail, the financial penalties levelled against the informers who brought the case are potentially enormous.
1096. Davis, Lindsey: Time to Depart
Published by Century, 1995
Hardback 1st edition. Very good book in like unclipped d/w, slightly edge worn wrapper and yellowing page edges. Rome AD 72, and Petro, captain of the Aventine watch, with his friend Falco, finally nails Rome's top criminal. Sentenced to exile, the evil Balbinus is put aboard ship at the port of Ostia. But soon the corpses start appearing, and it is obvious that Balbinus is back in the criminal underworld.
1097. Davis, Lindsey: The Iron Hand of Mars
Published by Hutchinson, 1992
Hardback 1st edition. Very good+ book and d/w. Pages slightly browned and the jacket has a couple of minor nicks at the bottom edge. With Titus Caesar in pursuit of his patrician girlfriend Helena, Marcus Didius Falco, the louche Roman sleuth is sent out of the way on an undercover mission to Roman Germany, where there has been trouble with the natives. There he must exercise his doubtful diplomatic skills on the very uncivil Civilis, a one-eyed Batavian rebel chieftain and must also persuade Veleda, a sinister tribal prophetess to desist from incessant rabble-rousing. But every rustling leaf heralds the approach of ancient ghosts, headhunting tribesmen, or primeval animals...
1098. Davis, Lindsey: The Silver Pigs
Published by Sidgwick & Jackson Ltd, 1989
1st edition hardback the unclipped d/w is faded at the spine with a small hole scuffed in the top of the spine otherwise near fine. The book is fine. The very scarce, first falco novel. Set in the Roman Empire in AD 70, this book introduces Marcus Didius Falco, a deadbeat, low-life informer whose normal working day consists of spying on adulterous husbands for jealous wives. An unlikely hero to discover a ring of conspirators hellbent on destroying the status quo.
1099. Davis, Lindsey: Poseidon's Gold
Published by Century, London. 1993
1st edition hardback in near fine condition. There is very light sunning at the dust wrapper spine otherwise fine. There are no previous owner names or other marks and the jacket is not price clipped. Rome AD 72: Marcus Didius Falco returns home from a six-month mission to the German legions. But trouble is in store for him: his apartment has been wrecked by squatters and an ex-legionary friend of his colourfully heroic brother Festus is demanding money, allegedly owed him as the result of one of Festus's wild schemes. Worse still, the only client Falco can get is his mother - who wants him to clear the family name. Then just as Falco thinks things can only get better, fate takes a turn for the worse... The legionary is found viciously stabbed to death with Falco the prime suspect. Now he has only three days to prove he is not a murderer, to trace the real suspect, amass evidence and win a fortune...
1100. Day, Marele: The Case of the Chinese Boxes
Published by Hodder & Stoughton, 1994
Hardback 1st edition. Very good+ book and unclipped d/w. New Year starts with a bang in Chinatown - the biggest bank job in Australia's history. Something infinitely more invaluable than money is missing - a gold key with a dragon on it. Why does the Chen family want it back so badly? Claudia Valentine takes up the case. And everywhere, nothing is as it seems.
319. Deaver, Jeffery: The Devil's Teardrop
Published by Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1999
1st edition hardback in near fine condition, no previous owner names or inscriptions. Dust wrapper in near fine condition, it has not been price clipped and still retains the £10.00 net price. A man gets onto the escalator of a station, fires a gun and escapes. A note is delivered to the mayor, demanding $20 million, or the writer will instruct the gunman to strike again. But then a man is killed in an accident - his fingerprints match the prints on the note. And Parker, forensic document expert, is the only man who can stop the killer.
1101. Deaver, Jeffery: The Blue Nowhere
Published by Hodder & Stoughton, 2001
Hardback 1st UK edition. Fine book and unclipped d/w. Someone is killing people in Sacramento Valley. Seemingly unrelated, the deaths are perpetrated by a murderer who knows everything there is to know about the victims - who can kill them because of the intimacy he seems to have with them. An intimacy which is created by his ability to track their every move through the virtual world, as soon as they switch on their computer. Streetwise cop Frank Bishop is detailed to the case, allied unwillingly to a young hacker, Wyatt Gillette, who is sprung from prison to pit his brilliance against the criminal's. But no one knows who to trust in an environment where everything is suspect, and pressing the wrong letter on your keyboard may mean death.
403. Deaver, Jeffery Wilds: The Lesson of her Death
Published by Headline, London. 1993.
Very scarce UK 1st edition hardback. Both book and unclipped dust wrapper are in fine condition. Deaver's first UK hardback and probably the rarest. When Detective Bill Corde looks at the beautiful face of the murdered girl in the mud, he does not know his own life is about to turn into a terrifyingly real nightmare. For the girl's killer is now on the trail of Corde and his unsuspecting family: his wife, teenage son, and imaginative but vulnerable daughter, Sarah. Sarah, who alone knows the identity of the killer...
1102. Deaver, Jeffery: Speaking in Tongues
Published by Hodder & Stoughton, London. 1995
An uncommon UK 1st edition hardback. Both book and unclipped dust wrapper are in near fine condition. The book leans very slightly and the page edges are a little yellow. The jacket is only slightly rubbed at the edges. Not a common book this! The imprint page claims the book was first published in the US in 1995 by Viking - this is not so. Until recently, the UK edition was the only hardcover and is and always will be the true first edition. Not a common title, and less so as the author becomes more and more collectable. No price in the small box on the wrapper suggesting even this copy was meant for an overseas market, possibly the US! Words are the most dangerous weapons on earth - and Tate Collier, who has a consummate skill with them, can talk his way into anyone's heart, and get them to do whatever he wants. Tate is a lawyer who used to defend death penalty cases in Virginia's Supreme Court; now he concentrates on work for the local community. When his teenage daughter goes missing all the signs are that she's run away. But Tate and his ex-wife, Bett, feel differently, and set out in search of her. To discover that Megan is in the hands of a man with no morals and as great a gift for words as Tate himself. Megan's is not the only life in danger...
1103. Deaver, Jeffery: A Maiden's Grave
Published by Hodder & Stoughton, London. 1995
Second impression UK 1st edition hardback. Both book and unclipped dust wrapper are in very good condition. The book leans very slightly and the page edges are a little yellow. The jacket is only slightly rubbed and is not clipped, retaining the original £16.99 price at the front flap. There are no previous owner names or other marks. A trio of desperate convicts has hijacked a bus carrying a group of deaf and mute schoolgirls who are now being held hostage in a disused slaughterhouse. FBI agent Arthur Potter is flown in to negotiate with the men, as are local police, state troopers, politicians and the media. Not everyone has the same agenda. And the killers will kill one innocent child an hour, on the hour, until their demands are met.
1104. Deaver, Jeffery: The Stone Monkey
Published by Hodder & Stoughton, 2002
Hardback 1st edition. Both book and unclipped dust wrapper are in fine condition. Rhyme and Amelia Sachs take on the violent world of Chinese organised crime. Recruited to aid the US government in a highly difficult (and dangerous) task, Rhyme and Amelia succeed in tracking down a cargo ship carrying a group of illegal immigrants along with the sinister human smuggler and killer known as Youling--the Ghost. But the capture of the Ghost goes pear-shaped, and Rhyme and Amelia are launched into a frantic race against time; they must stop the Ghost before he can track down and destroy the surviving families who have gone missing in the cloistered and secretive world of New York City's Chinese community. As 48 hours anxiously tick by, the malevolent criminal ruthlessly hunts the families while his pursuers (aided by a policeman from mainland China) struggle to prevent the carnage. Amelia, meanwhile, has forged a connection with one of the immigrants that may have considerable consequences for the relationship with her partner and lover, Lincoln Rhyme.
1105. Deaver, Jeffery: The Vanished Man
Published by Hodder & Stoughton, London. 2003
Sixth impression of the 1st hardback edition in fine condition. There are no previous owner names and the dust wrapper is not clipped. A killer flees the scene of a homicide at a prestigious Manhattan music school and locks himself in a classroom. Within minutes, the police have him surrounded. Then a scream rings out, followed by a gunshot. The police break down the door. The room is empty. Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs are brought in to help with the high-profile investigation. For the ambitious Sachs, solving the case could earn her a promotion. For the quadriplegic Rhyme, it means relying on his protégé to ferret out a master illusionist they've dubbed the conjurer, who baits them with gruesome murders that become more diabolical with each fresh crime. As the fatalities rise and the minutes tick down, Rhyme and Sachs must move beyond the smoke and mirrors to prevent a terrifying act of vengeance that could become the greatest vanishing act of all.
2217. Deaver, Jeffery: The Burning Wire
Published by Hodder & Stoughton, London. 2010
1st edition hardback. Both, the book and the unclipped dust wrapper are in very good condition. There are no previous owner names or other marks. The citizens of New York are under attack, with the electricity grid being controlled to grim criminal ends. Hideous, electricity-induced death is raining down, and the natural assumption is that it is the work of terrorists. The CIA and the FBI are pursuing this avenue, but quadriplegic criminologist Lincoln Rhyme (Deaver's long-term protagonist) is studying the forensic evidence, helped (as usual) by the resourceful Amelia Sachs and a talented team (among its number, FBI agent Fred Dellray). The attacks, Rhyme realises, are not terror-inspired, but the work of a brilliant criminal, whose manipulation of electricity in all its forms will give Rhyme and his co. their biggest ever headache.
2287. Deaver, Jeffery: A Maiden's Grave
Published by Hodder & Stoughton, London. 1995
Second impression UK 1st edition hardback. Jacket spine is very slightly sunned otherwise both book and unclipped dust wrapper are in very good condition. There are no previous owner names or other marks. A trio of desperate convicts has hijacked a bus carrying a group of deaf and mute schoolgirls who are now being held hostage in a disused slaughterhouse. FBI agent Arthur Potter is flown in to negotiate with the men, as are local police, state troopers, politicians and the media. Not everyone has the same agenda. And the killers will kill one innocent child an hour, on the hour, until their demands are met.
2291. Deaver, Jeffery: The Bone Collector
Published by Hodder & Stoughton, London. 1997
1st edition hardback. The pages are tanned otherwise the book is fine in condition. The dust wrapper too is fine and unclipped. Once the nation's foremost criminologist and the ex-head of NYPD forensics, quadriplegic Lincoln Rhyme abandons his forced retirement and joins forces with rookie cop Amelia Sachs to track down a vicious serial killer. The first book in the Lincoln Rhyme series.
2441. Deaver, Jeffery: The Cold Moon
Published by Hodder & Stoughton, 2006
Hardback 1st UK edition. Signed by the author at the title page "To Kay all best wishes" otherwise fine book and unclipped dust wrapper. It's the night of the full Cold Moon - the month of December according to the lunar calendar. A young man is found dead in lower Manhattan, the first in a series of victims of a man calling himself the Watchmaker. Lincoln Rhyme, Amelia Sachs and the rest of the crew are tapped to handle the case and stop the Watchmaker and his partner, Vincent Reynolds, a repulsive character with a special interest in the female victims of the killer.
Published by Hodder & Stoughton, London. 2011
Hardback, UK 1st edition, in fine/as new condition. There are no previous owner names or inscriptions. The dust wrapper is also fine/as new, not clipped or faded. James Bond is back. And in Carte Blanche, he is just out of Afghanistan, seconded to a new security agency -- one that is a distinctly separate entity from MI5 or 6. A decryption reveals that Britain is harbouring a vicious clandestine figure, and a great many people are to die -- within a week. 007 is in action in his own country for once, his hands tied by an irritating bureaucratic colleague, and up against a sinister opponent who luxuriates in the sights and sounds of death and putrefaction. And if the latter sounds like the kind of villain Lincoln Rhyme might be taking on, that's because 007's new chronicler is the American writer Jeffrey Deaver, creator of the quadriplegic criminologist Rhyme.
1106. Dexter, Colin: The Third Morse Omnibus
Published by Macmillan, 1993
Hardback, 1st thus. Near fine price clipped d/w, fine book with slight nick to page edges probably due to binding, very good clean copy. Three full-length murder mysteries are contained here, each featuring the popular fictional detective, Inspector Morse and his faithful Sergeant, Lewis.
1108. Dexter, Colin: Last Seen Wearing
Published by Book Club Associates, 1976
Hardback fine. Some rubbing on top of wrapper otherwise fine. Morse was beset by a nagging feeling. Most of his fanciful notions about the Taylor girl had evaporated and he had begun to suspect that further investigation into Valerie's disappearance would involve little more than sober and tedious routine . . . The statements before Inspector Morse appeared to confirm the bald, simple truth. After leaving home to return to school, teenager Valerie Taylor had completely vanished, and the trail had gone cold. Until two years, three months and two days after Valerie's disappearance, somebody decides to supply some surprising new evidence for the case . . .
1109. Dexter, Colin: Death Is Now My Neighbour
Published by Macmillan, 1996
Hardback 1st edition. Very good book in a very good unclipped d/w. Book leans slightly. No owner names or inscriptions. A crime novel featuring Chief Inspector Morse, in which Morse and his assistant Sergeant Lewis are called upon to investigate the murder of a young woman who was shot from close range through her kitchen window. After a visit to his doctor, Morse finds that he also has to deal with a crisis of his own.
1110. Dexter, Colin: The Daughters of Cain
Published by Macmillan, 1994
Hardback 1st edition. Very good in a very good price clipped dust wrapper. The book leans slightly and there is a small area of wear at the foot of the spine. Bizarre and bewildering - that's what so many murder investigations in the past had proved to be . . . In this respect, at least, Lewis was correct in his thinking. What he could not have known was what unprecedented anguish the present case would cause to Morse's soul. Chief Superintendent Strange's opinion was that too little progress had been made since the discovery of a corpse in a North Oxford flat. The victim had been killed by a single stab wound to the stomach. Yet the police had no weapon, no suspect, and no motive. Within days of taking over the case Chief Inspector Morse and Sergeant Lewis uncover startling new information about the life and death of Dr Felix McClure. When another body is discovered Morse suddenly finds himself with rather too many suspects. For once, he can see no solution. But then he receives a letter containing a declaration of love . . .
1107. Dexter, Colin: The Wench Is Dead
Published by Macmillan, 1990
1st edition hardback very good d/w, slightly cocked book otherwise fine. That night he dreamed in Technicolor. He saw the ochre-skinned, scantily clad siren in her black, arrowed stockings. And in Morse's muddled computer of a mind, that siren took the name of one Joanna Franks . . . The body of Joanna Franks was found at Duke's Cut on the Oxford Canal at about 5.30 a.m. on Wednesday, 22nd June 1859. At around 10.15 a.m. on a Saturday morning in 1989 the body of Chief Inspector Morse - though very much alive - was removed to Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital. Treatment for a perforated ulcer was later pronounced successful. As Morse begins his recovery he comes across an account of the investigation and the trial that followed Joanna Franks' death . . . and becomes convinced that the two men hanged for her murder were innocent . . .
1111. Dexter, Colin: Morse's Greatest Mystery and Other Stories
Published by Macmillan, 1993
Hardback second printing lacking the number 1 from the sequence. The book leans slightly otherwise near fine in a like unclipped d/w. Ten dazzling shorts from Dexter including two Inspector Morse stories written especially for this anthology and a tale of Sherlock Holmes.