2201. Lindsay, Jeff: Darkly Dreaming Dexter
Published by Orion, London. 2004
1st edition hardback. The book leans slightly but is otherwise very good in a very good unclipped dust wrapper. The jacket is a little rubbed at the edges but only lightly. Dexter Morgan isn't exactly the kind of man you'd bring home to your mum. At heart, he's the perfect gentleman - he is supportive of his sister Deb, a Miami cop; he has a shy girlfriend and is liked by her young children. In fact, Dex seems to lead a quiet, normal life bordering on the mundane. Despite the fact that he can't stand the sight of blood, he works as a blood-spatter analyst for the Miami police. But Dexter also has a secret hobby: he is an accomplished serial killer. So far, he's killed 36 people and has never been caught because he knows exactly how to hide the evidence. And while that may lead some people to assume he's not such a nice guy - he tempers his insatiable hunger for brutality by only killing the bad guys. However, Dexter's well-organised life is suddenly disrupted when a second, much more visible serial killer appears in Miami. Intrigued that the other killer favours a style similar to his own, Dexter soon realises that the mysterious new arrival is not simply invading his turf but offering him a direct invitation to 'come out and play'...
1194. Lindsey, David L.: A Cold Mind
Published by Arlington Books, 1984
Hardback 1st UK edition. Very good book in like d/w. Wrapper has minor edge wear and book leans slightly. Somewhere in the sprawling city of Houston, a psychopaths stalking his victims. Each is a high-priced call girl trained and groomed for the pleasure of high-powered gentlemen. Each is found murdered, her body twisted in a climax of agony, defying medical explanation. But most chilling of all is that the killer is coldly efficient, leaving behind no clues, no motives, no evidence. Homicide detective Stuart Haydon has seen his share of the dangerous passions that lead to murder, but he's never seen anything like this before. From its luxury condos to its rotting wharves and mean back streets, Haydon is sucked into the seedy sexual underbelly of the city...into a secret slave trade in flesh and lust...into the cold mind of a killer in love with death.
1195. Linscott, Gillian: Sister beneath the Sheet
Published by Scribners, 1991
1st edition hardback, fine book and a near fine dust wrapper with a small tear to top & one at the bottom of spine. A high-class prostitute has left her fortune to the suffragettes. Emmeline Pankhurst sends Nell Bray, just out of Holloway, to collect it from Biarritz, where Nell becomes involved in intrigue among the resort's opulent society and tawdry backstreets.
1196. Little, Conyth: Black Express
Published by Collins (Crime Club), 1945
Hardback 1st edition. Very good d/w slightly edge worn with small loss to top of slightly colour faded spine panel. Not price clipped. Red cloth has small faded area corresponding with d/w loss otherwise very good+. Murder on a trans-Australian train.
1197. Livingston, Jack: Die Again, Macready
Published by Macmillan, 1984
1st edition hardback, fine in a fine dust wrapper. Joe Binney is a private investigator who is deaf. He is working on behalf of an actor who has chosen to call himself William Macready, a respectful reference to a Shakespearean actor who was a legend in the nineteenth century. Our Macready is an exceptionally awkward character, now made more awkward than ever by the fact that his business manager has mislaid a quarter of a million dollars that belong to Macready. Binney finds the business manager - hanged.
1198. Lovesey, Peter: Butchers & Other Stories of Crime
Published by Macmillan, 1985
1st edition hardback, very good book in a pretty good unclipped dust wrapper. The jacket is a little rubbed at the edges and is water stained at the bottom of the back panel. A fine assembly of characters appear in this collection of crime short stories, some murderers, some victims. For instance: a butcher, a belly dancer, an agony aunt, an amorous bookseller - and more besides.
1625. MacDonald, John D.: Free Fall in Crimson
Published by William Collins, London, 1981
1st edition UK hardback. Printed in the US and bound in the US style with a cloth spine and paper covered boards. There is some light foxing at the endpapers and page edges, an ink mark at the front endpaper otherwise very good. The dust wrapper is quite heavily rubbed and worn at the edges with a few small tears but generally good. This time out, Travis McGee came close to losing his status as a living legend when he agreed to track down the killers who brutally murdered an ailing millionaire. For starters, he renewed an unfinished adventure with a famous, and oversexed, Hollywood actress, who led him into a very nasty nest of murderers involving a motorcycle gang, pornographic movies, and mad balloonists. And Mcgee relearned the old lesson, that only when he came close to the edge of death was he completely alive.
Published by Robert Hale, London. 1982
UK hardback edition, 1st thus. The book is in very good condition so too is the unclipped dust wrapper. The pages edges are slightly tanned. There are no previous owner names or other marks. This is the second McGee omnibus. This one contains The Quick Red Fox, A Deadly Shade of Gold and Bright Orange for the Shroud.
2188. MacDonald, Philip: Xv. Rex
Published by Penguin Books, London. 1955
1st edition paperback in very good condition with no previous owner names or marks. The book has some light foxing and dirt spots to the covers and the pages are browned at the edges but wear is minimal. One of ten titles published by Penguin to celebrate the silver jubilee of the Collins Crime Club. A serial killer is on the loose and targeting policemen in 1930s Greater London in this innovative mystery by the great Philip MacDonald, one of the most daring and prolific authors of the Golden Age. He was so prolific in fact that he used several pseudonyms and this book was originally published as by 'Martin Porlock'. In the US however it appeared under his own name, but with the title changed to the rather prosaic The Mystery of the Dead Police, which is a bit of a shame as this book is anything but dull. In fact, whatever the name and whatever the title (it was also filmed a couple of times, first as The Mystery of Mr X in 1934 and then re-made in 1952 as The Hour of 13) this is amongst the cream of the author's output.
Published by Harvill Secker, London. 2011
1st edition hardback in fine condition. The dust wrapper is also fine and unclipped. There is a publisher's sticker at the front but there are no previous owner names or marks. The tenth book in the Kurt Wallander series. Håkan von Enke, a retired naval officer, disappears during a walk in a forest near Stockholm. Wallander is not officially involved in the investigation, but he is personally affected - von Enke is his daughter's father-in-law - and Wallander is soon interfering in matters that are not his responsibility. He is confounded by the information he uncovers, which hints at elaborate Cold War espionage. Wallander is also haunted by his own past and desperate to live up to the hope that a new granddaughter represents, and will soon come face-to-face with his most intractable adversary - himself.
354. Manville, W. H.: Goodbye
Published by Hamish Hamilton, London, 1977
1st edition hardback in very good condition, there are no previous owner names or inscriptions. The dust wrapper has general shelfwear, rubbing to edges & especially the top back flap.Nick Blake wakes up one morning, after a party he cannot remember, to find a young woman in bed beside him, dead - murdered. The woman is no stranger but his ex wife, Clair, who he hasn"t seen for two years...
1202. Markham, Robert (pseudonym of Kingsley Amis): Colonel Sun: A James Bond adventure
Published by The Companion Book Club/Hamlyn, 1968
Hardback, book club edition in faux leather with gilt decoration, page edges stained brown, map illustrated end papers. No d/w. Two small chips to the bottom edge of the front board otherwise fine. Kingsley Amis writing as Robert Markham. A James Bond 007 adventure. Bond is the victim of a plot by Colonel Sun of the People's Liberation Army of China. M has been abducted, but Bond appears to be the target of this plot to discredit the British Secret Service.
1203. Markham, Robert (pseudonym of Kingsley Amis): Colonel Sun: A James Bond adventure
Published by The Companion Book Club/Hamlyn, 1968
Hardback, book club edition. Blue cloth with gilt titles in a green panel at the spine, top page edges stained green, map illustrated end papers, fine. There are two small closed tears at the top edge of the rear dust wrapper panel and slightly scuffed at the bottom of the spine otherwise this too is fine and unclipped. Kingsley Amis writing as Robert Markham. A James Bond 007 adventure. Bond is the victim of a plot by Colonel Sun of the People's Liberation Army of China. M has been abducted, but Bond appears to be the target of this plot to discredit the British Secret Service.
1204. Marsh, Ngaio: Grave Mistake
Published by Collins (Crime Club), 1978
1st edition hardback, near fine in a very good dust wrapper that's a little rubbed at the tips. At first it looked as if Sybil Foster had intentionally left the world: with two husbands dead, a daughter marrying the wrong man and - it later appeared - a debilitating disease, it was no wonder she took her own life. But no one believed she was the type - especially Chief Superintendent Roderick Alleyn. For the field was ripe with unfortunate engagements - one of them a very grave mistake…
1205. Marsh, Ngaio: Singing in the Shrouds
Published by Collins (Crime Club), 1959
1st edition hardback very good dusty & slightly edge worn d/w very good. On a cold February night the police find the third corpse on the quayside in the Pool of London, her body covered with flower petals and pearls. The killer walked away, singing. When the cargo ship, Cape Farewell, sets sail, she carries nine passengers, one of whom is known to be the murderer. Which is why Superintendent Roderick Alleyn joins the ship at Portsmouth on the most difficult assignment of his professional career...
405. Marsh, Ngaio: Light Thickens
Published by Collins Crime Club, London, 1982
1st edition hardback in very good + condition, browning to pages. The book has no previous owner names or inscriptions. The dust wrapper has not been price clipped and still retains the original £7.50 net price. Marsh's last novel, completed shortly before her death.
648. Marsh, Ngaio: Photo-Finish
Published by Collins, London, 1980
1st edition hardback in good condition, slight stains to boards and a creased spine. Dust wrapper is a little rubbed and worn at the tips but unclipped. Over all a very good copy. A Crime Club. Lake Waihoe, New Zealand was the ideal place for the world-famous soprano to rest after her triumphant tour. Chief Superintendent Alleyn and his wife were among the house guests. But after a private performance tragedy struck and the peace of the island was shattered.
1284. Martin, J. Wallis: A Likeness in Stone
Published by Hodder & Stoughton, London. 1997
1st edition hardback in near fine condition. Showing only slight shelf wear to the base of the spine, there are no previous owner names or other marks. The unclipped dust wrapper is slightly rubbed at the edges and rear panel but still at least very good and now protected. Author's hugely acclaimed first novel made scarce by a low print run. A psychological crime novel set in Oxford, which is also now a major BBC drama starring Liam Cunningham and Cheri Lunghi.
1206. McBain, Ed: The Last Best Hope
Published by Hodder & Stoughton, 1998
1st edition hardback near fine d/w, fine book. A woman approaches Florida attorney Matthew Hope to find her husband, Jack, whom she wishes to sue for divorce. Soon afterwards Jack turns up dead - or is he? If he is still alive, who is the corpse in his bed and who are the cops who knew Jack and take an interest in his disappearance?
1207. McCafferty, Jeanne: Artist Unknown
Published by Headline, 1995
1st edition hardback, fine book in a near fine dust wrapper. Following "Star Gazer", the second thriller featuring Dr.Mackenzie Griffin, a female criminal psychologist, who finds herself in the thick of a murder investigation in a small New England seaside town, where she herself may have witnessed the killing of the man found washed up on the beach with a bullet hole in his head.
1208. McEldowney, Eugene: A Stone of the Heart
Published by Heinemann, 1995
1st edition hardback fine in a near fine price clipped dust wrapper. The second mystery featuring Superintendent Cecil Megarry. What seems an ordinary Belfast bank robbery turns into something more sinister when it becomes clear that the thieves are more interested in the documents in the vaults than in the money. Megarry, back from suspension, investigates.
1209. McInerny, Ralph: Sleight of Body
Published by Macmillan, 1989
1st edition hardback, fine book in a fine dust wrapper. Father Dowling discovers the brutally murdered body of one of his parishioners. It seems a senseless, motiveless killing, but as the police investigate the crime they reveal a bizarre link to the disappearance some months previously of a wealthy young woman.
1210. McKitterick, Molly: The Medium Is Murder
Published by Scribners, 1991
1st edition hardback, fine book and dust wrapper. Author's first novel. A whodunnit in which an unpopular consumer affairs reporter is murdered, strangled with a microphone cable, the day after she has announced a series of programmes on the mistresses of prominent citizens. The book won the 5 Million Yen Suntory award for best first mystery novel.
1211. Meyer, Nicholas: The West End Horror: A Posthumous Memoir of John H. Watson, M.D
Published by Hodder & Stoughton, 1976
Hardback 1st edition. Fine book & un-clipped d/w. March 1895. London. A month of strange happenings in the West End. First there is the bizarre murder of theatre critic Jonathan McCarthy. Then the lawsuit against the Marquess of Queensberry for libel; the public is scandalized. Next, the ingénue at the Savoy is discovered with her throat slashed. And a police surgeon disappears, taking two corpses with him.
1212. Meynell, Laurence W.: The Creaking Chair
Published by Collins, 1951
Hardback reprint, cheap 2/- edition greenback novel. Good+ in a very good d/w. A prolific author responsible for the Hooky Hefferman series and aka Valerie Baxter, Sidney Bedford, Robert Eton, Geoffrey Ludlow.
1213. Milne, A.A.: The Red House Mystery
Published by The Library Press Ltd,
Hardback, the Minerva edition, no date or d/w. Faux leather covered boards. Top edge gilt. Blind stamped leaf decoration to all edges. Gilt print to spine & gilt and green initialed motif to upper. Marbled endpapers. Wear to top & toe of spine otherwise vg+. Far from the gentle slopes of the Hundred Acre Wood lies The Red House, the setting for A.A Milne's only detective story, where secret passages, uninvited guests, a sinister valet and a puzzling murder lay the foundations for a classic crime caper. And when the local police prove baffled, it is up to a guest at a local inn to appoint himself 'Sherlock Holmes' and, together with his friend and loyal 'Watson', delve deeper into the mysteries of the dead man.
2093. Mina, Denise: Sanctum
Published by Bantam Press, London. 2002
1st edition hardback in near fine, unmarked condition. The book leans very slightly otherwise fine. The unclipped dust wrapper is also fine. Why do some women find criminals irresistible? Why do some marry convicted murderers while they are in prison? These are some of the issues Denise Mina addresses in her fourth thought-provoking novel which combines acute psychological insights with great writing and a page-turning narrative. Set in a prison in the north of Scotland, So Special is narrated by a doctor who is awaiting trial on a highly publicised murder charge. Why, the papers speculate, has this doctor killed convicted serial killer, Wayne McManus? What makes him so special, when she has worked with prisoners like him for eight years? Did he tell her something so terrible that she felt bound to take the law into her own hands? The truth - as always - is rather more complicated, and involves another woman who has been writing love letters to Wayne, and who eventually marries him in prison. And then the murders start; murders which involve details never publicly released, and which were known only to Wayne and the police...
1214. Moodie, Edwin: The Great Shakes
Published by Museum Press, 1956
Hardback 1st edition. Very good+ in very good, J. Pollack illustrated, unclipped d/w. Wrapper is foxed inside as are the page edges. Set in Johannesburg.