1022. Rejt, Maria (Editor): Winter's Crimes 23
Published by Macmillan, 1991
Hardback 1st edition. Fine book and unclipped d/w. Contains eleven specially commissioned mysteries by various authors including "Talk Show" a Rebus short from Ian Rankin.
1232. Rendell, Ruth: The Bridesmaid
Published by Hutchinson, 1989
1st edition hardback, very good dust wrapper with some light edge wear, very good book, top page edge a little grubby. Philip Wardman had more than just the ordinary squeamishness where death was concerned. Yet he could hardly avoid the suspicious disappearance of his sister's friend Rebecca Neave, especially when everyone was ascribing the cause to murder. Philip's feminine ideal is the statue of the Roman goddess Flora in his mother's garden. His marble Flora doesn't fade, doesn't alter, doesn't die. But then he meets Senta Pelham, a beautiful, sensual, childlike actress who flagrantly disdains the morals of society and passionately desires the elusive Philip.
1233. Rendell, Ruth: A Judgement in Stone
Published by Book Club Associates, 1977
Hardback book club edition, very goodin a very good dust wrapper. Four members of the Coverdale family - George, Jacqueline, Melinda and Giles - died in the space of fifteen minutes on the 14th February, St Valentine's Day. Eunice Parchman, the housekeeper, shot them down on a Sunday evening while they were watching opera on television. Two weeks later she was arrested for the crime. But the tragedy neither began nor ended there.
1234. Rendell, Ruth: Going Wrong
Published by Mysterious Press, 1990
1st edition hardback, fine d/w, fine book. Guy still believed that Leonora loved him, as she had when she was a young girl, when he led a street gang around London's Notting Hill Gate, a world away from her family home in a mews house in Holland Park. Leonora's mother in particular didn't care for her dark-looking boyfriend, especially when she found out about shoplifting and the drugs. Guy's obsession with Leonora increased as the years passed, and as they grew apart. He always believed she would come back to him. But even when Leonora told him it could not be like that, that life was not a fairy tale, he could not, would not, accept the truth. And the murderous madness began to take hold of him.
1235. Rendell, Ruth: The Keys to the Street
Published by Hutchinson, 1996
1st edition hardback, near fine d/w, fine book. Mary Jago had donated her own bone marrow to save the life of someone she didn't know. And this generous act led directly to the bitter break-up of her affair with Alistair. But the man whose life she had saved would change Mary's life in a way she could never have imagined.
1236. Rendell, Ruth: Blood Lines - Long and Short Stories
Published by Hutchinson, 1995
Hardback 1st edition. Very good+ in like unclipped d/w. Hailed by Patricia Cornwell as "unequivocally the most brilliant mystery writer of our time," Ruth Rendell now delivers an all-new collection of long- and short-story mysteries. As always with Rendell, these stories of mystery and wrongdoing shine their light into the dark places of the human psyche.
1237. Rhode, John: The Davidson Case
Published by Geoffrey Bles, 1945
Hardback reprint of the 1929 "Dr Priestley" 1st edition. Very good, both book and unclipped jacket. D/w is edge worn and chipped with some small areas of loss but only minor. Murder at Bratton Grange.
1238. Rhode, John: The Davidson Case
Published by Geoffrey Bles, 1929
Hardback 1st edition. Front d/w cover glued to pastedown. Ex loan book with stamps to title page and rear pastedown. Original red cloth with black print & decoration to spine and upper although the spine is quite sunned. A little on the grubby side but generally a good+ hard to find book.
1239. Rhode, John (Editor): Detection Medley
Published by Hutchinson, 1939
1st edition hardback no d/w. Undated. Blue cloth with black print a little bumped with wear to the extremities. An early anthology by some of the greats of the golden age of crime fiction. 35 shorts with an introduction by A.A. Milne, contributions by Margery Allingham, E. C. Bentley, J. Dickson Carr, Agatha Christie, Freeman Wills Crofts, Carter Dickson, Anthony Gilbert, E. C. R. Lorac, Dorothy L. Sayers, Henry Wade and others.. Good++.
1240. Robertson, Colin: Alibi in Black
Published by Ward, Lock & Co, 1945
Hardback reprint of the 1944 1st. Very good+ in like unclipped, slightly edge worn d/w. A Peter Gayleigh story, 4th in the series.
1241. Robinson, Peter: Piece of My Heart
Published by Hodder & Stoughton , London. 2006
1st edition hardback in fine condition. There is a 1 inch tear at the top of the front panel otherwise fine. The dust wrapper is not clipped retaining the original £12.99 price at the front flap. There are no previous owner names or marks. As volunteers clean up after a huge outdoor rock concert in Yorkshire in 1969, they discover the body of a young woman wrapped in a sleeping bag. She has been brutally murdered. The detective assigned to the case, Stanley Chadwick, is a hard-headed, strait-laced veteran of the Second World War. He could not have less in common with - or less regard for - young, disrespectful, long-haired hippies, smoking marijuana and listening to the pulsing sounds of rock and roll. But he has a murder to solve, and it looks as if the victim was somehow associated with the up-and-coming psychedelic pastoral band the Mad Hatters. In the present, Inspector Alan Banks is investigating the murder of a freelance music journalist who was working on a feature about the Mad Hatters for MOJO magazine. This is not the first time that the Mad Hatters, now aging rock superstars, have been brushed by tragedy. Banks finds he has to delve into the past to find out exactly what hornets' nest the journalist inadvertently stirred up.
1242. Roden, H. W.: Too Busy To Die
Published by World Publishing, 1946
Hardback, 1st tower books edition. Both book and d/w are a little bumped and rubbed at the edges but generally very good. Pages browned. Johnny Knight and Sid Ames in the case of the beautiful babe and the bloody homicide.
1243. Roome, Annette: Deceptive Relations
Published by Harper Collins, 1999
Hardback 1st edition. Fine in fine unclipped d/w. Two suspicious deaths in twenty-four hours in Home Counties Tipping spell trouble for reporter Chris Martin when she is sent to cover a possible suicide, and the battered body of Janet Cox - probably the town's first road-rage killing. Chris, currently smugly congratulating herself on having sorted out her private life, finds herself unravelling the threads of Janet Cox's convoluted affairs, which leads to the disturbing conclusion that Janet's missing husband is either a prime suspect or himself a corpse. Trying to make sense of Janet Cox's life and death, as well as reporting on the row blowing up over Tipping's millennium plan, means Chris has to face up to some uncomfortable truths in her own life, not to mention a terrifying brush with the town's underworld.
1648. Rose, Karen: Have You Seen Her?
Published by Headline, London, 2009
1st edition UK hardback. Book and unclipped dust wrapper in fine/as new condition. There are no previous owner names or marks. A serial killer has his sights set on cheerleaders in a small town in North Carolina. The girls, abducted from their beds, have something in common apart from their cheerleading duties - they each have long dark hair. It's imperative that the murderer is tracked down before he claims more victims, and Special Agent Steven Thatcher is dedicated to catching this monster. Thatcher is a widower, and has his own problems: his son Brad is growing away from him. Brad's teacher, Jenna Marshall, is sympathetic, and a relationship grows between the detective and the teacher - but both Steven and Jenna are bruised and wary from earlier relationships. And the seemingly omniscient killer is setting traps - ever closer to his pursuer's home territory.
1649. Rose, Karen: Silent Scream
Published by Headline, London, 2010
1st edition UK hardback. Book and unclipped dust wrapper in fine/as new condition. There are no previous owner names or marks. Four college kids set fire to a supposedly empty condominium block. But when they see the young girl at an upper-floor window desperately banging on the glass, clawing to get out, they realise their mistake. Although they don't all agree, the group leave the girl to her certain death, little realising that someone is there, watching their every move. Someone who has a nasty habit of blackmail and sees an opportunity for profit which is far greater than any they have ever had before. For local fire fighter David Hunter, getting the blaze under control is hard enough, but when he finds the girl's body he realises that this arson attack has become a murder case and the homicide cops are immediately called in. Now, as David works with the cops, it's a race to find the arsonists, and the blackmailer, before events escalate out of all control.
1244. Rostand, Robert: The Killer Elite
Published by Hodder & Stoughton, 1974
Hardback 1st edition. Very good in like unclipped d/w only slightly edgeworn. Authors first novel. First book in the Mike Locken series. Basis for the film directed by Sam Peckinpah and starring Robert Duvall and James Caan. It began in the quiet smugness of an elegant club in St. James, and ended in a nightmare of brutality and deception. Mike Locken, a former specialist in security and transport, takes on a job to shepherd an exiled African politician in a risky transit across London, the first step in a triumphant return to his homeland. But out there somewhere waits an elite team of international assassins contracted to take him down -- one of whom not so long ago put three bullets into Locken that should have left him a corpse, but didn't... one bad guy's big mistake. So Mike Locken -- unofficial now, an expendable gun-for-hire, reenters the war zone driven by his own demons. Ostensibly to foil a political assassination but willing to use the African as bait if it gets him a shot at the man who put Locken out of business forever, or so it seemed to everyone but Locken. Following a path from stakeout to shootout, from deception at a London airport to betrayal in a remote Welsh village, returning finally to London where it began -- and a savage finish.
313. Ruell, Patrick: Death of a Dormouse
Published by Methuen, London. 1987.
Scarce, 1st edition hardback in near fine condition. The page edges have browned slightly and there is a tidy previous owner name to the top edge of the front endpaper. The unclipped dustwrapper too is very near fine in condition having only slight surface marks. Patrick Ruell is a pseudonym of Reginald Hill, novelist and award-winning crime writer.
1245. Russell, Craig: Blood Eagle
Published by Hutchinson, London. 2005
1st edition hardback in fine condition. There are no previous owner names or marks. The dust wrapper is not price clipped. Authors debut crime novel. Two women are killed in the same horrific, ritualistic manner. The murderer taunts the police with e-mails. It seems clear that a serial killer is at work, selecting victims at random and living out some twisted fantasy. But, as Jan Fabel and his murder team investigate further, nothing is as it first seems. They are drawn into a dark half-world of Viking myth and legend, of obscure religious cults, of political intrigue and of a violent struggle to seize control of the city. And as Fabel desperately races to track down the killer before more killings take place, he and his team come face to face with a cold, brutal menace they could never have predicted. A greater evil than they could ever have imagined.
1246. Rutherford, Douglas: Turbo
Published by Macmillan, 1980
1st edition hardback, very good book & dust wrapper. Another motoring based thriller from the author of Collision Course & Grand Prix Murder.
1247. Ryck, Francis: Sacrificial Pawn
Published by Collins (Crime Club), 1973
1st edition hardback. There is an ink mark at the title page and a small tear to the edge of the dust wrapper otherwise very good.
933. Sandford, John: The Night Crew
Published by Headline, 1997
A fine 1st edition hardback in a fine dust wrapper. Anna Batory is a scavenger. Roaming the streets of LA by night, her video news crew hunt for sensational stories which they can sell to the TV networks. And Anna knows just where to dig to find the stories people want to see. When they film an attack on the UCLA Medical Centre by animal rights activists, Anna's not convinced the networks will go for it. Later the same night, however, they get the scoop they've been hoping for - a teenager jumps from a five-storey hotel window to his death - and all of it's on tape. The networks love it - but for Anna it's the beginning of a dizzying freefall into madness, obsession and murder. Soon, disturbing connections between her and the dead teenager start coming to light. And then she finds she's being stalked by someone with a frighteningly warped sense of reality. Someone who claims to know her better than she knows herself...
2236. Sansom, C.J.: Revelation
Published by Macmillan, London. 2008
1st edition hardback. There is a very slight lean to the book otherwise fine in a fine unclipped dust wrapper. It is spring, 1543 and King Henry VIII is wooing Lady Catherine Parr, whom he wants for his sixth wife - but this time the object of his affections is resisting. Archbishop Cranmer and the embattled Protestant faction at court are watching keenly, for Lady Catherine is known to have reformist sympathies. Matthew Shardlake, meanwhile, is working on the case of a teenage boy, a religious maniac who has been placed by the King's council in the Bedlam hospital for the insane. Should he be released as his parent's want, when his terrifying actions could lead to him being burned as a heretic? Then, when an old friend is horrifically murdered, Shardlake promises his widow - for whom he has long had complicated feelings - to bring the killer to justice. His search leads him to connections not only with the boy in Bedlam, but with Archbishop Cranmer and Catherine Parr, and with the dark prophecies of the Book of Revelation. As London's Bishop Bonner prepares a purge of Protestants, Shardlake, together with his assistant Jack Barak and his friend Guy Malton, follow the trail of a series of horrific murders that shake them to the core. Murders which are already bringing about frenzied talk of witchcraft and a demonic possession, for what else would the Tudor mind make of a serial killer?
1248. Sapper, (H.C. McNeile): The Third Round
Published by Hodder & Stoughton, C1930
Hardback, no date or edition stated. Good+ edge worn d/w has some loss to bottom of spine. Very good yellow boards. Previous owner name and inscription to front endpaper. The death of Professor Goodman is officially recorded as a tragic accident, but at the inquest, no mention is made of his latest discovery - a miraculous new formula for manufacturing flawless diamonds at negligible cost, which strikes Captain Hugh 'Bulldog' Drummond as rather strange. His suspicions are further aroused when he spots a member of the Metropolitan Diamond Syndicate at the inquest. Gradually, he untangles a sinister plot of greed and murder, which climaxes in a dramatic motorboat chase at Cowes and brings him face to face with his arch enemy.
1249. Sapper, (H.C. McNeile): The Final Count
Published by Hodder & Stoughton, c1930
Hardback no d/w. No date or edition stated. Red cloth with black print and decoration. A very good clean tight copy.When Robin Gaunt, inventor of a terrifyingly powerful weapon of chemical warfare, goes missing, the police suspect that he has 'sold out' to the other side. But Bulldog Drummond is convinced of his innocence, and can think of only one man brutal enough to use the weapon to hold the world to ransom. Drummond receives an invitation to a sumptuous dinner-dance aboard an airship that is to mark the beginning of his final battle for triumph.
1250. Sapper, (H.C. McNeile): The Female of the Species
Published by Hodder & Stoughton, c1930
Hardback, good + edge worn d/w has small loss to top of spine but does not affect the text. Very good+ yellow boards. No date or edition stated. 3/6 net. Previous owner name to front endpaper.Bulldog Drummond has slain his archenemy, Carl Peterson, but Peterson's mistress lives on and is intent on revenge. Drummond's wife vanishes, followed by a series of vicious traps set by a malicious adversary, which lead to a hair-raising chase across England, to a sinister house and a fantastic torture-chamber modelled on Stonehenge, with its legend of human sacrifice.
1251. Sapper, (H.C. McNeile): Temple Tower
Published by Hodder & Stoughton, 1930
Hardback 6th edition. Good+ d/w has some loss to top and toe of spine. Very good yellow boards. Previous owner name to front pastedown and title page. Overall very good.As the 'Maid of Orleans' sets sail for Boulogne, two men wave goodbye to their trusting wives, who are completely unaware that their husband's intended 'golf holiday' is a ruse. One of the men is Captain Hugh 'Bulldog' Drummond - a demobilised officer with a fierce appetite for adventure and ale; the other is Bulldog's loyal friend, Peter, who narrates this exciting tale of a man in fear of his life and in desperate need of their help in penetrating the ill-omened Temple Tower.
1252. Sapper, (H.C. McNeile): The Return of Bull-Dog Drummond
Published by Hodder & Stoughton, 1932
Hardback 1st edition. No d/w. Slightly faded original blue cloth with black print to spine and upper. Light foxing to page edges. Boards slightly soiled and a little rubbed at the tips. Otherwise a very good example of one of the scarcer Bull-Dog Drummond titles.While staying as a guest at Merridale Hall, Captain Hugh 'Bulldog' Drummond's peaceful repose is disturbed by a frantic young man who comes dashing into the house, trembling and begging for help. When two warders arrive, asking for a man named Morris - a notorious murderer who has escaped from Dartmoor - Drummond assures them that they are chasing the wrong man. In which case, who on earth is this terrified youngster?
1254. Sapper, (H.C. McNeile): Tiny Carteret
Published by Hodder & Stoughton, 1932
Hardback reprint. Good 2/- net yellow jacket has some loss mainly to lower front panel. Bright red boards embossed blind and black. Some colour has run from the board edges to the wrapper folds otherwise very good+.A story from the Ronald Standish series by the creator of Bulldog Drummond.