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The Thin Man.
Dashiell Hammett. New York, 1934.

8vo, original green cloth, front cover with central design of blue mask within red border, blue and red geometrical design on spine, rear cover with “Borzoi” device, slight lean, small spot of staining to lower front cover, mild discoloration; top edges stained burgundy; offsetting to endpapers from old extraneous preservation jacket.

Signed first edition of Hammett’s final work and the introduction of the well-lubricated married sleuths Nick and Nora Charles. Layman A6.1.a.

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The Hound of the Baskervilles
Arthur Conan Doyle. London: George Newnes, 1902.

A Fine First Edition ‘Hound’ in the Original Cloth. The Hound of the Baskervilles. Another Adventure of Sherlock Holmes. First edition in book form (first serialized in the Strand Magazine between August 1901 and April 1902). Small octavo (7 1/4 x 4 3/4 inches; 184 x 122 mm.). [8], 358, [1], [1, blank] pp. With sixteen plates (including frontispiece) by Sidney Paget. Original scarlet cloth pictorially stamped in gilt and black (in a design by Alfred Garth Jones) and lettered in gilt on front cover and pictorially stamped and lettered in gilt on spine.

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The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Arthur Conan Doyle. 1892.

First edition, first issue, illustrations by Sidney Paget, some spotting, original pictorial light blue cloth, g.e., slightly rubbed and soiled, but overall very good, cloth chemise and morocco-backed cloth slip-case, [Green & Gibson A10a], 8vo.

First issue with blank street sign to vignette on upper cover and “Miss Violent” uncorrected on p.317.
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“To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman. I have seldom heard him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They were admirable things for the observer—excellent for drawing the veil from men’s motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable memory.” -Opening paragraph from A Scandal in Bohemia

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Poirot Investigates
Agatha Christie, 1924.

First edition, 14pp. advertisements, hinges a little weak, original orange cloth, lettered and decorated in blue, spine slightly discoloured, water stains to covers, small tears to spine ends, rubbed, preserved in plastic jacket and cloth slip-case, 8vo, 1924.

B-A note; I do have a soft spot for Poirot, that Belgian charmer.

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patchyhero:

Death In The Wasteland, A London House Mystery by George Bellairs, cover art by Edward Gorey.

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The Poisoned Chocolate Case
Anthony Berkeley. Garden City: Doubleday Doran & Co. 1929.

First edition. Black cloth with title & Crime Club device printed in red. Dustjacket printed in black & red.

B-A Note: Chocolate? Mystery? Yes please.

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The Complete Miss Marple
Agatha Christie. Harper Collins, 2009.

LIMITED TO 500 COPIES, foreword by Kate Mosse, colour pictorial endpapers (a map of St. Mary Mead), publisher’s red leather blocked in gilt on upper cover and spine, by Cedric Chivers, in original velvetine-lined wooden carrying case, 8vo,

Measuring over a foot in height, with 4032 pages and housed in a purpose-made wooden carry case, an extraordinary - perhaps absurd - volume, with all the Miss Marple novels and short stories presented in the order in which they were written and published.

B-A Note: Fantastic presentation! I would love to own this.

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Adopted; or, The Serpent Bracelet
Ada L. Halstead [pseud]. [Laura Eugenia Newhall] San Francisco, Cal.: Golden Era Co., Publishers, 1886.

“Newhall’s first novel, a lurid pot-boiler of crime and romance—the evil Eugenia Marston attempts to secure the hand of dashing Sidney Westbrooke by immuring the lovely Ethel Lyle in old widow Wiggins’ cellar, where she plots to dispatch the heroine with a poisoned dagger…”

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The Murder on the Links
Agatha Christie. London, John Lane, 1923.

First Edition. Stamped Colonial Edition on copyright page.

One of the rarest Agatha Christie titles, and only her third mystery. The book contains very little golf content, but derives it name from the discovery of a dead body in a bunker at an unfinished golf course being developed. Although heavily restored, it is quite rare and difficult to come by in any condition.

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thefindesiecle:

Strobridge & Co. Lith., Kellar in his latest mystery, c.1898 (via).

(aleyma)

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Casino Royale Fleming, Ian. London: Cape, (1953).

Beautiful first edition, first issue of Fleming’s first James Bond adventure. 8vo, black cloth stamped with red heart in center of front cover and red lettering along spine; first issue dust jacket designed by Fleming, near perfect but for the slightest bit of toning on verso and near the very edges of panels; custom 1/4 burgundy morocco and cloth clamshell box.

via Swann’s

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The Mystery of a Hansom Cab Hume, Fergus W. Melbourne, 1886.

“An instant best-seller, it is considered to be “one of the most successful crime and mystery stories ever to be published” (Quayle). Its first printing of 5,000 copies sold out within weeks. Three subsequent printings, each of 10,000 copies, sold out, as well. It should have been a cash cow. … Yet it was a cash clunker for the author. “

Image and story of the author’s poor choices and fortune at Booktryst.