Title: Docken Dead

Author: John Trench (John Chevenix-Trench, 1920-2003)

Publisher: The Macmillan Company, New York - A Cock Robin Mystery

Edition: First US Edition, First Printing

Date Printed: 1954

Description: A very attractive example of the scarce first printing of the first edition, published in New York by The Macmillan Company.

This is the first of John Trench's four brilliant mystery novels. In this tour-de-force, the ghastly Major Docken is murdered and the top-secret weapon he was guarding is stolen. Reclusive archaeologist Martin Cotterell investigates, and the novel becomes very strange, with continued references to King Arthur and the Battle of Badon Hill, elements of Folk Horror, and, possibly, a Dark Age manuscript. 

Original dark green cloth hardback in its original dustwrapper, neatly price-clipped to the inside front flap. 224 pages. The dustwrapper is in attractive bright condition, with some wear to the edges, and a closed tear to the centre of the rear cover (see pictures). The book itself is in very attractive condition with bright titles (see pictures). Internally clean, bright, and free of inscriptions. Binding sound and square. 

An unusually attractive example.

John Chevenix-Trench (1920-2003) was a British soldier and, after the war, advertising copywriter and executive.  He sadly published only four mystery novels, all featuring the disabled amateur archaeologist-detective Martin Cotterell.  Like his protagonist Cotterell, Trench specialised in archaeological use of manuscripts and maps, and published the popular "Archaeology Without a Spade" in 1960.

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