New York : Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1937
Hardcover, 288 pp.
True 1st Edition*, 2nd printing
Book
is Very Good. See all photos. Tight binding with no cracking or
separation,
completely unmarked. Clean
pages, no tears, folds, creases, stains, foxing, odors, or
other markings. Surprisingly bright pages for its age with no foxing. Edges of text
block are clean, with top edge spayed red. The blue
boards are very good, flat with square corners, with a few small water-drop marks to rear board (see photos). Gilt titles are worn on spine but still very legible. Sadly, the
dust jacket is missing, but Facsimile Dust Jackets LLC carries a new replacement for $25 (Google them).
*Pardon me for stressing this is a First Edition. There are later paperback versions including a 1943 from Dell (which was Dell's first paperback, namely "Dell #1") which are being sold as the first edition of this book, even by established bookshops who really should know better. They are peddling falsehoods.
Just say NO to stock photos! Photos are of the
actual book you will receive.
Summary: "Stephen Barth has been estranged for entire decade from the man who took him in and raised him after his parents were killed. He lives in another state, and has his own Private Investigation service. He returns home after receiving some notes which cause him to feel that something is terribly wrong. When no one answers his knock, he enters the home anyway, finding the man dead at his desk, a gun placed nearby. Barth assumes that he has committed suicide (and here's the part that never made sense to me) decides to make it look like a murder has taken place. He changes the scene to reflect that, then makes an anonymous call to report the death. From then on it is a race to find the murderer (which Barth isn't entirely certain is out there) before the police lock him up and charge him with murder. An interesting story, well-told, and the tension gets higher and higher as the net closes about him. With a twist at the end that I didn't anticipate." --Linda Brue