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The Urgent Hangman - Inscribed to Dennis Wheatley -
Peter Cheyney
1938 - Collins, London - First Edition
Dennis Wheatley’s copy, inscribed by Peter Cheyney ‘To my good friend Dennis’ and dated ‘14. 6. 38’. With Wheatley’s illustrated bookplate.
A near fine copy of the first ‘Slim Callaghan’ novel, in fine and thus rare dust jacket.
Cheyney’s action-filled and action filled plots ran counter to the comfortable murder mysteries of the time, and Slim Callaghan was, like his American hard-boiled cousins, cynical tough and marginally mannered.
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Price HK$ 15,000
1938 - Collins, London - First Edition
Dennis Wheatley’s copy, inscribed by Peter Cheyney ‘To my good friend Dennis’ and dated ‘14. 6. 38’. With Wheatley’s illustrated bookplate.A near fine copy of the first ‘Slim Callaghan’ novel, in fine and thus rare dust jacket.
Cheyney’s action-filled and action filled plots ran counter to the comfortable murder mysteries of the time, and Slim Callaghan was, like his American hard-boiled cousins, cynical tough and marginally mannered.
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Price HK$ 15,000
Don t Get Me Wrong - Inscribed to Dennis Wheatley -
Peter Cheyney
1939 - Collins, London - First Edition
First edition of Peter Cheyney’s fifth Lemmy Caution novel. In fine and thus scarce dust jacket.
From the library of Cheyney’s friend and fellow author Dennis Wheatley with his wonderfully illustrated bookplate, and inscribed on the title page ‘ToTo Dennis, from Peter Cheyney.’ On the back flap of the dust jacket is a review from Wheatley “Peter Cheyney is now becoming a definite menace to all other thriller writers; for who will read any other thriller writer but Cheyney if they can get a chance?”
Wheatley described Cheyney as ‘the greatest liar unhung but a magnificent story teller’.
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Price HK$ 9,000
1939 - Collins, London - First Edition
First edition of Peter Cheyney’s fifth Lemmy Caution novel. In fine and thus scarce dust jacket.From the library of Cheyney’s friend and fellow author Dennis Wheatley with his wonderfully illustrated bookplate, and inscribed on the title page ‘ToTo Dennis, from Peter Cheyney.’ On the back flap of the dust jacket is a review from Wheatley “Peter Cheyney is now becoming a definite menace to all other thriller writers; for who will read any other thriller writer but Cheyney if they can get a chance?”
Wheatley described Cheyney as ‘the greatest liar unhung but a magnificent story teller’.
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Price HK$ 9,000
The Riddle of the Sands -
Erskine Childers
1903 - Smith, London - First Edition, First Impression
A crisp, clean and rare first edition, finely bound.
Written after Childers, an accomplished yachtsman, returned injured from action in South Africa. Highlighting the encroaching conflict with Germany, the novel was highly influential and is actually credited with the founding of British naval bases at Invergordon and Scapa Flow; newly regarded as strategically important after examination of the scenarios in Childers' text. Winston Churchill later gave the book the credit for persuading public opinion to fund vital measures against the German naval threat.
Contentiously described as the first modern spy thriller, vying for the title with Kipling's 'Kim', published two years earlier.
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Price HK$ 21,000
1903 - Smith, London - First Edition, First Impression
A crisp, clean and rare first edition, finely bound.Written after Childers, an accomplished yachtsman, returned injured from action in South Africa. Highlighting the encroaching conflict with Germany, the novel was highly influential and is actually credited with the founding of British naval bases at Invergordon and Scapa Flow; newly regarded as strategically important after examination of the scenarios in Childers' text. Winston Churchill later gave the book the credit for persuading public opinion to fund vital measures against the German naval threat.
Contentiously described as the first modern spy thriller, vying for the title with Kipling's 'Kim', published two years earlier.
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Price HK$ 21,000
Crooked House -
Agatha Christie
1949 - Published for The Crime Club by Collins, London - First English Edition
‘Curious thing, rooms. Tell you quite a lot about the people who live in them’ – Chief Inspector Taverner.
Three generations of the Leonides family have live under the same roof of Three Gables, a large household over which the very old and very rich Aristide Leonides has long presided. However he was murdered by a poisoner, perhaps a member of his own family?
Agatha Christie once said ‘Writing Crooked House was pure pleasure and I feel justified in my belief that it is one of my best.’
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Price HK$ 5,000
1949 - Published for The Crime Club by Collins, London - First English Edition
‘Curious thing, rooms. Tell you quite a lot about the people who live in them’ – Chief Inspector Taverner.Three generations of the Leonides family have live under the same roof of Three Gables, a large household over which the very old and very rich Aristide Leonides has long presided. However he was murdered by a poisoner, perhaps a member of his own family?
Agatha Christie once said ‘Writing Crooked House was pure pleasure and I feel justified in my belief that it is one of my best.’
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Price HK$ 5,000
Crime Collection - 24 Volumes -
Agatha Christie
1969-1972 - Paul Hamlyn, London - First Edition Thus
The works by the ‘Queen of Crime’ - 72 novels and short story collections stunningly hand-bound in twenty four volumes (three titles per volume). An eye-catching and comprehensive set including all the elusive early titles, from The Mysterious Affair at Styles and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd to Hallowe'en Party and Passenger to Frankfurt.
The only major collection of Christie's novels to date, issued as a set for subscribers and endorsed by Agatha Christie. It includes all the published crime novels up to 1970, and features Agatha Christie’s foreword and facsimile signature in the first volume.
Christie’s works have stood the test of time. In 2013, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd was voted the best crime novel ever by 600 fellow writers of the Crime Writers' Association, and she is listed by the Guinness Book of Records as the best-selling novelist of all time, her novels have sold an estimated two billion copies, and her estate claims that her works come third in the rankings of the world's most-widely published books, behind Shakespeare's works and the Bible. They have been translated into over 100 languages, with and Then There Were None selling over 100 million copies (as at 2014), making it the world’s best selling mystery ever.
Reference: Haycraft, Murder for Pleasure 129.
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Price HK$ 50,000
1969-1972 - Paul Hamlyn, London - First Edition Thus
The works by the ‘Queen of Crime’ - 72 novels and short story collections stunningly hand-bound in twenty four volumes (three titles per volume). An eye-catching and comprehensive set including all the elusive early titles, from The Mysterious Affair at Styles and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd to Hallowe'en Party and Passenger to Frankfurt.The only major collection of Christie's novels to date, issued as a set for subscribers and endorsed by Agatha Christie. It includes all the published crime novels up to 1970, and features Agatha Christie’s foreword and facsimile signature in the first volume.
Christie’s works have stood the test of time. In 2013, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd was voted the best crime novel ever by 600 fellow writers of the Crime Writers' Association, and she is listed by the Guinness Book of Records as the best-selling novelist of all time, her novels have sold an estimated two billion copies, and her estate claims that her works come third in the rankings of the world's most-widely published books, behind Shakespeare's works and the Bible. They have been translated into over 100 languages, with and Then There Were None selling over 100 million copies (as at 2014), making it the world’s best selling mystery ever.
Reference: Haycraft, Murder for Pleasure 129.
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Price HK$ 50,000
Incendiary - SIGNED -
Chris Cleave
2005 - Chatto &, London - First Edition. Number 17 of 500 limited copies
‘An al-Qaeda bomb attack on a London soccer match provides the tragicomic donnée of former Daily Telegraph journalist Cleave's impressive multilayered debut: a novel-length letter from an enraged mother to Osama bin Laden. Living hand to mouth in London's East End, the unnamed mother's life is shattered when her policeman husband (part of a bomb disposal unit) and four-year-old son are killed in the stadium stands.’ – Publisher’s Weekly.
‘Arguably the strangest epistolary novel ever written’ – Newsweek.
True first and limited edition issued two weeks before the trade edition. Signed by the author and with a typed note of thanks. Unfortunately, it was published on the 7 July 2005, the day of the London bombings and most of the major bookshops removed it from their shelves.
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Price HK$ 900
2005 - Chatto &, London - First Edition. Number 17 of 500 limited copies
‘An al-Qaeda bomb attack on a London soccer match provides the tragicomic donnée of former Daily Telegraph journalist Cleave's impressive multilayered debut: a novel-length letter from an enraged mother to Osama bin Laden. Living hand to mouth in London's East End, the unnamed mother's life is shattered when her policeman husband (part of a bomb disposal unit) and four-year-old son are killed in the stadium stands.’ – Publisher’s Weekly.‘Arguably the strangest epistolary novel ever written’ – Newsweek.
True first and limited edition issued two weeks before the trade edition. Signed by the author and with a typed note of thanks. Unfortunately, it was published on the 7 July 2005, the day of the London bombings and most of the major bookshops removed it from their shelves.
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Price HK$ 900
All Men are Lonely Now - Signed & Inscribed -
Francis Clifford (pseud. Arthur Thompson)
1967 - Hodder and Stoughton, London - First Edition
A rather magnificent association copy, inscribed to Audrey and Miles Tripp the British crime and thriller writer who used the pseudonyms Michael Brett and John Michael Brett. Both Tripp and Thompson (who wrote under the pseudonym of Francis Clifford) where members of the Detection Club.
The inscription is dated 1967, the year of publication, using his actual name Arthur, and then signed as Francis Clifford to the title page.:-
‘To Audrey and Miles
with all the good wishes in the world
Arthur’
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Price HK$ 2,000
1967 - Hodder and Stoughton, London - First Edition
A rather magnificent association copy, inscribed to Audrey and Miles Tripp the British crime and thriller writer who used the pseudonyms Michael Brett and John Michael Brett. Both Tripp and Thompson (who wrote under the pseudonym of Francis Clifford) where members of the Detection Club.The inscription is dated 1967, the year of publication, using his actual name Arthur, and then signed as Francis Clifford to the title page.:-
‘To Audrey and Miles
with all the good wishes in the world
Arthur’
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Price HK$ 2,000
Another Way of Dying - Signed & Inscribed -
Francis Clifford (pseud. Arthur Thompson)
1968 - Hodder and Stoughton, London - First Edition
A rather magnificent association copy, inscribed to Miles Tripp the British crime and thriller writer who used the pseudonyms Michael Brett and John Michael Brett. Both Tripp and Thompson (who wrote under the pseudonym of Francis Clifford) where members of the Detection Club.
The inscription is dated 1971, using his actual name Arthur, and then signed as Francis Clifford to the title page.:-
‘Miles –
with very best wishes
Arthur
Bedford Square June 1971’
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Price HK$ 2,000
1968 - Hodder and Stoughton, London - First Edition
A rather magnificent association copy, inscribed to Miles Tripp the British crime and thriller writer who used the pseudonyms Michael Brett and John Michael Brett. Both Tripp and Thompson (who wrote under the pseudonym of Francis Clifford) where members of the Detection Club.The inscription is dated 1971, using his actual name Arthur, and then signed as Francis Clifford to the title page.:-
‘Miles –
with very best wishes
Arthur
Bedford Square June 1971’
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Price HK$ 2,000