Murderers Make Mistakes - Freeman Wills Crofts 1947 - Hodder &, London - First Edition Twenty three short stories that then formed the basis for eighteen short radio plays broadcast by the BBC from 1943 to 1945.   Freeman Wills Crofts (1879-1957), Irish crime writer, born in Dublin, Crofts enjoyed a successful career with Belfast and Northern Counties Railway, which eventually became a key inspiration for the settings and plots of his meticulously crafted novels, written following his retirement in 1929. In 1939 he became a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and has since been considered one of the most significant contributors to the ‘Golden Age of Detective Fiction’. Crofts was the first author to utilise the literary tactic of deconstructing a seemingly watertight alibi, a device which then went on to become a cornerstone of the genre

First edition, copyright page stating ‘First published 1947’ and no mention of additional printings, list of books opposite title page beginning with ‘Death of a Train’ and ending with ‘The Losing Game’.

References: Herbert, ‘
The Oxford Companion to Crime & Mystery Writing’, 111, Haycraft, ‘Murder for Pleasure’, 122. Reilly, ’Twentieth-Century Crime and Mystery Writers’ (1980), 397.

Octavo (book size 19.1x13cm), pp. 282 [2]. In publisher’s red cloth, lettered and ruled in white to spine and upper board, all edges trimmed. Dust jacket priced ‘8/6 NET’ to lower corner of front flap. Dust jacket with a small amount of colour touch up along edges and folds of front panel and spine.
  Condition: Near fine, some wear to cloth along top edge, light foxing to fore-edge, some spotting to endpapers, in near fine dust jacket, closed tear to tail of spine, and small amount of colour touch up along edges and folds of front panel and spine.   Ref: 110322   Price: HK$ 1,400