The Croaking Raven - with - The Crozier Pharaohs - Gladys Mitchell 1966 - Michael Joseph, London - First Edition, First Edition Second Impression Two volumes starring Dame Beatrice Lestrange Bradley, doctor, psychoanalyst and consultant to the Home Office.

The first female literary character to be both a detective heroine and a member of an 'established profession’.

The Croaking Raven’ features a Norman Castle complete with Ravens, and brothers who are due their inheritance... together with ‘The Crozier Pharaohs’, the final appearance of Dame Beatrice who appeared in 66 of Mitchell’s detective novels, beginning in 1929.
  Gladys Mitchell (1901-83), was an English author, and English teacher, best known for her creation of Mrs Bradley, the heroine of 66 detective novels. She also wrote under the pseudonyms Stephen Hockaby and Malcolm Torrie.

Provenance: ‘
Croaking Raven’ - Robert L Launter.

Reference: Reilly, ’
Twentieth-Century Crime and Mystery Writers’ (1980), 1087. Brittain Bright, Beyond the Scene of the Crime: Investigating Place in Golden Age Detective Fiction. PhD thesis (Goldsmiths, University of London). pp. 34, 127, 142.

Two thin octavo volumes (book sizes 20.4x14cm; 20.4x13.1cm), pp. 214 [2]; 189 [3].

Croaking Raven’ in publisher’s grey black cloth, spine lettered in gilt, all edges trimmed. Dust jacket priced ‘21s net’ to lower corner of front flap.
Crozier Pharaoh’s’ in publisher’s black cloth, spine lettered in silver. Dust jacket priced ‘£8.95 net’ to lower corner of front flap. First published in 1984.
  Condition: Croaking Raven - fine in near fine dust jacket, with a vertical crease and mild toning to rear panel. Crozier Pharaohs - Fine with the exception of small ink remainder mark to bottom edge of block, in near fine dust jacket with short horizontal stain to spine.   Ref: 110419   Price: HK$ 900