Amateur Sleuth from H.W. Gumaer, Bookseller

London: William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd., 1980. First Printing, First UK Edition. . Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. A late historical mystery by this mid-20th century American Grand Master, "Casa Madrone" is set in New York and later in San Francisco at the time of the 1906 earthquake, which reavaged the city. The book features Mallory Bookever, a… Read more about this item

New York: HarperCollins, 2007. Trade Paperback. About Very Good. O'Connell's debut mystery features newly widowed and close-to-broke Pauline Cook, who's just discovered the body of her friend, Ethan Campbell, a writer who chronicled the lives and loves of the elegant ladies of Chicago's Gold Coast. Apparently a suicide and without relatives, Ethan has left his bills and body… Read more about this item

New York: Viking Penguin, 2006. Hardcover. Near Fine/Near Fine. Pessl's first novel, is this 514-page literary thriller featuring Blue van Meer, a smart, serious young woman undergraduate at Harvard, who decides to write her life story as a way to rid herself of the vision of a dead Hannah Schneider, hanging three feet off the ground from the… Read more about this item

New York: Grove/Atlantic, 2011. Hardcover. Very Good/Near Fine. The award-winning LaPlante has written a stunning literary thriller. It is narrated by Dr. Jennifer White, a retired orthopedic surgeon in the early stages of dementia, who police believe, has murdered her longtime friend and cut off her fingers. Dr. White can't remember and must try to pull together the… Read more about this item

Pleasantville, NY: Impress Mystery/Reader's Digest, 2008. Hardcover. Very Good. Craig Rice, a 1930s-'40s mystery writer, was often considered the queen of the madcap, humorous mystery. "Home Sweet Homicide," originally published in 1944, now a classic of the genre, features Dinah, April and Archie Carstairs, 14, 12, and 10 respectively, who decide to solve the murder of next door… Read more about this item

New York: Viking Penguin, 1995. Hardcover. Very Good/Near Fine. The third novel in Ross' award-winning historical mystery series featuring Regency-era, English dandy, Julian Kestrel, whose rapier-sharp mind belies his reputation as a Beau Brummel. This time Kestrel investigates the bludgeoning murder of a man who had it all: youth, charm, talent and money. First edition, first printing (as… Read more about this item

New York: Mysterious Press, 2006. Hardcover. Very Good/Near Fine. One of Penzler's sports mystery anthologies, collecting short stories about a particular sport and crime. This time it's basketball (other anthologies include baseball, football, boxing, tennis, golf, and horse racing, Mystery writers contributing basketball stories include Lawrence Block, Jeffery Deaver, Parnell Hall, Laurie R. King, Mike Lupica, Michael Malone,… Read more about this item

New York: Obsidian/Penguin Group, 2013. Hardcover. Very Good to Near Fine/Near Fine. The ninth book in Martin's humorous, cozy mystery series featuring the Blackbird sisters, renegade members of Philadelphia high society. This time it's Nora, assigned by her editor to write an exclusive on the murder of billionaire fashion designer, Swain Starr, who recently retired to develop a… Read more about this item

London: Hodder & Stoughton, Ltd., 1932. Hardcover. Very Good. Oppenheim was a prolific and popular English writer of romantic mysteries and thrillers in the last half of the 19th, first half of the 20th century. "Sinners Beware" is a collection of 10 short stories from the 1920s and '30s. First edition, second printing (Dec. 1932). About 4 3/4… Read more about this item

New York: Ballantine Books, 1997. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. For a number of years Heilbrun, a tenured professor of English literature at Columbia University, kept her identity as "Amanda Cross," the author of a series of witty, literary mysteries (featuring an amateur sleuth, Kate Fansler, who was also an English professor0, concealed from the public, afraid it might compromise her… Read more about this item

New York: Ballantine Books, 2015. Hardcover. Fine/Near Fine to Fine. The 26th novel in Daheim's cozy mystery series set in Washington's Cascade Mountains and featuring the small town of Alpine's weekly newspaper, "The Alpine Advocate," and its editor, Emma Lord. This time in the midst of a heat wave, Emma and her staff must deal with a young… Read more about this item

New York: 37 Ink/Atria Books, 2015. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. The first novel in Sendker's Rising Dragon crime-thriller series features Paul Leibovitz, a German-American expat and journalist, who, after the death of his son from cancer and and the break-up of his marriage, has exiled himself to a small island near Hong Kong. He is asked by an American woman… Read more about this item

New York: St. Martin's Press, 2003. First Printing, First Edition Thus. . Hardcover. Fine/Near Fine. Dorothy L. Sayers, one of the great authors of the 1920s-30s Golden Age of Detectives fiction, left an unfinished Lord Peter Wimsey mystery -- "Thrones, Dominations" -- at her death in 1957. In 1998, Walsh, a Booker Prize finalist for "Knowledge of Angels"… Read more about this item

New York: Random House, 1974. Hardcover. Very Good/Good. Davis' writing career began in 1948 when her "The Room Upstairs" won an Edgar Award for best first novel. She published regularly in the 1950s, '60s, and '70s until 1977 when she published "Scorpion," and appeared to have stopped writing altogether. Almost three decades went by before Davis, in collaboration… Read more about this item

New York: Ballantine Books, 2012. Hardcover. Near Fine/Near Fine. The 29th novel in Kellerman's psychological thriller series featuring Los Angeles psychologist, Alex Delaware. This time, Delaware, trying to save a little girl trapped in a custody fight between a successful physician, Connie Sykes, and her sister, finds himself facing death threats and suddenly murder. First Edition, first printing… Read more about this item

New York: Harper & Row, 1977. Hardcover. Near Fine/Good To Good Plus. The second novel in Maling's mystery-suspense series featuring Brock Potter, head of a New York City brokerage firm that is sent into a tailspin when one of the partners seems headed for a breakdown and suicide. A Harper Novel of Suspense. First edition, first printing (as… Read more about this item

New York: Thomas Dunn/St. Martin's Press, 2008. Hardcover. Near Fine/Near Fine. A relative newcomer to the mystery-detective genre, Canadian-born Richards has written a historical mystery set in Depression era Los Angeles. It features Kitty Pangborn, secretary to Dexter J. Theroux, one of the city's hard-drinking, tough-talking P.I.'s, and who, Kitty learns, may not always be on the right… Read more about this item

Boston: Little Brown & Co.. Hardcover. Very Good/About Very Good. An Ellery Queen omnibus containing the three mysteries set in the fictional New England town of Wrightsville ("Calamity Town," "The Murderer Is A Fox" and "Ten Days Wonder"). These three novels represent a change in the Queen character from the NYC genius solving his police detective's father's hardest… Read more about this item

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1967. Hardcover. Near Fine/Near Fine. If quantity is the sole determinant for champion crime writer, Creasey, who wrote over 600 crime thrillers under more than 20 pseudonyms is the easy winner. Using the pen name, Anthony Morton, Creasey wrote 47 novels featuring The Baron, aka John Mannering, international antiques dealer and Scotland Yard… Read more about this item

New York: Knopf, 2012. Hardcover. Fine/Near Fine. The second novel in Mayle's mystery series featuring Sam Levitt, Mayle's fictional American sleuth who lives to sample the best France has to offer in wine, women and restaurants while earning a franc or two for his bank account. This time Sam is hired to represent a mega-wealthy client interested in… Read more about this item