A Taste for Honey

New York: The Vanguard Press. Very Good+ in Very Good dj. (c.1941). First Edition. Hardcover. [lightly shelfworn, with a slightly turned spine; an ex-library book, but not obnoxiously marked as such (just a single stamp on the top edge of the text block, plus a small stamp at the upper right corner of the front pastedown); additionally, a former owner has written his name plus the date & place of purchase on the front endpaper; the jacket is a bit edgeworn, with tiny bits of paper loss at several corners and at the spine ends; there is a vintage bookseller's label (J.W. Robinson Co., Los Angeles) affixed to the upper corner of the rear flap; see also the NOTE about the jacket being from a later printing]. The very scarce first edition of Heard's first "Mr. Mycroft" mystery, one of the most highly-regarded Sherlock Holmes pastiches ever published. "Mycroft" is understood to be Holmes himself, in retirement in a small English village but always available to investigate a murder -- in this case, perpetrated with the aid of bees -- when the game is afoot. This book was adapted -- poorly -- as the 1967 film THE DEADLY BEES. ***NOTE that the dust jacket on this book is from a somewhat later printing, with additional laudatory blurbs (from Boris Karloff, Will Cuppy, and Vincent Starrett) added to the Christopher Morley quote which was present on the first issue jacket, and the rear-panel text (beneath the photo of the author) has been replaced by a quote from "The Book-of-the-Month Club News"; there is also a small photo of the author at the upper left corner of the rear panel. .