The Crooked Counties: Further Rivals of Sherlock Holmes

London: The Bodley Head. Near Fine in Very Good+ dj. 1973. First Edition. Hardcover. [no significant wear to book, just a slight turn to the spine; the jacket is similarly nice but for a tiny chip at the upper right corner of the rear flap, and an even tinier chip at the upper front flap-fold]. This editor's third collection of non-Holmesian detective stories from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, in this case comprising tales set in the English countryside -- based on Holmes's own observation that "the lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." In his introduction, Sir Hugh Greene "has delved deeply this time among the forgotten authors of the period and has been rewarded with some capital discoveries, including no fewer than four women detectives." .