Case of the Talking Dust

New York: Mystery House. Good. 1941. First American Edition. Hardcover. (lacking the original dust jacket, but encased in a professionally-made facsimile reproduction of same; see 2nd image posted with this listing) [a bit of fraying at the spine ends and the lower tips, front hinge cracked but not separated; apparently a former rental-library copy but marked as such only by a small remnant of a label on the front endpaper, and small tape-marks at the top and bottom edges of both covers; one-time owner's ink notes regarding place & date of purchase plus some brief critical commentary, at edge of rear pastedown (hidden beneath jacket flap)]. "A perfect example of the classical type of detective story," sez the jacket blurb. This was the author's third "John Donavan" mystery, featruing "the incomparable Detective-Inspector Cross and his erudite assistant, Sergeant Johnny Lamb." Published three years earlier in England, by Hale. The prolific author, who wrote under a number of other pseudonyms, was a one-time secretary to Edgar Wallace and a co-founder of the Crime Writers Association. All his "Donavan" books are quite scarce. NOTE again that this book bears a FACSIMILE dust jacket, to serve the dual purpose of protecting the book from further wear and enhancing its appearance on the shelf; its presence has not been factored in to our pricing. .