First Editions
He called himself Alvin Limardo, and the job he had for Kinsey was cut-and-dried: locate a kid who'd done him a favor and pass on a check for $25,000. It was only later, after he'd stiffed her for her retainer, that Kinsey found out his name was Daggett. John Daggett. Ex-con. Inveterate liar. Chronic drunk. And dead. The cops called it an accident--death by drowning. Kinsey wasn't so sure.
Pulled into the detritus of a dead man's life, Kinsey soon realizes that Daggett had an awful lot of enemies. There's the daughter who grew up with a cheating drunk for a father, and the wife who's become a religious nut in response to an intolerable marriage. There's the lady who thought she was Mrs. Daggett--and has the bruises to prove it--only to discover the legal Mrs. D. And there are the drug dealers out $25,000. But most of all, there are the families of the five people John Daggett killed, victims of his wild, drunken driving. The D.A. called it vehicular manslaughter and put him away for two years. The families called it murder and had very good reason to want John Daggett dead.
Deft, cunning, and clever, this latest Millhone mystery also confronts some messy truths, for, as Kinsey herself says, "Some debts of the human soul are so enormous only life itself is sufficient forfeit"--but as she'd be the first to admit, murder is not a socially acceptable solution.
1st edition, 1st printing, ex-lib; dust jacket in protective cover. G/G
1st edition thus; dust jacket protected; edges lightly worn; rear cover toned and lightly soiled; maroon cloth spine over tan cloth; former owner's name in ink on front pastedown; binding good; text clean. G+/G
Sir Rudolf Bing was the General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera for 22 years (1950-72). The New York Times called this book "a witty, arrogant, forthright memoir." (NYT, October 22, 2972)
1st edition. Inscribed by author. Dust jacket in protective mylar cover; spine has some wear and chipping; dark red cloth with gilt lettering on cover and spine; deckled edges; binding tight; text clean and bright. VG/G
NY: McDowell, Obolensky, 1935. 1st printing; dust jacket protected; covers creased, edges lightly worn; red cloth; binding good; text clean. G+/G
1st edition; dust jacket protected; minimal wear; binding good; text clean. VG/VG
Elizabeth Bowen (1899-1973) was an Irish-British novelist and short story writer, known for her depictions of life during wartime. In A World of Love, an uneasy group of relations are living under one roof at Montefort, a decaying manor in the Irish countryside. When twenty-year-old Jane finds in the attic a packet of love letters written years ago by Guy, her mother’s one-time fiance who died in World War I, the discovery has explosive repercussions. It is not clear to whom the letters are addressed, and their appearance begins to lay bare the strange and unspoken connections between the adults now living in the house. Soon, a girl on the brink of womanhood, a mother haunted by love lost, and a ruined matchmaker with her own claim on the dead wage a battle that makes the ghostly Guy as real a presence in Montefort as any of the living.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1955. 1st edition. Dust jacket in protective cover; spine edges chipped; corners chipped; top of flaps tanned; green cloth with red and blue design and lettering on cover and spine; deckled edges; binding tight; text clean and bright. VG/G+
Bascom Books, NY, 1973. Signed by author. VG/VG
CD Publications, 1992. Signed edition limited to 750 copies, of which this is number 247. Black cloth slipcase; dust jacket protected; maroon cloth; binding tight; text clean and bright. VG/VG
Mycroft & Moran, 1968. 1st edition; pamphlet; top corner bent. G+
NY: Viking Press, 1953. 1st edition; signed by author on ffep; dust jacket protected; covers lightly soiled, edges worn with creases and tears, tape repair to verso; black and gray cloth covers; spine toned; binding good; text clean. G/G