*Crime, Spies & Sleaze: An update of Creasey crime novels can only ever be a good thing. Here we showcase his talent, including a Department Z adventure (Death By Night), a Doctor Palfrey adventure (The Terror) and more about the Toff (The Toff On The Farm) as well as novels he wrote as Michael Halliday (Out Of The Shadows) and Jeremy York (Find The Body and To Kill Or Die).
*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: Once again we’ve added works by well-known authors to increase our representation of their publications. It’s five-for-one for Philip K Dick, as we add a collection of (arguably) his best novels in one great value, chunky paperback. Robert Heinlein is represented by Beyond This Horizon, Stranger In A Strange Land and The Door Into Summer, the last of which holds the answer to why cats insist on their owners letting them out of a different door just after they’ve come in.
*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: A’s all round for the latest set of SF books to be added, since all the authors have surnames starting with A. Douglas Adams’ idiosyncratic detective is represented by Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, Mark Adlard by his Interface trilogy, Brian Aldiss by Hothouse and The Saliva Tree, Poul Anderson by The Broken Sword, The Enemy Stars and The Horn Of Time and Isaac Asimov has Buy Jupiter and The End Of Eternity. A great selection of books for your delectation!
*Crime, Spies & Sleaze: We’re pleased to be able to offer a very nice selection of Carter Brown books, all 1st US PB, 1st printings by Signet and all possessing wonderful Barye Phillips covers. The images here give just a taste of the titles on offer, with a range of Brown’s detectives. Most of the stories feature free-wheeling, hard-boiled Al Wheeler, but The Ever-Loving Blues and The Savage Salome feature Hollywood PI Danny Boyd, The Million Dollar Babe has Mike Farrell, and Lament For A Lousy Lover teams up Al Wheeler and Mavis Seidlitz. Skilfully written with a wry sense of humour, Carter Brown makes for very entertaining reading.
*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: Here are five novels by the prolific Michael Moorcock: two originally published as Edward P Bradbury, Lord Of The Spiders (Blades Of Mars) and Masters Of The Pit (The Barbarians Of Mars). Phoenix In Obsidian is (probably) the second book of the Eternal Champion series, and The King Of The Swords is the third book of the Corum series. The main feature of this update, however, is The Jade Man’s Eyes, a rare Elric tale published by Unicorn in 1973, the 1st UK PB, with James Cawthorn cover art. Full details in our catalogue.
*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: Charles Platt was one of the prime movers of the New wave movement featured prominently in New Worlds magazine in the 1960’s alongside Michael Moorcock, Langdon Jones etc. His The Gas is an unusual addition to our shelves, being a rare, highly sought after work of psychedelic SF erotica. During the 1970’s Platt wrote novels for Playboy Press, sharing the house pseudonym Blakely St. James with many other writers. His experience came to fruition in The Gas, considered by many to be his best novel, but which also fell foul of obscenity laws. Savoy (the UK publishers) had copies seized by the UK’s Director of Public Prosecutions, and Bizarre magazine put it in the top five of their list of most obscene books published in Britain. This is a VF 1st UK PB at £50, giving you a chance to see what all the excitement was about.
*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: Robert Bloch’s eponymous title sums it all up: a selection of horror anthologies to entertain and terrify you in equal measure. As well as that, we have Tales of Terror & Suspense (Ed. Stewart Benedict), 4th Fontana Book Of Great Horror Stories (Ed. Christine Bernard), Weird Shadows From Beyond (Ed John Carnell), Arthur Conan Doyle’s Ring Of Thoth, Edgar Allan Poe’s Tales Of Mystery And Imagination, and the very vintage Pan Tales Of The Supernatural. Great late night reading! Full details of grades and prices, as always, in our catalogue.
*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: Thongor was Lin Carter’s most influential creation. Written with Edgar Rice Burroughs and Robert E Howard in mind, it revived interest in Sword And Sorcery as a genre. Marvel even ran a comic (Creatures On The Loose) featuring Thongor in the 1970’s. We have the original sextet of Thongor novels, mainly in 2nd UK PB (a final book, Young Thongor was added in 2012). Thongor Fights The Pirates Of Tarakus is the only exception, being a 1st UK PB. Most are in grades VG or VG/FN, although unfortunately the first book of the series, The Wizard Of Lemuria, looks as if it’s had as many adventures as the hero, being a FA copy.
*TV/Film Tie-Ins: Hold on, that last one doesn’t quite work. Gerry Anderson was great at Supermarrionation, but not so hot on acronyms. Despite that we are very happy to have three more novelisations of his work, along with The Authorised Programme Guide. Stingray has the imaginatively named Stingray, Thunderbirds are dealing with a Ring Of Fire, and Captain Scarlet is facing the Silent Saboteur. All four books are 1st UK PB. We’re Standing By For Action.
Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: Five Science Fiction rarities join this section in our latest update. The highlight is the 1st Lancer edition of Gladiator (Philip Wylie), originally published in 1930, and said by many to have inspired Superman. Another heroic figure is Bob Morane, ex-RAF pilot, explorer, roving reporter etc, etc. In The Dinosaur Hunters Henri Vernes’ protagonist attempts to rescue a millionaire big-game hunter, encountering T. Rex and other monsters in a prehistoric word gone mad!!!! (Ahem). Berserker’s Planet (Fred Saberhagen) is a novel that forms part of his long-running Berserker series, Grimm’s Story (Vernor Vinge) starts off as a barbarian princess fantasy, then morphs into a space opera, and Split (Graeme de Timms) tells of medical disaster.
*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: A small update of four excellent Science Fiction anthologies join our shelves today. Two are Penguin editions, Tom Boardman (Ed): Connoisseur’s S. F. and Ferman & Malzberg (Eds): Final Stage. The inimitable Damon Knight is represented by Orbit 2, and another prolific editor, August Derleth, by New Worlds For Old.
*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: Although not quite as early onto the Science Fiction writing scene as many of our Old Masters, these authors have both written significant works. Our selection by Brian M Stableford includes two books from his Dies Irae series (Day Of Wrath and In The Kingdom Of The Beasts) and another Hooded Swan book (Halcyon Drift) to join Promised Land, which we already have in stock. Most feature exquisite cover art by Patrick Woodroffe, including The Face Of Heaven (featured here). From Ted White we have Phoenix Prime, graced with a Frazetta cover (also featured here) and The Jewels Of Elsewhen.
*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: Lin Carter’s creative powers were in full flood when he wrote the Zanthodon series which we have just added (complete series of 5). Set in an underground world below the Sahara (where else?) – a bijou lost land with room for jungles, mountains, seas and a range of exciting creatures including dinosaurs and long-lost human tribes. All of these books are 1st US PB, 1st printing in grades ranging from VG/FN to VF/NM. All but one have cover art and illustrations by Josh Kirby: Zanthodon has cover art and illustrations by Thomas Kidd.
*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: No, not a legal firm, but three of the great Science Fiction authors, represented by a mixture of well-known and unusual titles. From Philip K Dick we have Solar Lottery and We Can Build You (with cover art by John Schoenherr), from Frank Herbert, Dune, Hellstrom’s Hive, The Dosadi Experiment and The Dragon In The Sea and from the irrepressible Kurt Vonnegut Jr we have Breakfast of Champions, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, Mother Night, Slaughterhouse 5, The Sirens Of Titan and Wampeters Foma & Granfalloons.
*Crime, Spies & Sleaze: Some very unusual and hard to find books have sashayed into the Crime section, mainly from the 1950’s and frequently with the author using a pseudonym to protect their reputation. Highlights include Ladies Sleep Alone (Lew Della), The City Of Lost Women (Griff), Torment (Hank Janson), Gin Wedding (Ann Lawrence), No Prude (Jules-Jean Morac) and Sex (Paul Renin). Many have very attractive cover art: all the Hank Janson titles have Heade covers, Jules-Jean Morac’s No Prude has a David Wright cover, while Michael Storme’s Make Mine A Harlot has cover art by John Pollack.
Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: You may have noticed that the vehicles used by a certain large broadband and entertainment supplier have been given names that include ‘Van’: those spotted so far include Van Helsing, Van Morrison, Vangelis and Marlon Vando (although we think that one’s cheating). We, however content ourselves in horror with just one van, Herbert Van Thal, who edited a vast number of superb Pan horror collections. We have added five more spine-chilling copies including the original collection, The Pan Book Of Horror Stories, its reincarnation as The First Pan Book Of Horror Stories, as well as the Sixth, Ninth and Tenth Pan Book Of Horror Stories.
*Crime, Spies & Sleaze: We’ve added more crime from the prolific Edgar Wallace. This time many of the books are from the 1920’s and 1930’s and include several unusual editions. Chick is a movie tie-in and shows the lead actor on the cover in pyjamas and dressing gown. Angel Esquire, Iron Grip and The Big Four are all hardcovers with dust jackets. Mr Justice Maxell has cover art by Abbey, while On The Spot has cover art by Monroe Reisman. All in all, a selection that has WANTED written all over it.
*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: A broad sweep of novellas and short stories have just been added to our shelves. They include collections from publications: The First Astounding Science Fiction Anthology (John W Campbell ed.), The Best From Fantasy And Science Fiction 15th Series (Edward L Ferman ed.), The Third Galaxy Reader (H L Gold ed.), The Eighth Galaxy Reader and The Ninth Galaxy Reader (Frederik Pohl ed.), awards; The Hugo Winners 1963 – 1967 and The Hugo Winners 1968 – 1970 (Isaac Asimov ed.) and Science Fiction Hall Of Fame Volume II (Robert Silverberg ed.) and a range of other themes that publishers came up with. Notable additions not already mentioned are The Best Of Robert Heinlein, graced by a Patrick Woodroffe cover (Angus Wells ed.), Looking Forward (Milton Lesser ed.) a hardcover edition, and The Far-Out Worlds Of A E Van Vogt.
*TV/Film Tie-Ins: It’s back to the 70’s for most of the film-related books in this release, with only two outliers: Petulia from 1968 and Superman III from 1983. The main event includes Star Wars (1st UK PB, 1st printing), Alien, Logan’s Run, Porridge (the book of the film), Shaft, The Black Hole and The Cross And The Switchblade.
*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: A sense of déjà vu may strike you as two of our most popular authors are replenished. High grade Harlan Ellison titles include All The Sounds Of Fear (an exceptional FN/VF), Deathbird And Other Stories (FN) and The Beast That Shouted Love At The Heart Of The World (VG/FN). The freshly added Robert Heinlein titles are Between Planets, Starship Troopers and The Puppet Masters and new to our shelves, Space Cadet.
*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror and Crime, Spies & Sleaze: Although best known for his Science Fiction, the talented and unassuming Dr Asimov also wrote excellent mysteries. In classic novels such as The Caves Of Steel and The Naked Sun he combined both genres to great effect, but he also wrote short stories with mysteries set in far-flung futures and places, thirteen of which we have in Asimov’s Mysteries. In the spirit of genre-spanning we also have two crime mysteries, one a novel (A Whiff Of Death) and the other a collection of short stories based on the Black Widowers Club (Tales Of The Black Widowers).
*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: Lin Carter, generally best known as an editor poet and critic, edited the popular Ballantine Adult Fantasy series and is particularly known for his collaboration with other writers on the Conan series. He was also author to several successful sword and sorcery series. The Green Star saga involves a crippled Earthman who uses soul projection (an idea borrowed from Edgar Rice Burroughs) to acquire the well-preserved but dead body of a hero on a planet circling a green star. Naturally many adventures ensue as the hero enjoys flexing his muscles again. We have the complete set of Green Star novels, all in the 1st US PB incarnation. All of them are illustrated by well-known artists, including Roy Krenkel, Michael Kaluta and Michael Whelan.
*TV/Film Tie-Ins: A large update of TV related books, ranging from the 1960’s to the 1980’s. Highlights include two Prisoner stories (The Prisoner and Who Is No. 2?), two Jason King stories (Jason King and Kill Jason King!), two Dangerman stories (Departure Deferred and The Exterminator) and two Joe 90 stories (Joe 90 And The Raiders and Joe 90 In Revenge), as well as Terry Nation’s Survivors. Other evocative programmes include Andromeda Breakthrough, Planet Of The Apes, Quatermass, the Persuaders!, the Professionals, the Tomorrow People, Timeslip and Up The Junction.
*Childrens’ Books: Monica Edwards fans need no reminding of how popular her stories of Punchbowl Farm and the Romney Marshes were, and still remain. We are delighted to have added a large number of her novels, mainly in hard cover editions, and most with their dust jackets. Titles include Punchbowl Farm, Punchbowl Midnight, Spirit of Punchbowl Farm, Dolphin Summer, Hidden In A Dream, No Going Back (1st HC edition), Operation Seabird (1st HC edition) and The Cownappers, as well as two paperbacks, Storm Ahead and The Nightbird (1st UK PB), plus others.
*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: In the 1950’s, as Science Fiction writers moved more towards writing full length novels, as opposed to serialised short stories designed for pulp publications, some publishers tried to get the best of both worlds, publishing (short) full-length novels in a pulp format. These often used pulp-style cover art to attract readers into buying them. We have added six rare examples of such novels, Castaway From Space (Vektis Brack) and Dimension Of Illion (Irving Heine), and four by Vargo Statten: Odyssey Of The Nine, Space Warp, The Cosmic Flame and Wanderer Of Space. In the fine pulp tradition, none of these are the real names of their authors. Vektis Brack was a house name, Irving Heine was really Denis Hughes and Vargo Statten was John Russell Fearne. In another fine pulp tradition, Castaway From Space has cover art by Ray Theobald while all the other novels have cover art by Ron Turner.
*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: Many Science Fiction writers excel at shorter works, and this update certainly proves it, with fantastic selections from masters of the art. James Blish (Galactic Cluster), Richard Cowper (The Custodians), Avram Davidson (Or All The Seas With Oysters), Walter M Miller Jr (The View From The Stars), Alan E Nourse (The Counterfeit Man), Robert Sheckley (Untouched By Human Hands), Theodore Sturgeon (E Pluribus Unicorn), A E van Vogt (Away And Beyond) and Stanley G Weinbaum (The Best Of..) have all been added to our shelves.
*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: Way back when, before e-books were even a gleam in a geek’s eye, many early Science Fiction books were published in ‘pocket book’ format, slightly shorter than a standard paperback so that they could be carried around easily. We have added a fine selection of these books, published by Corgi, Dell and Ace, and including several Ace Double books. Most date from the 1960’s, although Ace unhelpfully omitted dates of publication. Many had identifying codes, however, which are included in the listing. Many illustrious artists were enlisted to provide cover and internal art, so we have authors such as Ray Bradbury (The Golden Apples Of The Sun), Edgar Rice Burroughs (Cave Girl), Bertram Chandler (Empress Of Outer Space / The Alternate Martians), Rex Gordon (No Man Friday), Neil R Jones (Planet Of The Double Sub and The Sunless World), Charles Eric Maine (Crisis 2000 and Timeliner) and J H Rosny (Quest Of the Dawn Man) combined with artists such as Frazetta, Gaughan, Podwil and Morrow.
*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: In 1971 Donald A Wollheim, a veteran paperback editor who had previously worked for Ace, founded DAW publishing company with his wife. The company was the first ever devoted to just Science Fiction and Fantasy. Several of Ace’s high profile writers, including E C Tubb and John Brunner supported him by contributing works for him to publish. Kenneth Bulmer also wrote to support DAW, rattling out 37 Dray Prescot novels for DAW within a few years, using the pseudonym ‘Alan Burt Akers’. We have added the first five of these novels, all having Scorpio in the title. The first book, Transit To Scorpio is available in UK (Orbit) and US (DAW) editions. The books feature a range of notable artists on their covers and internal illustrations, including Chris Achilleos, Jack Gaughan, Josh Kirby and Tim Kirk.
*Childrens’ Books: Once again we are adding more brilliant stories of air combat in the pioneer days of the Royal Flying Corps, featuring the Ace of Aces, Biggles. Captain W E Johns was a pilot himself flying over France during WWI, and many of the exploits he wrote about are based on true events. We have five Dean & Son editions from the 1970’s, all with dust jackets wrapped in archival film for added protection. The titles are Biggles And The Black Peril, Biggles Flies Again, Biggles Of 266, Biggles Of Camel Squadron and Biggles, Pioneer Air Fighter.
*Mad Books: A full dozen Mad publications have arrived to replenish and enhance our selection. The imaginative titles include Burning, Fighting, Like, Raving, The Organization, The Voodoo and Three Ring Mad, in addition to Mad Power and The Mad Frontier. There are also two Don Martin Classics, where he Bounces Back! And Comes On Strong and a Sergio Aragones Viva Mad!. Three titles, Fighting Mad, Like, Mad and The Voodoo Mad benefit from Kelly Freas cover art.
*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: We’ve added a selection of helpful books to assist your navigation through the maze of Science Fiction and Horror fiction. Kingsley Amis’ classic review of Science Fiction, New Maps Of Hell is present as well as the Jon Pertwee Book Of Monsters, Monsters Galore (a hideously illustrated guide to witches, warlocks, vampires, ghouls, werewolves and other creatures), Terror By Night (the gruesome truth behind the legends of the monstrous undead) and Lovecraft’s Book (Richard Lupoff), which tells the astounding story of H P Lovecraft and his Nazi connection.
*TV/Film Tie-Ins: The Dr Who section no longer looks depleted, as we have restocked several titles ranging from The Android Invasion to the Web Of Fear. For those Whovians who have difficulty telling Sontarans from Zygons we have also provided help in the form of the fourth doctor (Tom Baker) in The Second Dr Who Monster Book. Packed with information about the Doctor himself, fresh from his regeneration, three of his companions: Leela, Sarah-Jane Smith and Harry Sullivan, and descriptions of some of the many criminals, evil and/or deadly robots and energy forms that he encounters, this is a great companion to the Dr Who novels.
*Pulp Fiction: A selection of Science Fiction pulps, mainly British, have joined the bookshelves. There are several issues of Analog: August 1965, March and June 1974 and May 1975, an Astounding from July 1952, a Fantasy & Science Fiction from October 1971, a New Worlds from October 1965 and an issue of Weird Tales from 1952, graced by Virgil Finlay cover art.
*Childrens’ Books: The most popular boy in fiction returns to our shelves today, in the form of ten books in the favoured Macmillan Children’s edition with red covers and spines and reproductions of the original Thomas Henry front cover illustrations. William is variously Just, More, Still, and Sweet as he Carries On, is In Trouble, The Conqueror, The Fourth, The Good and simply William Again. Wherever he appears, you can be sure that chaos and misunderstandings will follow as William’s overactive imagination gets him into hot water.
*TV/Film Tie-Ins: No, not the Marvel heroes for once, but the iconic TV series from the 1960’s featuring Steed, Cathy Gale, Emma Peel and Tara King, here represented in novel form. There were four UK published novels in 1967 featuring Steed & Mrs. Peel, which were later reprinted by Berkley Medallion Books in US, followed by a further five original US novels. Not only do we have all nine Berkley Medallion US PB (American first editions), but we also have two of the four UK PB originals, and even more excitingly, a Meet The Avengers Star Special magazine from 1963, featuring Cathy Gale and Steed. If you’re as excited as we are about these items, you can find details of grades and prices in our on-line catalogue. ‘Mrs. Peel — we’re needed!’
*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: Even though this section was close to full, we just had to add this wonderful anthology update. It includes well-known editors such as Judith Merril (10th Annual S-F, The Best Of Sci-Fi 4 and 5), Damon Knight (Beyond Tomorrow and Worlds To Come), R P Mills (A Decade Of Fantasy And Science Fiction and The Worlds Of Science Fiction) and Groff Conklin (17 x Infinity and The Big Book Of Science Fiction¹). There are also some more unusual editors such as Pamela Sargent (More Women Of Wonder) and Norman Spinrad (The New Tomorrows). Highlight of this update, however, is the Playboy Book Of Science Fiction And Fantasy (edited by Alice K Turner), which includes works from established authors such as Ray Bradbury, Ursula K Le Guin, Norman Spinrad, Damon Knight, Kurt Vonnegut Jr, J G Ballard, Frederick Pohl, Arthur C Clarke, Larry Niven, Harlan Ellison, Philip K Dick, Robert Silverberg and Joe Haldeman as well as more unexpected contributors such as Donald E. Westlake, Stephen King and Doris Lessing, all taking the opportunity to explore rather more adult themes than they are normally known for. This section has now spilled over onto a display shelf, so if you get a chance to visit the shop, make sure you check both areas out.
¹Proving that you can’t believe everything you read, the stories are great, but this is one of the smaller anthologies on offer.
Captains log: TV/Film Tie-Ins:
Kirk: What do you make of them?
McCoy: It’s fumetti, Jim, but not as we know it!
Kirk: Fumetti?
Spock: Fumetti (literally little puffs of smoke in Italian) are photonovels, using photos or stills with speech balloons added.
McCoy: Dammit Spock! Do you have to be so logical?
Kirk: Well, what’s special about these?
McCoy: They’re about us!
Spock: Twelve Star Trek fotonovels were published, and they’re all here, and in high grades. Fascinating!
*Childrens’ Books: The popular aviator Biggles returns in five FN Dean & Son hardcover editions from the mid-1970’s. These all have very attractive pictorial boards rather than dust jackets, and have all been well looked after by their previous owner. Titles include Biggles Air Detective, Biggles & The Black Peril, Biggles Flies Again, Biggles in the Cruise of the Condor and Biggles Pioneer Air Fighter.
*Crime, Spies & Sleaze: An octet of Leslie Charteris’ ever popular Simon Templar books have joined the bookshelves. The majority are Pan editions, but we also have a Hodder and Stoughton yellow cover edition of Follow The Saint and a high grade (VF) Coronet edition of The Saint Intervenes.
*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: In fact there are 10 great books and many shorter stories altogether in these large tomes. The collection of Philip K Dick novels (The Three Stigmata Of Palmer Eldritch, Martian Time-Slip, Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, Ubik and A Scanner Darkly) represents the first opportunity to get these classics in one volume. The Classic Horror Omnibus similarly brings together five classic horror novels (Frankenstein: Mary Shelley, The Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde: Robert Louis Stevenson, The Werewolf: Clemence Housman, Dracula: Bram Stoker and The Phantom Of The Opera: Gaston Leroux) in a striking hardcover edition. The Gardner Dozois curated Year’s Best Science Fiction (25) features work by authors such as Stephen Baxter, Gregory Benford, Robert Silverberg, Bruce Sterling and Michael Swanwick in a NM grade 1st US PB. The highlight of this update, however, is Philip George Chadwick’s The Death Guard. Originally published in 1939, and the only novel he wrote, this legendary rarity languished almost forgotten until it was published again in 1992. Featuring a striking cover by an old friend of 30th Century, Peter Garriock, this is a rare opportunity to obtain this story. Written before genetic engineering was even a twinkle in biologists eyes, the Flesh Guard are modified plants turned into automatons to defend Britain, with horrific unexpected results (a bit like some vegetarian Christmas dinners!)
*Crime, Spies & Sleaze: The crime writer John Dickson Carr, in common with many other authors of the time published books under a different name, in his case Carter Dickson. Whatever name he used, readers could be assured of a well-told, well-plotted story, often with a seemingly insoluble mystery. Carr was an acknowledged master of the locked room mystery. In one book, The Hollow Man, he even has a character (Dr Fell) discusses these mysteries: this was critically acclaimed, and has even been published on its own as an essay. John Dickson Carr was one of the crime authors honoured by Penguin in the 1950s, when they published ten books at once by selected authors. We have added more John Dickson Carr novels to our listings, and added Carter Dickson for the first time, all in collectable Penguin editions. Titles by Carr include Poison In Jest, The Case Of the Constant Suicides, The Mad Hatter Mystery, The Waxworks Murder and Till Death Do Us Part (which has an unusual Black and white cover). As Carter Dickson we have She Died A Lady, The Plague Court Murders and The Red Widow Murders.
*Crime, Spies & Sleaze: The demand for easily portable books led to several publishers attempting to emulate the success of Pocket Books, producing books the width of a normal paperback, but significantly shorter. We have added a good range of such books, published by Dell, WDL, Corgi and Jay Suspense and all by acknowledged masters of the crime genre. These include John Dickson Carr (The Corpse In The Wax Works), Erle Stanley Gardner (The Case Of The Lazy Lover), Brett Halliday (She Woke To Darkness, The Private Practice Of Michael Shayne and The Uncomplaining Corpses), Anthony Morton (John Creasey: Versus The Baron) and Mickey Spillane (I, The Jury, One Lonely Night and The Long Wait). She Woke To Darkness is also notable for having Robert Schulz cover art.
*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: We have added replacement copies of several titles by H P Lovecraft, including The Haunter of The Dark, The Lurking Fear, The Tomb, The Lurker At The Threshold, The Shuttered Room and The Horror In The Museum, most with classic Panther edition covers.
*Crime, Spies & Sleaze: The Golden Age Of Detective Fiction was surely between the 1920’s and the 1950’s, and in this period several women dominated the genre. No fewer than six female authors form this significant addition to our crime section – each of them with a claim to the title of Queen of Crime. We felt it would be very dangerous to pick one over the others, given the gruesome fates meted out to victims in their works, so we’ve settled for giving them a crown each. Margery Allingham has several books added, mainly in Penguin Classic Crime editions. Agatha Christie also has several books added, including an adaptation of a stage play, The Unexpected Guest (adapted by Charles Osborne, but listed with Agatha Christie). The other royal contenders are Ngaio Marsh (Artist In Crime, Enter A Murderer and Spinsters In Jeopardy), Dorothy L Sayers (Five Red Herrings and The Unpleasantness At The Bellona Club), Josephine Tey (Pan editions of Miss Pym Disposes and The Singing Sands) and Patricia Wentworth (Rolling Stone in a 1946 Popular Library edition).
*TV / Film Tie-Ins: The perennially popular classic Target Dr Who titles have been updated to include generally higher grade copies and to replace missing titles. Previously absent titles include The Day Of The Daleks, The Web Of Fear and The Zarbi. Additions to titles already present include The Abominable Snowman, The Auton Invasion, The Cave-Monsters, The Dalek Invasion Of Earth, The Genesis Of The Daleks, The Loch Ness Monster and The Terror Of The Autons.
*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: 30th Century Goes Ape! Tarzan caught the imagination authors as well as readers, and a number have written stories with eerie similarities to Edgar Rice Burroughs’ man raised by apes. J T Edson went so far as to make his hero, Bunduki, the adoptive son of Tarzan. We have two of his books, Bunduki itself and Fearless Master Of The Jungle, the latter of which is in FN grade and benefits from Chris Achilleos cover art. Meanwhile, somewhere north of the Arctic circle, on a volcanic, ice-ringed island of evergreens (Nato’wa, lost homeland of the American Indians), Kioga the Snow Hawk, sole survivor of a lost ship encounters mammoths, savage peoples and lost cities in the stories of William L Chester (Hawk Of The Wilderness, Kioga Of The Wilderness, One Against A Wilderness and Kioga Of The Unknown Land). Finally, just when you thought all bases had been covered, the ‘Tarzan of outer space!’. Wallace Moore is the culprit author of Balzan Of The Cat People – The Blood Stones, about a human child brought up by cat-like aliens.
*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: The success of Tarzan books and films led to many imitations, not all of which were welcomed by the Edgar Rice Burroughs estate. In 1964 and 1965 in the US Gold Star Books published five unauthorised novels by Barton Werper (actually Peter T Scott or Peg O’Neill Scott). The estate successfully sued the publishers and unsold copies of the books were withdrawn, making any surviving books rare and desirable. To mark Ape Week at 30th Century Comics we are releasing copies of the first two tales into the wild: Tarzan And The Silver Globe and Tarzan And The Cave City (both by Peter T Scott). Both are GD/VG grade and 1st US PB.
*Crime, Spies & Sleaze: Dennis Wheatley, best known for writing about the occult, also wrote many spy thrillers. Chief among these were his Gregory Sallhurst series and his Duke de Richleau series, which still managed to display Wheatley’s occult interests within an espionage setting. We have added three of each, Come Into My Parlour, The Scarlet Impostor and Traitor’s Gate feature Gregory Sallhurst while Dangerous Inheritance, The Prisoner In The Mask and Vendetta In Spain feature Duke de Richleau.
*Crime, Spies & Sleaze: Edward S Aarons CIA agent Sam Durrell joins us in four of his popular espionage thrillers from the Assignment series: Ankara, Golden Girl, Lowlands and Nuclear Nude. All written between 1961 and 1971, these are guaranteed to entertain.
*Crime, Spies & Sleaze: As teenagers became a recognised stage of adolescence, concerns grew about their behaviour and ‘seduction of the innocents’, as campaigner and noted psychiatrist Dr Wertham famously/notoriously??put it. All the furore sparked a rash of books purporting to document teenage life, and we are pleased to have several of them added to our stock. Harlan Ellison’s 1963 novel Rockabilly documents the wild private life of a rock star. Carl Ruhen’s The Violent Ones, about New York gang girls, is an unusual Australian addition to the genre. Two books by Hal Ellson, I’ll Fix You and Tomboy have approving reviews by Dr Wertham, ‘…the authentic truth of real conditions , the moral truth of facing evil that exists right under our noses’, Justice, ‘A powerful condemnation of a society that robs children of their youth’ and the Christian Science Monitor, ‘He takes the whole shocking and brutal story and flings it down as a challenge’ amongst others. All four books are 1st PB.
