Search Results: death out of thin air by towne stuart

Cassell & Company. 1947. First edition. . Hard cover. Very good. light shelf wear, mild spine lean.

Clayton Rawson wrote two mysteries under the pseudonym "Stuart Towne" before going on to found the Mystery Writers of America and editing Elery Queen's Mystery Magazine .  This is the first, and the only hardback---very rare with jacket.  This copy is cocked, stamped on f.e.p. with "The Walsh Treasure Chest, Forest Hills, N.Y." (from whence it was originally sold), has wear commensurate with its age, and has the original jacket (except the inside front flap) that bears the marks of many readings.  The book is very good-shape, and the jacket good+ only.  Priced mainly on rarity.
Photo on request.

New York: Coward-McCann, [1941]., 1941. First edition. First edition. 0riginally published serially in Red Star Mystery magazine under the titles GHOST OF THE UNDEAD and DEATH OUT OF THIN AIR. A pseudonym of Clayton Rawson and the first appearance using this pseudonym. These two pulp novelettes feature a magician-sleuth called Don Diavolo and the titles are DEATH FROM THE PAST and DEATH FROM THE UNSEEN. In the story DEATH FROM THE PAST, Diavolo must solve a murder of a frightened female medium, committed in his own backstage dressing room, apparently by a vampire conjured up during a seance. In DEATH FROM THE UNSEEN, an inventor claims to have invented an invisibility machine. A few weeks later an invisible man murders a detective at police headquarters and then challenges Diavolo to find him. If you are unfamiliar with Don Diavolo, he is an illusionist who gets involved in crimes only a magician could commit. The stories are thoroughly entertaining and readable. Fine, tight copy in a bright,… Read More