The Adventures of Inspector Lestrade

London: Macmillan London Limited, 1985. BH1 - A first edition (First Published 1985 stated) hardcover book in very good condition in very good dust jacket that is mylar protected. Dust jacket has some wrinkling and chipping on the edges and back left side, light tanning and shelf wear. Book has some bumped corners, moderate tanning, and light shelf wear. Although not marked in any way, this copy comes from the personal collection of Otto Penzler, legendary editor and founder of the Mysterious Press, an award-winning icon in the genre. 8"x5". 224 pages. Satisfaction Guaranteed. It is 1891 and London is still reeling from the horror of the unsolved Ripper murders when Inspector Lestrade (that 'ferret-like' anti-hero so often out-detected by the legendary Sherlock Holmes) is sent to the Isle of Wight to investigate a strange corpse found walled up in Shanklin Chine. But this is only the start of the nightmare. It is merely the beginning of a series of killings so brutal, so bizarre and, apparently, so random, that only a warped genius - and a master of disguise - could be responsible. Even when Lestrade pieces together the extraordinary pattern behind the crimes from the anonymous poems sent after each murder, he is no closer to knowing the identity of the sinister, self-styled 'Agrippa', the 'great, long, red-legg'd scissor-man'. It becomes a very personal battle and Lestrade's desperate race to avert the next death in the sequence takes him all over the country, from London to the Pennines and back, resulting in a portfolio of suspects which covers the entire range of late-Victorian society. MJ Trow whirls from ballroom to bar-room, from vicarage to spiritualist gathering, from the studio of the celebrated Alma-Tadema to 221 B Baker Street with spell-binding panache. In this witty, original and often hilarious pastiche he keeps the reader guessing right up to the dazzling and ingenious denouement.. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.