The Bellamy Trial [Intriguingly Inscribed] by HART, Frances Noyes (1890-1943) - 1927

Garden City, NY: Published for the Crime Club, Inc. by Doubleday, Doran [through 1928], 1927. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine-. Later Printing (1928 on title page) of this pioneering work that set the template for the genre of courtroom mystery fiction. Crown 8vo (187 x 122mm): [8],324pp. Publisher's coarsely woven orange cloth, upper cover and spine lettered in black; lacking the dust jacket. Based on the sensational Hall-Mills murder case, involving an Episcopal priest and a member of his choir with whom he was having an affair. He was Edward Wheeler Hall, she, Eleanor Reinhardt Mills, wife of James E. Mills. Intriguingly inscribed and dated by the author: To / Dr. Mills— / Even though he has [underlined] / read it before! / Frances Noyes Hart / Christmas 1933." Spine gently lightened, else a fresh, square copy, easily about Fine. Filmed in 1929 by Monta Bell with Margaret Livingston as Mimi Bellamy. Haycraft-Queen Cornerstone. On September 16, 1922, the bodies of a woman and a man were discovered in a field near New Brunswick, NJ. Both bodies were shot in the head, the man once and the woman three times. Torn-up love letters were scattered between them. The suspects were Hall's wife, Frances Noel Stevens, her two brothers, Henry Hewgill Stevens and William "Willie" Carpender Stevens, and a cousin, Henry de la Bruyere Carpender, but none were ever convicted. N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, carefully preserved in archival, removable polypropylene sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).