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Blackmail
by Parnell Hall (1944-2020)
- Used
- near fine
- Hardcover
- Signed
- first
- Condition
- Near Fine/Near Fine
- ISBN 10
- 0892965215
- ISBN 13
- 9780892965212
- Seller
-
Fort Worth, Texas, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
278 pages. Royal octavo (9 1/4" x 5 1/2") bound in original publisher's quarter black paper with white lettering to spine in original pictorial jacket. Inscribed on title by the author. First edition.
He's not very tough. He's just sharp enough to get by. And he spends most of his time chasing ambulances. But that doesn't mean that Stanley Hastings - Parnell Hall's acclaimed, self-deprecating actor detective - can't find himself face-to-face with a beautiful woman in distress. Distress, as in...BLACKMAIL. She called herself Marlena, and dazzled Hastings with her wide, innocent eyes. But her story was a little less charming. Someone was blackmailing her, she said, but would not say who or why. She simply insisted that Hastings play the part of go-between and deliver the cash.
Face-to-face with the blackmailer, Hastings thought the man was overdoing things a bit. Then it got stranger. The photographs Hastings brought back to Marlena were pornographic enough, indeed, but Marlena wasn't in them. And to make matters more baffling, it was only upon his prompting that Marlena insisted Hastings go back again and pay another five thousand dollars for the negatives. It proved a fatal move. Before Hastings could complete the second payoff, two people were dead and the money was missing - vanished, it seemed, amidst the ranks of the good old NYPD. And when Hastings started asking questions about the money and the murders, it got more people killed and Hastings into a deeper hole with a heavy-handed cop named Thurman. Thurman would just as soon see Hastings take the fall for the crimes. Hastings would just as soon solve the case first, if the cops will only let him. Somewhere between a desperate blonde and a seedy underworld of desperate New Yorkers a not-very-tough private eye will have to dodge the cops, listen to his wife's advice, and manage to be just tough enough to untangle a mystery of betrayal and murder. For this is a case that, if all does not go well, might just be Stanley's last.
Condition: Inscription to tile else near fine in like jacket.
He's not very tough. He's just sharp enough to get by. And he spends most of his time chasing ambulances. But that doesn't mean that Stanley Hastings - Parnell Hall's acclaimed, self-deprecating actor detective - can't find himself face-to-face with a beautiful woman in distress. Distress, as in...BLACKMAIL. She called herself Marlena, and dazzled Hastings with her wide, innocent eyes. But her story was a little less charming. Someone was blackmailing her, she said, but would not say who or why. She simply insisted that Hastings play the part of go-between and deliver the cash.
Face-to-face with the blackmailer, Hastings thought the man was overdoing things a bit. Then it got stranger. The photographs Hastings brought back to Marlena were pornographic enough, indeed, but Marlena wasn't in them. And to make matters more baffling, it was only upon his prompting that Marlena insisted Hastings go back again and pay another five thousand dollars for the negatives. It proved a fatal move. Before Hastings could complete the second payoff, two people were dead and the money was missing - vanished, it seemed, amidst the ranks of the good old NYPD. And when Hastings started asking questions about the money and the murders, it got more people killed and Hastings into a deeper hole with a heavy-handed cop named Thurman. Thurman would just as soon see Hastings take the fall for the crimes. Hastings would just as soon solve the case first, if the cops will only let him. Somewhere between a desperate blonde and a seedy underworld of desperate New Yorkers a not-very-tough private eye will have to dodge the cops, listen to his wife's advice, and manage to be just tough enough to untangle a mystery of betrayal and murder. For this is a case that, if all does not go well, might just be Stanley's last.
Condition: Inscription to tile else near fine in like jacket.
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Details
- Bookseller
- The Book Collector ABAA, ILAB, TBA
(US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- L1192
- Title
- Blackmail
- Author
- Parnell Hall (1944-2020)
- Book Condition
- Used - Near Fine
- Jacket Condition
- Near Fine
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- First
- Binding
- Hardcover
- ISBN 10
- 0892965215
- ISBN 13
- 9780892965212
- Publisher
- Mysterious Press
- Place of Publication
- New York
- Date Published
- 1994
- Pages
- 278 pages
- Size
- Royal octavo
- Keywords
- Mystery, Espionage. Detective and Thriller
- Bookseller catalogs
- Literature;
Terms of Sale
The Book Collector ABAA, ILAB, TBA
All items are guaranteed as described. If an item is
not as described, it is returnable within seven days
of receipt, unless other arrangements are made.
Full refunds given only when items are received in
the same condition in which they were sent.
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Texas residents must add 8.25% sales tax.
About the Seller
The Book Collector ABAA, ILAB, TBA
Biblio member since 2005
Fort Worth, Texas
About The Book Collector ABAA, ILAB, TBA
The Book Collector specializes in the finest collections of Chess, Anthropology, Americana and American Literature. Visit our website at www.bookcollectorshop.com
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- New
- A new book is a book previously not circulated to a buyer. Although a new book is typically free of any faults or defects, "new"...
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
- Fine
- A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
- Inscribed
- When a book is described as being inscribed, it indicates that a short note written by the author or a previous owner has been...
- Octavo
- Another of the terms referring to page or book size, octavo refers to a standard printer's sheet folded four times, producing...
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