MURDER IN GRUB STREET Cloth and boards - 1995

New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1995. First Edition, First Printing. Cloth and boards. Very Fine/Very Fine. SIGNED by the Author on the title page as "Bruce Alexander (Cook)," tall 8vo (9 1/4" x 6 3/8"), black quarter cloth with silver lettering on spine over gray boards, archival mylar-protected photographic dust jacket (unclipped; price $21.95) with detail of Northumberland House on Trafalgar Square--painted by Canaletto-- ineset into photo of paving stones by Erich Lessing, [x] + 276 pages (rough cut). A Sir John Fielding Mystery. Second book in the famous series based on John Fielding, the reformer magistrate and blind half-brother of judge Henry Fielding--author of Tom Jones. <br/> <br/> Sir John Fielding (1721 - 1780), though blinded in a naval accident at the age of 19, studied law with Henry. The two worked as reformers to improve crime in London by forming the first professional police force, the Bow Street Runners, and the first police criminal records department.<br/> <br/> After Henry died, John was appointed magistrate at Bow Street in his place, becoming renowned as the "Blind Beak."<br/> <br/> Bruce Alexander Cook (1932 - 2003) was an American journalist and author who also wrote as Bruce Alexander, creating historical novels about a blind 18th-century Englishman, and also a 20th-century Mexican-American detective.<br/> <br/> EXCEPTIONAL CONDITION! Apart from faint dj edgewear, virtually As New. No previous owner or remainder marks.