Three Times Three

Garden City: Doubleday & Co., 1964. Hardcover. Good Plus to Very Good/Fair To Good. An omnibus of mystery, detective and suspense fiction of the first half of the 20th century, selected by Haycraft and Beecroft, legendary editors and critics of the mystery genre. The editors provide a sampling of three mystery formats -- novels, novelettes and short stories -- utilizing works by some of the great writers of the genre including Chandler, Sayers, Christie, Carr, Gardner, McBain, Lockridge, Household, Woolrich, Stout, Queen, Marsh and Ellin, to show off the wide variety of the best mystery fiction available. Book Club Edition. About 5 3/4 x 8 3/4 inches, 830 pages in grey paper-covered boards with green lettering on spine. The blue dustjacket graphic shows the mathematical notation, "3 x 3," in large, black numerals with parts of a skeleton showing in white within the numerals. The back panel of the DJ lists the authors in the collection in white lettering. Boards upper corners are lightly bumped; front interior hinge is cracked; and binding beginning to loosen but still holding well -- all wear-related flaws not unusual in a large, older volume. Text shows light top-edge soiling, o/w clean, complete and unmarked. Not ex-library. Dustjacket shows considerable wear along edges and corners, with numerous small tears and chipping but still 90% whole. All in all, a decent reading copy of a real treasury of early 20th century mystery fiction. [Due to the book's size and weight, we cannot accept priority/express orders or orders from outside the U.S. without additional postage.]