Fatal Descent


Book Description

Between a rock and a hard paddle Mandy Tanner and her fiancé Rob are leading an offseason rafting-climbing trip in Utah’s remote Canyonlands. Experienced guides, Mandy and Rob know they have to keep their cool after one of their group, Alex Anderson, appears to have become bear bait. Walled off from the outside world with eleven shell-shocked clients and miles of Colorado River whitewater ahead, Mandy’s nerves threaten to unravel when she learns that Alex’s death was not the work of a homicidal grizzly. Whether it was a crime of passion or the random act of a psychopath, Mandy fears that if they don’t root out the river rat among them, another camper will be running the rapids in a body bag. Praise: “A remarkable book by an author who clearly knows and loves her territory. Don’t miss it!”—William Kent Krueger, New York Times bestselling author of the Cork O’Connor series “Once again, Groundwater, mixing mystery with outdoor adventure, comes up with an excursion that will please most comers.”—Kirkus Reviews “A thrilling journey . . . filled with river lore, vivid descriptions . . . and loving depictions of the varied characters.”—Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine




Fatal Descent


Book Description

Fatal Descent by John Dickson Carr and Cecil Street (writing as Carter Dickson and John Rhode) Carr and Street “are such expert mystery-mongers that their collaboration could scarcely fail to produce something extra special in the bafflement line. Fatal Descent is all of that.”—The New York Times “London publisher shot in automatic elevator. Dr. Horatio Glass and Insp. Hornbeam pool wits—and humor—to spot the killer. Neat variation of good old ‘hermetically sealed room’ problem, with two authors—and their sleuths—working beautifully in harness. Verdict: Top Drawer”—The Saturday Review A seemingly impossible murder in a private elevator draws two sleuths to the case. Inspector Hornbeam and Dr. Horatio Glass are at odds from the beginning, each dismissive of the other’s theories, thus creating an atmosphere as much of competition as cooperation. From the novel: The elevator was perhaps six feet square by eight feet high, with steel walls painted to imitate bronze. Sir Ernest Tallant sat very quietly in the rear right-hand corner. His legs were outthrust stiffly, his back bent a little forward; and the brim of the rakish gray hat shaded his face. He might have been a grotesque parody of Little Jack Horner, if it had not been for the widening bloodstains on the left breast of his jacket. His umbrella lay beside him, also looking oddly childish like his posture. Under each roof corner of the elevator there was a tiny electric light; these four little lights illumined even the wrinkles on the backs of the man’s hands, and glittered on the pieces of broken glass. Published in the United Kingdom as Drop to His Death




Official Index to the Times


Book Description

Indexes the Times, Sunday times and magazine, Times literary supplement, Times educational supplement, Times educational supplement Scotland, and the Times higher education supplement.







Astra Castra


Book Description




Black Cypress


Book Description

“Bodies and bafflement galore in multi-murderous tale with considerable Hollywood glitter, ample suspense, and breathless conclusion. Nice gory going.”—The Saturday Review Pat and Jean are invited by distant relatives to stay at the Black Cypress estate in Laguna Beach. It seems that one of the Abbotts’ less-than-pleasant distant relations, Enid Ponsonby, is being watched with a murderous eye, and Pat and Jean are called in for their sleuthing talents. As a welcoming act, an expert knife thrower offers Jean a pointy death, which she barely has the chance to decline. The next morning a ne’er-do-well visiting from New Orleans is found on the property at the base of a cliff, having taken a shortcut to the bottom. The Abbotts face a cast of characters whose dysfunctional relationships with one another ensure the case is no walk on the beach.




Five Passengers from Lisbon


Book Description

Five Passengers is filled with the “suspense and terror which Mrs. Eberhart knows so well how to maintain.”—The New York Times Boarding the ship was like entering a dream for Marcia Colfax. At her side was the man she loved; awaiting them was a long delayed happiness. But now a bloodstained knife has slashed her plans to bits. Now her dream has become a nightmare. One man is dead, a knife buried deep in his back. After the second of the group is found dead, fear spreads throughout the ship, as do rumors that Nazi diehards lie among the rescued. Now her voyage to happiness has become a race against death as the murderer readies to strike again. Shortly after the end of the war, an American hospital ship rescues passengers and crew from a sinking Argentina-bound freighter. It's soon discovered that one of the group has been murdered, apparently by one of his own companions. After the second of the group is found dead, fear spreads throughout the ship, as do rumors that Nazi diehards lie among the rescued. “The master touch... superior.”—Kirkus “Ample action and much tense emotion.”—Saturday Review




Cumulative Paperback Index, 1939-1959


Book Description

This was the first bibliography and guide to the American mass market paperback book, and it remains one of the most definitive. The major index is by author, and lists: author, title, publisher, book number, year of publication, and cover price. The title index lists titles and authors only. The publisher index provides a history of that imprint, with addresses, number ranges, and general physical description of the books issued. This is the place that all study of the American paperback must begin.




Three Plots for Asey Mayo


Book Description

Asey solves the Swan Boat Murder “in the best Mayo manner [and] the other two stories are just as good.”—The New York Times Top-notch entertainment for mystery readers is contained in this volume made up of three Asey Mayo short novels, each replete with the excitement, the humor and the amusing characterisations that have distinguished all of this author’s popular books about the famous Cape Cod sleuth. In “The Headacre Plot,” murder is all tied up with an eccentric millionaire’s hobby for wooden Indians and merry-go-round horses, which play a neat part in the solution of the killing of Colonel Head. “The Wander Bird Plot” concerns the girl, Cordelia, her angry uncle, and the unfortunate and very dead gentleman found in their trailer. The third of the stories takes its title, “The Swan Boat Plot,” from its locale in Boston’s Public Garden, near the famed swan boats. Asey Mayo witnesses the shooting of a young photographer and is called upon to solve a case that involves Boston’s glamour girl and leads him on a fine chase through Boston’s old brick-bordered streets.




Thirteen White Tulips


Book Description

“High ingenuity…splendid eating in San Francisco restaurants, and narrator Jean Abbott, always vividly observant of feminine fashions, this time finds that a fashion note is a vital clue.”—The New York Times Jack Ivers, an urban sophisticate with a particular fondness for wealthy women, lies peacefully in his bed, dead. This scenario is greatly convenient for the woman who finds him, as she was on the scene to kill him herself. More curious, the thirteen red tulips she noticed entering Ivers’ home had been replaced by thirteen white tulips before she made her exit. A number of people had good reason to want Jack Ivers dead, and naturally it falls to Jean and Pat Abbott to solve the confounding case. “Amusing and sophisticated.”—The [London] Star “Fashion hints all over place. Smooth.”—The Saturday Review “…has an authentic-seeming San Francisco background for the activities of its two happily married young sleuths and their dachshund, and is strong on personal relations, colour, dress and dialogue, and very nearly as strong on clues.”—The Sphere “Brightly-told excitement, with good dressing and good food as you go along.”—Lady