As we've mentioned, we just took in a MASSIVE collection of paperbacks. Nearly all are from the 60s through the 80s but there are some earlier than that and later, too. Espionage, police procedural, private eye, legal thriller, suspense, whodunnits, British, North American, European, Asian, African... massive. About the only facet of crime and mystery not represented are cozies.
The majority are in beautiful condition. He probably bought them new and read them very carefully. But he was also a big buyer of used books, too. Lots of stamps from Southern California bookshops. There are some $10 copies, a few higher, but most are range from $1.98 to $7.98. Full runs of some authors and nearly full runs of others. Many of these authors we've not seen since the shop opened in 1990. Many we don't see very often. Many we've never seen. There are so many it is safe to say that the stock of the shop has flipped from mostly new to mostly used.
To give you a taste, here's a list of authors: Marvin Albert, Peter Alding, Delano Ames, Jeffrey Ashford, Desmond Bagley, John Ball, Robert Barnard, George Bellairs, Dick Belsky, John Bingham, Gavin Black, Nicholas Blake, Christiana Brand, Simon Brett, Leo Bruce, Rex Burns, Victor Canning, Douglas Clark, V.C. Clinton-Baddeley, Liza Cody, Bill Crider, E.V. Cunningham, Philip Daniels, Lionel Davidson, Len Deighton, Peter Dickinson, Stephen Dobyns, Peter Driscoll, Aaron Elkins, Stanley Ellin, Howard Engels, Robert L. Fish, Nicholas Freeling, Andrew Garve, Paul Geddes, Val Gelgud, Michael Gilbert, Kenneth Giles, William Haggard, Adam Hall, Cyril Hare, Roy Hart, Cecil Henry, Mark Hebden, Laurence Henderson, Reginald Hill, Timothy Holme, Joseph Hone, Elspeth Huxely, Robert Irvine, Sebastian Jasprisot, Stuart Kaminsky (Rostnikovs), H.R.F. Keating, Patrick Kelley, Edwin Lanham, Emma Lathen, Roy Lewis, Michael Z. Lewin, Nicholas Luard, Gavin Lyall, Arthur Maling, Harold Q. Masur, Berkely Matther, James McClure, Ralph MacInerny, James Melville, Margaret Millar, James Mitchell, Patricia Moyes, James Munro, Michael Pearce, Ian Pears, Robert L. Pike, Bill Pronzini, Anthony Price, Patrick Quentin, Jonathan Ross, Robert Rostand, Kenneth Royce, Francis Ryck, Alan Russell, George Sims, Edward Sklepowich, Bart Spicer, Richard Stark, Rex Stout, Julian Symons, William G. Tapply, Graham Thomas, Ross Thomas (and Bleek), Michael Underwood, Arthur Upfield, Hillary Waugh, Henry Wade, Charles Williams, David Williams, Ted Wood, Eric Wright...
There's no way to make a list of the books. Making a list of the authors was a big enough job. This represents the bulk of the authors, but really only those who showed up with, say, six or more titles. That tells you that there are a large number of authors not on this list. The shelves are as tight as they've ever been. If you're looking for something, a particular title or want to know what we have by this author or that author, let us know.
Send us your list and we'll see if we can fill your shelves with what we've got on ours!
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