Patrick Pseudonym Richard Wilson Webb (3 results)

Pictorial Wrappers. Condition: Very Good. Phillips, Barye (illustrator). First Edition. First Edition, May 1954. PAPERBACK ORIGINAL. Vintage paperback, Gold Medal #397 [.25 cover price]. Cover Illustration by Barye Phillips. Spine edge rubbed, a few cover creases, a few nicks at rear, paper is uniformally age toned, else very good. A gripping legal thriller by the Edgar Award-winning author who wrote the Peter Duluth Puzzle Mysteries as Patrick Quentin, also penned outstanding detective novels from the 1930s through the 1960s under other pseudonyms, including Q. Patrick and Jonathan Stagge. Eighth in the Series of Classic Murder Trials. There was nothing apparently remarkable about Percy Thompson and his wife, Edith. But when Percy is savagely stabbed to death, the proper appearance of their marriage collapses, revealing a dark side that will become the scandal of the nation. For behind their bland suburban veneer was a relationship already fractured by petty jealousy and a wife's desire for more out of life. A desire that was satisfied by young Frederick Bywaters, who found himself under Edith's spell almost immediately and would follow his devotion to the end of a rope --all the while proclaiming Edith's innocence. Written as both a compelling thriller and an observation of the law, morality, and the crushing weight of public opinion, The Girl on the Gallows is a classic chronicle of blinding love, cold-blooded murder, and inevitable justice. Patrick Quentin, best known for the Peter Duluth puzzle mysteries, also penned outstanding detective novels from the 1930s through the 1960s under other pseudonyms, including Q. Patrick and Jonathan Stagge. Anthony Boucher wrote: "Quentin is particularly noted for the enviable polish and grace which make him one of the leading American fabricants of the murderous comedy of manners; but this surface smoothness conceals intricate and meticulous plot construction as faultless as that of Agatha Christie.". Vintage Paperback.

Octavo, two-part boards. First edition. Collects a novelette and eleven short stories. The title story won the 1962 Edgar Award. In 1964, "The Ordeal of Mrs. Snow" was filmed for television as an episode of THE ALFRED HITCHCOCK HOUR. Queen's Quorum 119. Top edge foxed, a very good copy in good to very good dust jacket with rubbing and light wear at edges. (#134904).

First edition. Octavo, pp. [i-iv] v [vi] 1-279 [280-282: blank], original brown and black patterned cloth. The author's first mystery novel and the first using this pseudonym. ".a well crafted novel about a series of poisonings in a small English village." - Pederson (ed.), St. James Guide to Crime and Mystery Writers, p. 864. [Reference: Hubin, p. 629]. A touch of wear to spine ends and corner tips, a very good to nearly fine copy in a good dust jacket with rubbing and splits to the front flap fold, minor loss at corner tips, chipped and loss along head of spine panel affecting the authors name, wear with shallow loss at base of spine panel. Uncommon, especially in jacket. (24990).