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Stated: "Tower Books, First Printing August 1945." Published by the World Publishing Company of Cleveland and New York by arrangement with Alfred A. Knopf. Dark blue full-cloth boards with blue flying bat and spine titles with Tower Mystery emblem, light shelf wear. Pages very good with attractive toning. Small antiquarian bookstore label inside cover: "McClelland's Bookstore, Columbus, Ohio." Bind fine, square; hinges intact. Sharp first Tower edition. Stylish and uniquely historical owner detail and inscription penned inside cover: "Foster S. Bentley, Sq. F - 4000th A.A.F - B.U., Wright Field, Ohio." The cheerful inscription adjacent: "9-6-45. Bent ~ Perhaps for a few moments - at least - this may take your thoughts from the G. I. to . yes, it will!!! Good Luck Always, Dottie." Includes original Knopf first edition jacket design at front panel in blue and yellow with man falling from window to ground with scene of coins, scales of justice, gun in newspaper, and magnifying glass. Moderate edge wear, rub; protected in new clear sleeve. Dust jacket code 049 at front flap; Chandler portrait and his smoking pipe with brief bio at back flap. Adverts in blue and yellow at back panel for more Tower mystery and detective authors. Sharp first Tower edition in same wrapper. Raymond Chandler's hard-boiled Detective Philip Marlowe is here in a shocking and thrilling murder mystery! It started with some business about a rare coin. Everybody knew who had stolen it, but nobody was anxious to do anything about it. Marlowe couldn't understand why the old lady had hired him; she didn't seem to like detectives and didn't want to tell him much. So he started to think about her, and then about the pale, fragile, frightened little girl who was her secretary, and then about her son - which led him the the gambler, then to the gambler's luscious and lustful wife, and then to the elegant blackmailer! And so this case became a study of character, for even when murder was done, even after the second murder, character was the root of eveything. Because he understood that, Marlowe went step-by-step to a solution in the case! Sardonic, quietly cynical, cold and merciless when he has to be, but gruffly compassionate to the victims of evil, Philip Marlowe steps out of these scintillating pages as one of the greatest detectives of modern murder-mystery fiction! 240 pages. Insured post. Size: 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" Tall. Seller Inventory # 016867
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