Generally considered the period between the two World Wars, about 1920-1929, the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction" established much of the detective archtype, literary style and devices, and plotlines that are still with us today. Though in actuality, the origins can be found much, much earlier, reaching back to th 1840's with Edgar Allen Poe's "Murder in the Rue Morgue" which introduced what we know now as the "Locked Room Mystery".
What is presented in this E-Catalog is a large cross-section of examples from this period which include some many lesser known authors in scarce titles in scarcer dust-jackets. But there are also many titles that go back to some of their 19th century origins. And as I can't resist, I have thrown in several examples of the period just after the Golden Age which really captures what w know now as the "Hard-Boiled Detective" and the source material from some classic Film Noir.
Some highlights include, and speaking of the "Locked Room Mystery", Israel Zangwill's "The Big Bow Mystery" from 1895 which is Zangwill's only mystery and the first full-length novel in using that device.
A couple of entries from the "Mother the American detective novel" Anna Katherine Green, best known for her "The Leavenworth Case" and one of the first author, male or female, to create legally accurate precursors to the Courtroom Drama".
A very early edition, c.1840, of "The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Vidocq", a work that was clearly an inspiration for Edgar Allan Poe.
A first Edition in book form of Charles Dickens' unfinished "The Mystery of Edwin Drood", the author's attempt to right a story to rival his frenemy Wilkie Collins' landmark mysteries "The Woman in White" and "The Moonstone". Regrettably, Dickens died before completing the tale.
Speaking of Wilkie Collins, several of his works are represented including the first Photoplay edition of the aforementioned "The Woman in White" with stills from the 1948 film starring Eleanor Parker and Sydney Greenstreet.
Plus great mysteries by the likes of Agatha Christie, James M. Cain, Raymond Chandler, Robert Chambers, W.R. Burnett, Earl Derr Biggers, J.D> Beresford, Darwin & Hildegarde Teilhet, Edgard Wallace , Cornel Woolrich and dozens more.
Happy hunting and reading!