Douglas Warner

	Death of a Tom - Douglas Warner 1963 UK hardcover first edition, first imperssion published by Cassell in London A VG+ book in VG++ unclipped dust jacket The book is tight and square, no owner names or stamps just some spotting to edges A solid book The wrapper has no loss or tears and is particularly clean What this Book is About Mean, cowardly, unbalanced—despicable. These were adjectives used by the public at large to describe Edgar Horncastle—mass-murderer and megalomaniac. Chief-Inspector David Wyndham used them with even more feeling but, however unwillingly, he had to use the word 'clever' to qualify his disgust as time and again the killer eluded his police network. Linda Ward used them perhaps most feelingly of all. She was a torn, a prostitute, and although socially and financially above the ruck of 'the Ripper's' victims, she had good reason to loathe him —and to take her revenge. This general hatred was directed against a man who had looked quite ordinary, had kept down a humdrum office job and had lived in seeming married harmony in a respectable block of flats behind Lord's Cricket Ground. Then things had happened at home; he gave way to a temptation; he found himself in the clutches of a blackmailer and a chain of circumstances changed a man who had been unpleasant but ineffectual into an obsessed demon of frightening and calculated evil. With the same insight into the mind of the London public and the same closely observed details of the underworld as he has shown in his highly successful Death of a Snout and Death of a Bogey, Douglas Warner traces the destructive path of a misguided crusade, describes its tragic repercussions and its sudden violent end. Death of a Tom supports Mr. Warner's growing reputation as one of the most significant new names in the field of crime fiction. A nice copy For Sale at £SOLD - SORRY, CURRENTLY OUT OF STOCK (approx $SOLD) - free delivery worldwide !	Buy Secure - Enquire or Add to Cart
	Death of a Dreamer - Douglas Warner 1964 British hardcover first edition, first imperssion published by Cassell in London A VG+ book in VG++ unclipped dustwrapper Covers and text block solid, some light spotting to foredge No owner names or stamps etc The wrapper is nice and clean, no loss What this Book is About Almost oblivious to his surroundings, Pritchard crawled to the wash-basin. His hand fumbled on the shelf. As another convulsion of pain twisted his body, he sank to the floor and slowly drew the rusty edge of a razor-blade across his emaciated wrists. As he crumpled he watched the thin red lines swell and knew that he had escaped for ever his craving for heroin. Detective-Sergeant Harry Harris of the C.I.D. Drugs Squad surveyed the unlovely corpse. It was not a pleasant sight. Too far gone to trouble with elementary hygiene, Pritchard had allowed the myriad needle punctures which covered his body to turn into supurating pustules; blood still poured from his nerveless fingers and slowly congealed on the unswept linoleum. Suddenly Harris's revulsion turned to pity and his official attitude to the organizers of the growing narcotics ring hardened to a personal hate. If determination and single-mindedness counted for anything at all, he thought, Pritchard's death sealed the fate of the Big Man responsible. The ring proved hard to break into. Just how hard, Harris learnt with a jolt that would have sent many C.I.D. sergeants out for the count. But Harris had a score to settle that overcame both loss of face and personal danger. Far from giving up, he shrugged off the security and the beliefs upon which he had relied in the past. Alone he began a most unconventional manhunt that took him further and further into the limbo of a sordid, twilight world, where he was beyond the reach of friendship or protection. An attractive copy For Sale at £SOLD - SORRY, CURRENTLY OUT OF STOCK (approx $SOLD) - free delivery worldwide !	Buy Secure - Enquire or Add to Cart

Reviews of Douglas Warner's Books The author knows his criminal world backwards. Rivetting.' —NICHOLAS BLAKE, Sunday Telegraph 'Warner's book is a novel by any criteria, and a remarkably good one. Raven's pursuit of the killers has all the merciless inevitability of Greek tragedy. The atmosphere of Metropolitan gangsterdom is put over with brutal, effective economy. This deserves to be a best-seller, on or off the crime shelf,' —Daily Herald 'Mr. Warner's knowledge of criminal slang, habits, thought, is what makes this one notable.' —JULIAN SYMONS, Sunday Times 'Another first-rate thriller from Mr. Warner.' 'Douglas Warner paints a living picture of this half-world of snouts, toms, tearaways, and mobsters, successful and unsuccessful, and the plot never flags from first chapter to last.1 'Vivid. Exciting.' —Evening Standard 'Grips like a vice, almost painfully. Don't miss.' "A deep and powerful piece of work; and the payoff, when prostitutes take the law into their own ungentle hands, has an unforgettable nightmarish quality" "Mr Warner, with his third crime book, has a winner here" "Another of Douglas Warner's brilliant studies of London's underworld" "Really credible background of London's 'half-world', authentic police detail, skilful build-up of atmosphere of tension and terror" "Brilliant hard writing. Every situation consummately played; every emotion cracked open. It sizzles from the start"

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