The Rumble Murders
first edition
1932 · Boston
by DEAL, MASON - HENRY WARE ELIOT, JR
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1932. First Edition, First Printing. Mason Deal is the pseudonym for Henry Ware Eliot, Jr., the older brother of famed poet and mystery-lover T. S. Eliot. Rare book. Small red ink stamp stating ‘SPECIAL” on bottom edge indicating this was a review copy. Some fraying at the top and bottom of spine, rubbing and general wear to the cloth else very good without dust jacket. “When George Palmerston Gaynleigh, detective novelist, arrives in the wealthy and seemingly contented suburban development of Randall Green as a guest of his friend Ed Marsh, he little suspects that he will soon be embroiled in a crime problem more intricate than anything he ever dared put down on paper. It seems that someone in the area has picked up a nasty habit of shooting men and then stashing their stripped bodies in the rumble seats of local cars—most emphatically not a practice calculated to heighten property values! Soon George joins a neighborhood “homicide squad” —comprised of himself, Ed, a journalist and, wonder of wonders, an actual detective—which tries, with help from Ed’s winsome wife, Jeanie, to crack a fiendishly complex murder case. Will the squad solve the baffling mystery of the bodies in the rumbles?” (Inventory #: 15732J)