The Devil Wears Wings

London/New York/Toronto: Abelard-Schuman Ltd. Very Good+ in Very Good dj. 1960. First Edition. Hardcover. [modest bumping to upper corners but no other significant wear, agency stamp on front endpaper; the jacket is lightly soiled, with a few nicks along the edges, a couple of short closed tears, and a small triangular surface-wound to the rear panel (slightly affecting the text thereon); the lower corner of the front jacket flap is clipped (possibly where a British price appears) but the original printed American price of $2.95 remains at the upper corner]. Hard-boiled mystery novel with a Florida setting, about an embittered ex-World War II-era pilot who's "drinking his way quietly into oblivion at a jerkwater Florida airport" a dozen years after the war, and gets involved in a bank robbery scheme that might require him "to kill -- and kill ruthlessly -- if something went wrong." This was one of just a handful of hardcover novels by Whittington (most issued by this same publisher), who cranked out dozens of paperback originals during the 1950s and 1960s, under both his own name and an array of pseudonyms. (Which also means it's one of the few times when an actual photo of the author was published in one of his books -- such niceties not typically being part of the trashy-paperback publishing scheme.) .