Death's Mannikins

New York/London: D. Appleton-Century Company. Very Good+. 1937. First American Edition. Hardcover. (lacking the original dust jacket, but encased in a well-made "Colorcopy" reproduction of same; see 2nd image posted with this listing, and see Notes for further explanation) [nice copy with only minimal shelfwear, but apparently once owned by one of those fiends who never heard of a bookmark, as about a dozen pages or so have short diagonal creases at the upper corners where they were once folded down as place-markers; a more recent owner has written his name, the date & place of purchase, and a brief note at the top of the front endpaper]. Mystery novel by an Australian writer who worked extensively in radio, the second of four mysteries he penned about one Jeffery Blackburn, a "scientist [and] man-about-town, unofficially connected with Scotland Yard" (did such people actually exist?), who here gets involved in solving a series of murders that takes place in a rural English household. The hallmark of the killings is that the victims received, just prior to their demise, a carved figure suggestive of black magic or ancient sorcery -- the "Mannikins of Death," as it were. The Blackburn character was also featured in a radio serial in the late 1930s, sometimes teamed with his wife Elizabeth, who does not appear in this book. NOTE again that this book bears a "Colorcopy" reproduction of the original dust jacket, to serve the dual purpose of protecting the book from further wear and enhancing its appearance on the shelf; its presence has not been factored in to our pricing. (A "Colorcopy" jacket, as distinct from a facsimile jacket, is a color print of a raw (unrestored) scan of an original jacket, which displays whatever flaws or blemishes were present on the original.) .