The Butler Died in Brooklyn

1st ed, 1st imp. Not dated but c 1945. 192pp. Blue cloth boards (edge worn and rubbed, rounded and rubbed at corners and spine ends, a few marks and light mottling). Lending sheet on front free endpaper, no other library markings. Well thumbed pages but else internally neat and clean. In its original worn and edge-rubbed dust jacket (shelf wear visible on verso, rubbed all over and a little chipping at extremities). Dust jacket now in archival-quality mylar wrapper to protect & prolong the life of the jacket. It is not adhered to the book or to the dust jacket. Classic crime novel featuring Fenisong's recurrent New York police detective, Gridley Nelson. American author Ruth Fenisong published 20 of her 22 crime novels between 1942 and 1962, putting her at the beating heart of mid-century murder fiction but, as with many prominent female crime writers of the time, she fell out of fashion after her death. In her day she was a justly praised crime writer, with the dean of American crime fiction critics, Anthony Boucher, leading a cohort of admirers.