Taste Honey by Heard Gerald (12 results)

Softcover. Condition: Very Good. First Thus. # 73647. The first Mycroft mystery. VG - Creased from storage across the font cover, slight slant. The photo is of the actual book. Entered into the Haycraft Queen Cornerstones and is considered a masterpiece in the genre. On 22 February 1955, the American Broadcasting Company presented "The Sting of Death", an adaptation of the novel starring Boris Karloff as Mr. Mycroft, as an episode of The Elgin TV Hour. The novel was loosely adapted into a 1967 British horror film, The Deadly Bees, directed by Freddie Francis but a script re-write weakened the connection. ; 8vo.

Soft cover. Condition: Very Good-. 1st Edition. Green bands Penguin Crime no 1624.

Mass Market Paperback. Condition: Good. A copy that's been read with wear and creases to the cover and spine. Pages are tanned but clean.

Paperback. Condition: Good. The idyllic village of Ashton Clearwater is suddenly swarming with bees. Mo re sinister, the bees were trained to attack by a mad apiarist named Heregr ove. One of the village's residents, Sydney Silchester, discovers Heregrove 's scheme, and goes to Mr. Mycroft, an indomitable beekeeper with a Holmesi an knack for sleuthing. While they know the "who" and the "how" of the myst ery, the "why" is alarming.

First Edition 1624. Condition: vg+. vg+ 1st Penguin Books 1624 1961 edition paperback In stock shipped from our UK warehouse.

Softcover. Condition: Good. First Edition. Plaintext paperback binding with black and white coloured titles to the front panel and back strip. Black and white photograph of the author to the verso of the front panel. Mycroft Holmes investigates the death of beekeepers in the village in which he is residing. Creasing of the book panels with rubbing of the book edges and panels. Sunning to the book panels and back strip. Tanning of the text block edges and pages. first edition by this publisher. Size: 12 mo (standard paperback). 155, [5] pages. Please refer to accompanying picture (s). Quantity Available: 1. Shipped Weight: Under 1 kilo. Category: Crime Fiction; Inventory No: 0288672.

Soft cover. Condition: Poor. This book is a Penguin first edition. It is not in good condition. It is offered here as a reading copy for the Penguin collector who still has an annoying gap at No. 1624. It will make a good swap when a better one comes along.

Couverture souple. Condition: bon. RO60107034: 1961. In-12. Broché. Etat passable, Couv. défraîchie, Dos frotté, Fortes mouillures. 155 pages. Ouvrage très abîmé. Texte lisible. . . . Classification Dewey : 420-Langue anglaise. Anglo-saxon.

Paperback. Condition: Good. Has heavy discoloration, wear, and dirtiness.

Octavo, pp. [i-iv] v [vi] 1- original gray cloth stamped in black. First British edition. The first of the three weird mystery novels featuring an old and somewhat mysterious scientist/detective who keeps bees in a rural Sussex village and calls himself Mr. Mycroft (in this Cassell edition it's Mr. Bowcross, "only one of my family names," which the retired Great Detective is now using "because my full name was once pretty widely known"). "When this novel was first published in 1941, it caused something of a stir. NEWSWEEK lauded it as 'one of the ten best mysteries of all time.' Such prominent Sherlockians and mystery fans as Vincent Starrett and Boris Karloff sang its praises, calling it 'terrifying . perfectly done' and 'a triumph of ingenuity.' To this day some aficionados consider it a classic." - Pronzini and Muller, 1001 Midnights, pp. 352-3. To be truthful, after this laudatory preamble, Bill Pronzini absolutely trashes Heard's novel, and this cataloguer has to agree that the narrator, Sydney Silchester -- Mycroft's unwilling companion, who just wants to be left alone to putter about in his garden and to indulge his taste for honey -- "is a twit, one of the dullest, most annoying protagonists the genre has yet produced." But he's so egocentric he's fun, and so is the book. Heard is "now remembered mostly for his delightful novel A TASTE OF HONEY . Set in the British countryside, ably characterized, with a leisurely pace, it is perhaps the finest novel-length pastiche of Sherlock Holmes -- even though Holmes is not mentioned by name." - E. F. Bleiler, Lesley Henderson (ed.), Twentieth-Century Crime and Mystery Writers, Third Edition, p. 521. A Haycraft-Queen cornerstone. The novel was the basis for "The Deadly Bees," a very bad 1967 British horror film directed by Freddie Francis from a screenplay by Robert Bloch. Bleiler (1948), p. 146. Reginald 07007. Not in Bleiler (1978). Hubin (1994), p. 388. A fine copy in good 7/6 pictorial dust jacket with wear and closed tears at edges and two chips, a 45 mm v-chip at top edge of spine panel with loss of several words of the title, and 20x15 mm near upper fore-edge corner of the front panel. (#172001).

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Poor. 1st Edition. The first British edition in the rare dust jacket with heavy chipping. The striking front panel is mostly complete, though. Most importantly, the book is signed and inscribed by the author: "To Wolfgang / with best wishes / from the author / Gerald Heard / 26th April 1948." A rare signature in a classic mystery novel. Signed by Author(s). Book.

Hard Cover. Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket. First Edition. First UK Edition. Publisher's grey cloth stamped in black to the spine. Foxing to the page block edges which has crept into the text and end-papers in places and very slight spine fade (hardly worth mentioning) overall VG indeed. In the RARE D/W priced 7/6 net to the spine (as called for). The slightly chipped D/W has been reinforced to the verso in several places with water-based brown paper tape (not sellotape). Originally published in the USA in 1941 the US first edition published by Vanguard turns up occasionally but this, the UK first edition is almost non-existent and incredibly scarce. Horror strikes when killer bees swarm amok in the seemingly-idyllic hamlet of Ashton Clearwater in the British Countryside. Even more sinister is the discovery that the angry swarms were programmed to kill by a mad, ingenious apiarist named Heregove. One of the village's honey addicts - the hapless, reclusive, ego-centric Sydney Silchester - stumbles into Heregrove's diabolical scheme. Silchester's sweet tooth leads him to the indomitable Mr Mycroft a retired beekeeper possessing an encyclopaedic knowledge of bees and a Holmesian penchant for sleuthing. This novel - the first significant book-length and cleverly-disguised Sherlock Holmes pastiche - is required reading for all Sherlockian aficionados and is one of the best. "A Taste for Honey" was a huge bestseller and much acclaimed by, inter alia, Vincent Starrett Boris Karloff and Rex Stout. The journalist & writer Christopher Morley called "A Taste for Honey" the only worthwhile Sherlock Holmes sequel, adding that it was "engaging and terrifying". The basis for the 1966 British Horror Movie "The Deadly Bees" directed by Freddie Francis and starring Suzanna Leigh, Guy Doleman and Frank Finlay. A Haycraft Queen Cornerstone. Very scarce (especially in dust wrapper) and an acclaimed cult phenomenon in mystery fiction. Photographs/scans available upon request.