Death in the House (Scarce Crime Club Selection) By the author of Trial and Error

A very good plus copy in the scarce original dust jacket. Handsomely bound in finely woven brown cloth stamped brightly in black on the front boards and on the spine. Very clean and tight throughout. Printed on heavy stock and creamy white paper. With a touch of dust foxing to the top edges. In a pictorial dust jacket with wear and chipping to the top and bottom of the spine ends. Edge wear along the spine folds. With one vertical piece of tape on the verso along the inside front fold. With the original price of "$2.00" at the top of the inside front flap. Overall, a pleasant copy of this scarce Berkeley detective novel in jacket. Anthony Berkeley Cox (1893 1971) was an English crime writer. He wrote under several pen-names, including Francis Iles, Anthony Berkeley and A. Monmouth Platts. His first novel, The Layton Court Mystery, was published anonymously in 1925. It introduced Roger Sheringham, the amateur detective who features in many of the author's novels including the classic Poisoned Chocolates Case. In 1930, Berkeley founded the Detection Club in London along with Agatha Christie, Freeman Wills Crofts and other established mystery writers. His 1932 novel (as "Francis Iles"), Before the Fact was adapted into the 1941 classic film Suspicion, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine. Trial and Error was turned into the unusual 1941 film Flight from Destiny starring Thomas Mitchell. He was a friend of E.M. Delafield and they each dedicated a book to the other (Jill and The Wychford Poisoning Case). She gently ragged him in her Provincial Lady Goes Further by having people tell her that "Francis Iles" is really Aldous Huxley or Edith Sitwell. The opening sentence of Malice Aforethought has been described as "immortal":[7] "It was not until several weeks after he had decided to murder his wife that Doctor Bickleigh took any active steps in the matter."In 1938, he took up book reviewing for John O'London's Weekly and The Daily Telegraph, writing under his pen name Francis Iles. He also wrote for the Sunday Times in the 1940s and for the Manchester Guardian, later The Guardian, from the mid-1950s until 1970. A key figure in the development of crime fiction, he died in 1971 in St John's Wood, London. His estate was valued at £196,917 (£2,321,878 in 2023). (Wikipedia) First edition with matching dates of 1939 on the title and copyright pages; and the "First Edition" slug on the copyright page.…