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SUMMERSCALE**, KATE: : THE SUSPICIONS OF MR WHICHER or THE MURDER at ROAD HILL HOUSE.** [Author SIGNED**,Special Edition,2009.]

LONDON.BLOOMSBURY,2009.

ISBN 9781408803561.

UK,8vo HB,no dw/dj - as issued,SIGNED, Special Edn,1st thus.Originally and first published a year earlier,by same publisher.] FINE.No owner inscrptn but author's handwritten,black ink signature - without dedication - to a facsimile printed bookplate on front free endpaper.Bright, crisp,clean,matt,brick red background,paper-covered boards with an ovoid b/w illustrated onlay vignette to upper board and cream lettering; with negligible shelf-wear and creasing to edges and corners - no nicks or tears present.Sharp-cornered boards with merest, almost imperceptible,hint of pushing to foot of spine/backstrip and a couple of spaced,tiniest of indents on top edge of the rear board; b/w floor plan illustrated endpapers with superimposed facsimile ephemera illustrations,a black headband with a black,sewn-in silk bookmark ribbon.Top+fore-edges coloured black; contents bright,tight and virtually pristine - possibly an unread copy - apart from my own collation.UK,8vo HB,no dw/dj - as issued,SIGNED Special Edn,1st thus,x-xxvpp +4-372pp [paginated] includes contents list/table,an introduction,list of characters,a prologue,Pts 1-3 comprising 20 chapters and an Afterword,a Postscript, 16pp in 2 blocks of 8pp apiece of b/w+ colour contemporary illus/plates/ photographs - 1st block with gate-fold pages, some other b/w illus/plans interspersed throughout the text and book,notes,list of illustrations,a bibliography,acknowledgements and an index.Unpaginated ex-libris published bookplate with owner's handwritten ink,name+ date,title page,a dedication,quotation page (extract from Wilkie Collins,'The Moonstone'), family tree diagram,a note on money and Pts separator pages and as last page - a note on the author with a potted history of Bloomsbury Publishing to it's reverse. It is a summer's night in 1860.In an elegant detached Georgian house in the village of Road,Wiltshire,all is quiet.Behind shuttered windows the Kent family lies sound asleep.About an hour after midnight a dog barks: the Kent's Newfoundland is known for reacting noisily to the slightest provocation. The family wakes the next morning to a horrific discovery: an unimaginably gruesome murder has taken place in their home.The household reverberates with shock,not least because the guilty party is almost certainly still among them.Jack Whicher of Scotland Yard,the most celebrated detective of his day,is sent to investigate the murder at Road Hill House.With only an inept local police force to help him,and no material evidence,he faces an unenviable task - to solve a case in which the grieving family are the suspects. The murder provokes national hysteria.The thought of what might be hiding behind the closed doors of respectable middle-class homes - scheming servants,rebellious children,insanity, jealousy,loneliness,loathing - arouses fear and a kind of excitement.Everyone has a theory about the identity of the killer.But when Whicher reaches his own conclusion there is uproar and bewilderment. A true story inspired a generation of writers such as Wilkie Collins,Charles Dickens and Arthur Conan Doyle,this has all the hallmarks of the classic murder mystery: a body,a detective,a country house steeped in secrets.In 'The Suspicions of Mr Whicher',Kate Summerscale untangles the facts behind this notorious case, bringing it back to vivid,extraordinary life. Please contact seller,because of the weight/ value of this item,for correct shipping/P+p quotes - particularly ALL overseas buyers - BEFORE ordering through the order page! ** N.B. ALL buyers please note,stocks' actual shipping/P+p costs are adjusted and any difference is refunded,after order's receipt and before the order's despatch,especially if the item(s) are offered either P+p included/FREE. ** This item offered P+p included.Offer available UK only,unless indicated otherwise. ** ** N.B. US/Canada customers please be aware: Standard AIRMAIL postage from UK to these destinations can now cost more than the price of the book! If speed is not of the essence,then Economy rate is recommended - at approx. anything from a 1/3rd to 1/2 of the standard AIR quote/rate - sometimes arriving sooner than the 42 days - but not always.

UK,8vo HB,no dw/dj - as issued,SIGNED,Special Edition,1st thus.
Author SIGNED.

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