THE CROUCHING BEAST: Clubfoot Returns Again!

N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, 1928. 1st thus, [n.d.] orig. 1928. (From the books listed at rear panel it would seem this was published in 1934). Blue cloth with red lettering. Neat gift inscription at front end paper. Page edges age toned, elase a fine, tight copy in dust jacket, flap corners narrowly clipped, front cover lightly soiled and rubbed, shallow loss at top spine ends and flap corners. It is 1914 Germany, and war is certainly imminent. Olivia Dunbar, a British subject, is working as secretary for judge Dr. Von Nentsch; at his home. His home, is adjacent to Schlatz Castle; which is being used as a prison for German military officers. Olivia is alone one night when she encounters a man outside her window. He enters, and identifies himself as Major Vivian Abbott, a British officer. He tells a story of being stranded and seeking money for train fare. Then they hears the cannon sound from the Castle, a signal that a prisoner has escaped - and Abbott confesses it is he. He asks a sympathetic Olivia to perform a task to clear his name: to travel to Berlin and obtain an envelope from Floria Pellegrini, and deliver it to Joseph Bale. Olivia agrees, Abbott slips out into the garden as searchers approach. Gunshots are heard, and Sylvia goes to the garden to see if Abbott escaped safely. There she encounters a gruff, evil-looking man crouching in the garden who warns her against aiding Abbott - he is Dr. Adolf Grundt, a.k.a. "Clubfoot", the terrible, the most powerful man in Germany and the most feared. This copy, although not marked as such, comes from the auction of the George Cloos collection of detective fiction.. First Edition Thus. Hardcover. Fine/Very Good. Award Winner.