GREAT STORIES OF SUSPENSE.

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1974., 1974. First edition. First edition. Review copy with the slip laid-in. Signed by Ross Macdonald on the front free fly leaf. Nine-page introduction by Macdonald. Prints four complete novels by Dick Francis, Kenneth Fearing, Agatha Christie, and MacDonald's own "The Far Side of the Dollar," together with stories by Graham Greene, Michael Gilbert, John Collier, and John Cheever. Included are the novel, The Big Clock, by Kenneth Fearing, a bibliomystery set within the community of a large publisher where a young woman is murdered and her killer is a member of the publishing company. Also there is a short story The Terrapin, by Patricia Highsmith, in which a young boy, because of his mis-deeds, is required to memorize poetry by his mother, who is an illustrator of children's books. His concern for a terrapin brought home for soup leads to tragic circumstances. The Comforts of Home by Flannery O'Connor, tells us of a man who writes history for a living and is president of his local Historical Society. His problem is his mother, with whom he lives, and her strange passion for befriending wayward girls and bringing them home. Thomas hates this and finally finds a way in which to cope---but the solution is fatal. A splendid selection of stories that includes four novels, one novella by Robert Louis Stevenson, and eleven short stories by Dashiell Hammett, Roald Dahl, Margaret Millar, Stanley Ellin, and James M. Cain. Fine in dust jacket. This 825-page book turns up far less often than one might expect. An exceptional copy and a host of great reading.