The Medusa Touch

London: Victor Gollancz Ltd., 1973. T4 - A first edition (no additional printing) hardcover book in very good condition in very good dust jacket that is mylar protected. Dust jacket has some wrinkling, chipping and crease on the edges, corners, some scattered light scratches, rubbing and scuffing, tanning and light shelf wear. Book has some bumped corners, some wrinkling on the spine edges, light tanning and shelf wear. Although not marked in any way, this copy comes from the personal collection of Otto Penzler, legendary editor and founder of the Mysterious Press, an award-winning icon in the genre. 8"x5.25", 255 pages. Satisfaction Guaranteed. With this, his fifth novel, Peter Van Greenaway proves himself to be unquestionably a master of suspense. Each of his plots turns out to have a more shattering impact than the previous one. The Man Who Held the Queen to Ransom and Sent Parliament Packing was hailed in the Press as the "most astounding novel" of its year. Of its successor, Judas!, R. C. Churchill said (in the Birmingham Post), "as thrilling a story of suspense as any reader could desire"; the Manchester Evening News called it "a cliff-hanger"; and The Times declared, "This extraordinary book (which contains about three other novels) is impossible to set aside." Now Mr Van Greenaway comes up with something even more startling. The quiet opening, which suggests a detective story, is deceptive. A well known novelist, Morlar, has been battered almost to death; in fact, the police doctor pronounces him dead, but by some miracle of will-power, there's a flicker of life in him still, desperately holding on. Inspector Cherry of the Yard can find no conventional clues; but, an unconventional man, he begins to explore Morlar's mind, as revealed in his novels and in interviews with his psychiatrist, Zonfeld. Zonfeld describes Morlar as "the most dangerous man in the world:, and he could be right . . . throughout Morlar's life, his enemies have mysteriously met disaster. In their sessions together, the psychiatrist has tried to explain away this (and much more) as coincidence or premonition. But he cannot explain away the appalling evidences of his power which Morlar produces - the crash of a jumbo jet into Centre Point among them. And now, from a note in Morlar's journal, the Inspector realizes where he intends to strike next, and why he is striving so desperately to stay alive to engineer his atrocious coup . . . The novel builds up to a climax of agonising suspense, as the Inspector tries in vain to persuade people at the very top level that he isn't crazy and that the fantastic danger is real. And at the end Morlar, his coup achieved, passes on a last two-word message of even more terrible import. This is indeed the Arctic and Antarctic of chillers.. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.