Search Results: Pennsylvania from Murder By The Book

Boston, MA, U.S.A.: David R Godine Pub, 1983. 1st edition. Police chief Mario Balzac's 6th case. Fine in dj, price clipped. There’s a double robbery in two identical apartments, rented but hardly ever used by a Pittsburg drug dealer who’s clean with the law. A young woman is found shot dead on the street. She can’t be identified, but her murder has all the appearances of a professional hit. The mayor is near hysteria, and he smears the case all over Balzic, who not only has to solve the murder but teach his nosy new boss the not-so-plain facts of police work. Pennsylvania. First Edition. Hard Cover. Near Fine/Near Fine. Book.

N.Y.: Saint Martin's Press, 1990. 1st edition, so stated with complete number line beginning with 1. Fine in fine dust jacket, not price clipped, in protective mylar cover. Publicity info laid in. Author's first book and first Chase Defoe title. Smelly and filthy after a solitary canoe trip, Chase arrives as a stranger in a Pennsylvania town, finds the body of another stranger, David Spencer, and is held on the murder charge. His credentials quickly established, as a former U.S. Navy Intelligence Officer, Defoe is free to investigate the murder and the killer's motive. Spencer had been asking questions about Ava Dixon, certified as accidentally drowned years earlier, in 1951. Now Defoe probes deeper: inquiring about rumors that Ava had been gang-raped by the town's then-young elite men and killed to ensure her silence. . First Edition. Hard Cover. Fine/Fine. Book.

N.Y.: Mysterious Press, 1993. 1st ed., fine in dj. The 9th entry in the Mario Balzic mysteries. Publishers letter laid in.. First Edition. Hard Cover. Fine/Fine. Book.

N.Y.: Mysterious Press, 1995. 1st ed. Fine in dust jacket. SIGNED by author at half title page. A Mario Balzic title.. Signed by Author. First Edition. Hard Cover. Fine/Fine. Book.

N.Y.: Mysterious Press, 1995. 1st ed. Fine in dust jacket. A Mario Balzic title. "Only a few crime writers, Joseph Hansen among them, have risked letting their sleuths age gracefully and/or brought their series to a definitive end. Here Constantine caps the long, bitter career of Mario Balzic, his pragmatic Pennsylvanian police chief, with a hard-earned, all-night retirement party. Balzic has kept the peace in the town of Rocksburg since his 1972 introduction in The Rocksburg Railroad Murders. Now 65, with an old geezer's face looking back from the mirror and his wife's mind on Florida, Mario is told by the mayor that five cops have to be cut from the force. Outraged and frustrated at having to decide who to let go, he himself remains all cop; even drinking with his pals at Muscotti's bar, his cop's ear takes in the gossip and tales of political maneuvering that bespeak a world more morally complex than he can stomach. The mystery revolves mainly around paramilitary types seen… Read More

NY: Dutton, 1995. 1st ed. with complete number line beginning with 1. Fine in dust jacket with protective mylar cover. Private investigator Dave Garrett.. First Edition. Hard Cover. Fine/Fine. Book.

NY: Simon & Schuster, 1997. 1st ed., with complete number line beginning with 1. Fine in dust jacket, not price clipped, with protective mylar cover. A Tori Miracle Culinary Mystery. "Struggling but spunky New York author Tori Miracle returns to Lickin Creek, Pennsylvania (see Death Pays the Rose Rent, LJ 7/94), to visit her long-distance boyfriend, hunky local police chief Garnet. Their plans to vacation together are interrupted when someone kills a man who promised to sell acreage to a controversial proposed nuclear waste facility. Tori investigates but only after agreeing to speak to the literary society, act as "celebrity" judge for recipe entries in the local apple festival, and consider becoming temporary editor of the newspaper. Likable, eccentric characters, frothy hullabaloo, and humorous situations." -- Library Journal. 1st Ed. Hard Cover. Fine/Fine. Book.

N.Y.: Walker, 1992. 1st ed. with complete number line beginning with 1. Fine in dust jacket with protective mylar cover, lightly sunned at spine. The second in the David Garret series.. First Edition. Hard Cover. Fine/Near Fine. Book.

N.Y.: Walker, 1992. 1st edition with complete number line beginning with 1. Fine in fine dust jacket, not price clipped, in protective mylar cover. The second in the David Garret series set in lovely Amish countryside. Beautiful Copy with publicity information sheet laid in. " Disbarred lawyer turned PI Dave Garrett, a Vietnam veteran who suffers from flashbacks, works the Lancaster, Pa., area. Desperately needing cash after a court order halts payment on the high fee from his last case, he takes a suspicious new assignment involving a lucrative Chinese fast-food franchise whose manager, Bruce Chadwick, is getting nasty letters in the mail, bullet holes in the restaurant's walls and soap bubbles in the won ton soup. Chadwick's wife is abducted and her elderly neighbor murdered, but Dave still can't get beneath his client's cold exterior or persuade him to involve the police, who have placed the PI at the top of their suspect list. Dave uncovers a history of affairs, a… Read More

Scranton, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.: HarperCollins, 1994. 1st edition, November, 1994, with complete number line beginning with 1. Page edges tanning, very light wear to edges, light reading crease, else about fine. Pjhiladelphia judge goes from small cases to a death penalty case. EDGAR WARD WINNER for best PBO.. First Edition. Mass Market Paperback. Near Fine. Paperback Original.

Simon & Schuster, 1993. 1st ed., Limited edition special advance reader's copy. Fine pictorial wraps. Author's 2nd book again featuring Philadelphia reporter George Gray this time tracking a murderer in doctor's whites.. First Edition. Pictorial Wrappers. Fine. Advanced Reading Copy (ARC).

N.Y.: Saturday Review Press/ E.P. Dutton, 1975. 1st ed. Fine book with just a touch of sunning along the top edge in a fine dust jacket, un-clipped. [$6.95 price is still intact] The fourth novel in Constantine's widely-acclaimed mystery series set in Rocksburg, a small industrial town in Pennsylvania, and featuring Police Chief Mario Balzic. 1st Edition. Hard Cover. Near Fine/Near Fine. Book.

Scranton, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.: William Morrow & Co, 2003. 1st. Ed. FINE/FINE. Eddie North, a police sergeant in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is featured in the second title in this series, after Sons of the City.. First Edition. Hard Cover. Fine/Fine. Book.

N.Y.: Mysterious Press, 1988. 1st edition, April 1988, so stated, with complete number line beginning with 1. Fine in fine dust jacket, not price clipped, in protective mylar cover. EDGAR AWARD FINALIST FOR BEST NOVEL. Mario Balzic title. Pennsylvania coal-mining country. "Like the characters in The Man Who Loved Slow Tomatoes and other of Constantine's novels, the citizens of Rocksburg, Pa., are recognizable human beings in his new story. And his gritty dialogue fairly zips off the page. Tough old ex-miner Albert Castelucci nags the town police chief, Mario Balzic, into checking on the killing of his son Joey. The grieving father believes the state police, in charge of the case, have bungled badly. When Balzic agrees to investigate unofficially, he hears that Francis Collins, the lover of Joey's estranged wife Rose, had fired the fatal shot to save his own life. Rosa's relatives, tenants in her building, support the claim that Joey was beating Collins before the gun went off.… Read More

Boston, MA: David R. Godine, Publisher Inc., 1982. First edition, so stated. Fine in near fine dust jacket, small stain at rear, spine very lightly toned, price clipped, in protective mylar cover. The fifth mystery featuring Police Chief Mario Balzic, set in the fictional town of Rocksburg, Pennsylvania - a small coal mining town where most of the coal has run out. The fiercely unpretencious Mario Balzic, always in absolute command, discovers that tomatoes curiously ripe out of season are the key to the mysterious death of Jimmy Romanelli. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Near Fine. Illus. by Adkins, Jan. Book.

N.Y.: Tor, 1993. 1st ed., with complete number line beginning with 1. Fine in dust jacket. "Philadelphia is plagued by a series of psychosexual killings that will repulse and engross readers of this slightly over-the-edge thriller about a martial artist gone mad. Scruffy homicide Lt. Bill Fogarty gets nowhere on the case until smooth Joey Tanaka, a young half-American assistant medical examiner (and All-Japan Championship karate finalist), identifies wounds on an art student/stripper victim as typical of Praying Mantis Kung Fu--a karate style based on the insect's attack moves. La Plante's unbalanced half-Vietnamese villain seeks perfection by mimicking the mantis's deadly mating ritual: he sexually attacks his victims, male and female, before savagely doing them in. A police sketch of the killer resembles Tanaka, which worries Fogarty. Then the killer ruthlessly batters Fogarty and kidnaps Tanaka's lover, Rachel--raising the stakes. La Plante flirts with the supernatural when… Read More

New York, NY, U.S.A.: Scribners, 1989. 1st edition with complete number line beginning with 1. Fine in fine dust jacket, not price clipped, in protective mylar cover. As new copy of this the author's second book -- featuring the inimitable Amanda Pepper. AGATHA AWARD NOMINEE for Best Novel. "After a reading of A Christmas Carol , Philadelphia schoolteacher Amanda Pepper tries to instill a sense of compassion in her private-school sophomore students by suggesting they give a Christmas party for the homeless at a shelter. The idea is taken over and perverted by one of the parents, automobile and real-estate tycoon and politician Alexander "Sandy" Clausen, who arranges a catered party at his home with plenty of publicity. Late at night after the party, Clausen is found burned to death in the remains of the family Christmas tree, and his troubled daughter Laura confesses to killing him, as does her boyfriend Peter Shaw, although there is little evidence against them. Amanda… Read More

New York, NY, U.S.A.: Morrow/Avon, 1998. 1st Avon printing, August 1998. Paperback. FINE - shows no reading creases. The second case for Pittsburgh P.I. Carroll Dorsey.. 1st Prtg. Pictorial Wrappers. Near Fine. Book.

New York, NY, U.S.A.: Harper Collins, 1997. First Edition, Second Printing. . Pages lightly tanned. Fine in fine dust jacket, not price clipped, in protective mylar cover. SIGNED by the author on the Title Page. Signed by Author. 2nd Printing. Hard Cover. Fine/Fine. Book.

New York, NY, U.S.A.: Avon, 2000. 2nd ed. (1st was Avon/Twilight edition of 1999). Light reading crease else near fine. An EDGAR Award Nominee for Best PBO. Nine women of color have disappeared from Philadelphia's teeming streets. As McCleary investigates, with a beautiful, highly educated black woman at his side, he finds that both the living and the dead are vanishing.. 2nd Ed. Mass Market Paperback. Near Fine. Paperback Original.