HALLAS, Richard (pseudonym of Eric Knight)

You Play the Black and the Red Comes Up

First edition. Minute bumps to the crown and foot else fine in a lovely, about fine example of the scarce dustwrapper with a few rubbed spots and slight loss at the spinal extremities (affecting a couple of letters). A lost classic of hardboiled fiction; when it came out it was compared to The Postman Always Rings Twice and They Shoot Horses, Don't They? An Oklahoma man comes home and finds his wife and child gone, perhaps to California, and he sets out after them. The only mystery novel written by Eric Knight, an excellent and very versatile writer (he also wrote Lassie, Come Home) who died in a plane crash during WWII. An uncommon book, and genuinely rare in jacket.

[BTC #97353]