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American Mystery Classics, 2021 A rare new edition SIGNED BY THE PUBLISHER. OTTO PENZLER. This new edition has a masterly introduction by Eddie Muller. This is a RARE book in the UK anyway, but it ia even scarcer with the signature of Penzler. This is a special edition brought out as part of the American Mystery Classics. The founding novel by the founding father of American noir returns to print. Woolrich (1903-1968) kicked off his Black series with this dark 1940 fantasy about a woman who targets five men for death for reasons that would be teasingly obscure if it werent for the title. Following the rule that "the really clever woman is all things to all men. Like the chameleon, she takes her coloring from his ideal of her," Julie Killeen studies each of her targets at her leisure, discovers what theyre looking for in a woman, and then assumes that role. . . . The pattern behind her crimes is so stark, simple, and compelling that Woolrich couldnt resist reprising it in Rendezvous in Black (1948), which readers may want to seek out if theyre still able to sleep after gulping this nightmare down. A point-by-point inversion of romantic idealism thats still memorably disturbing 80 years on. Smart protected jacket. NEW & UNREAD.. Signed by Author. Special Edition.. Hardcover. New/New.

A rare new edition SIGNED BY THE PUBLISHER. OTTO PENZLER. This new edition has a masterly introduction by Eddie Muller. This is a RARE book in the UK anyway, but it ia even scarcer with the signature of Penzler. This is a special edition brought out as part of the American Mystery Classics. The founding novel by the founding father of American noir returns to print. Woolrich (1903-1968) kicked off his Black series with this dark 1940 fantasy about a woman who targets five men for death for reasons that would be teasingly obscure if it weren’t for the title. Following the rule that "the really clever woman is all things to all men. Like the chameleon, she takes her coloring from his ideal of her," Julie Killeen studies each of her targets at her leisure, discovers what they’re looking for in a woman, and then assumes that role. . . . The pattern behind her crimes is so stark, simple, and compelling that Woolrich couldn’t resist reprising it in Rendezvous in Black (1948), which readers may want to seek out if they’re still able to sleep after gulping this nightmare down. A point-by-point inversion of romantic idealism that’s still memorably disturbing 80 years on. Smart protected jacket. NEW & UNREAD.

First Edition bound in gilt-stamped full black leather, with raised bands and gilt page edges. A fine association copy, warmly inscribed by Woolrich to his Aunt Lil on the front free endpaper: "To my darling / aunt Lil / with all my love, / Cornell / New Year's, 1941." The recipient was Woolrich s mother's sister, Lillian Tarler MacBain, who lived with Woolrich in New York City during the 1920s. Woolrich was one of two witnesses at the wedding of her son, Cornell's cousin Archie (who was 12 years his junior), to a waitress named Dorothy Lynch in 1938. Woolrich's first mystery, and first "black" book, which was the basis for the 1968 film La mariée était en noir directed by François Truffaut and starring Jeanne Moreau. Haycraft Queen Cornerstone. A fine copy.