About this title: A lunatic thinks that burning down a sufficient number of London slums will encourage the rest of the city to do the same. Commander George Gideon of Scotland Yard investigates.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Harper & Brothers, 1961. ( hb with dj, dj well worn in acid free cover, cover worn, ink writing fep, o/w in good cond. Book Club Edition. ) read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Signet, New American Library, New York
Date Published: 1967
Description: Good- 12mo-over 6¾"-7¾" tall. 160pp. P3053. 1st prtg. Covs rubbed; small scrape on frnt cov from sticker removal; edges & corners worn. Sp creased, browned; edges & ends a bit worn. Pgs lightly browned. Commander Gideon of Scotland Yard meets his match in a wily little Walter Mitty whose passion is arson. read more
Edition: First Printing
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Signet, New York
Date Published: 1967
Description: Fair. No Jacket. 12mo-over 6¾"-7¾" tall. Shelf and edge wear. Long tear along front wrap at spine, almost detached. Solid reading copy with clean pages. read more
Edition: Book Club
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Harper & Brothers
Date Published: 1961
Description: Good in fair jacket. Good/Fair. BCE. Some wear, blunting to corners and spine ends. DJ has numerous tears, chipping and a cup ring. Text clean, binding tight. read more
Description: PB, A Berkley Medalion Book, #Y663, (1961). Covers lightly rubbed with light edge wear, front cover has small spot pulled off, back cover has larger area pulled off leaving the white underneath, contents browning, very tight. Good. read more
Edition: First Paperback Printing
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Berkley Medallion, New York
Date Published: 1961
Description: Near Fine. 12mo-over 6¾"-7¾" tall. Slight shelf wear, darkening, slight creasing at the hinges. An Edgar award winning mystery novel. "The brutal rape and killing of a young girl--plus a series of frightening fires--plus a grave containing the bodies of three women--plus a fraudulent stock deal--equal...'The best mystery novel of the year'--Mystery Writers of America. Here is Commander Gideon's most baffling case--a brisk and suspenseful search for a rapist and pyromaniac--a madman who must ... read more
"This was the first of the Edgar winners for Best Novel, reading in order, that I knew I had actually read before, as I went through the whole Gideon series back in the 1970s. Along with Ed McBain's 87th Precinct books, I think these were what started my love for police procedurals. In GIDEON'S FIRE, Commander George Gideon of Scotland Yard must coordinate investigations into: a string of arson fires in slum housing; a case of stock fraud; a man who is suspected of killing two former mistresses and who now has a new mistress; the rape-murder of a young girl in her own home; and a bank robbery where the catspaw is in prison but the mastermind remains at large. There is also trouble at home with one of his six children. Marric masterfully weaves all these plot lines together and ties them up satisfyingly at the end. One thing that is unusual about this series is that the protagonist is of such high rank, and seems to get along well with both superiors and subordinates. At least, this is unusual in the current world of police procedurals. In all the cases, we see not only the investigation from the police viewpoint, but also from the viewpoints of the perpetrators and indeed of some of the victims and their families. I don't always care for this device but in this case, I believe it added a lot to the book. We noticed (my husband is reading along with me) that in the book, the 1962 Edgar winner, Londoners were still dealing with the aftermath of World War II in a way that Americans had left far behind by then. Not that we didn't have slums, but I think they were attributable mostly to greedy landlords and not to an actual inability to replace crumbling buildings fast enough. It's interesting to me to speculate what may have happened between 1961 and 1962 to make the winners so different. GIDEON'S FIRE is an excellent mystery but makes no pretensions to be other than what it is -- one of a series of novels with the same protagonist, with all the pluses and minuses that entails. No one would ever say it "transcends the genre" and that's fine with me."
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