The Gay Phoenix.

UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn. NFINE/NFINE. No owner inscrptn,and no price-clip to dw/dj.Bright,crisp,clean, glossy,distinctive Gollancz yellow background dw/dj,with red+black lettered front panel,black lettered spine/backstrip and red+black lettered publisher's advert for other assorted authors' published titles to rear panel - all with negligible shelf-wear,bumping, creasing to edges and corners - no nicks,tears or splits present.Top edges bright without foxing/spotting,fore-edges also bright and clean but for 2 foxing spots; contents bright,tight,clean,solid and sound - no dog-ear reading creases to any pages' corner tips - appears unread,other than my own collation.Publisher's bright,crisp,clean,sharp-cornered, original red cloth boards with bright,crisp,blocked gilt lettered spine/backstrip and immaculate plain white endpapers.UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn,9-192pp [paginated] includes a Prologue Pts 1-4 comprising XV(15) chapters; plus [unpaginated] half-title+title pages,contents list/table with blank verso,individual prologue and Pts seapator paages -all with blank verso.
Visually the exterior appearance is exceptional for a book of it's age, and even internally,the book is also in an exceptional condition/state of preservation and presentation.It is only the exterior's minor faults described that prevents a higher grading.Despite them,it really is an exceptional example copy for brightness and cleanliness.
A small yacht adrift in mid-Pacific,its main-mast snapped,its navigator dead - that's the highly intriguing (and most uncharacteristic) opening of Michael Innes's latest story. The dead man is Charles Povey,a maverick tycoon.
And there's a survivor on board: his brother Arthur, who,when at last he is picked up,semi-delirious,is assumed for several convincing reasons to be Charles himself.As Charles was the wealthy brother, Arthur is very ready to accept the error in identification. . . not surprisingly,there are one or two people who see through the impersonation,and make their blackmailing demands.
Arthur is driven to marriage,crime,attempted murder and desperation.Unhappily for Arthur,he buys a country estate which makes him a neighbour of that greatest of detectives,Sir John Appleby,sometime head of Scotland Yard.Appleby is in retirement now, but he cannot resist a mystery almost on his own doorstep,and he is soon investigating.
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