Not to Be Taken

London: Hodder & Stoughton Limited, 1938. First Edition. Very good/Good. 8vo. 7 1/4 x 4 3/4 in. (182 x 121mm); pp. 356 + iii. Grey cloth binding with black lettering, dampstain to the tail of the spine, light toning to the edges of the pages but no stains or foxing. Dust jacket present with some tears and chips to the head and tail, and a 1 x 2 in. piece missing to back. The first edition of this classic arsenic murder, with its DUST JACKET. The book was published one year later in the US under the title "A Puzzle in Poison" (see our inventory no. 450).
Anthony Berkeley Cox (1893 - 1971) is today recognized as a key figure in the development of crime fiction. He wrote under several pen-names, including Francis Iles, Anthony Berkeley and A. Monmouth Platts. He was educated at Sherborne School and University College, Oxford. He served in the British Army during the First World War and worked as a journalist for many years, contributing to such magazines as Punch and The Humorist. His first novel was published in 1925 and it introduced the amateur detective, Robert Sheringham, who would feature in many of his novels through 1934. In 1930, Berkeley founded the Detection Club in London along with Agatha Christie, Freeman Wills Crofts, Dorothy L. Sayers, Hugh Walpole and other established mystery writers. Several of his books were adapted for the screen including "Before the Fact" adapted by Alfred Hitchcock as "Suspicion", starring Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine.