THE THING AT THEIR HEELS

First edition, first printing. Publisher's original blue cloth with black titles to the spine, in the E. Kinley illustrated dustwrapper. A very good copy, the binding square and firm with a little bumping to the extremities, the cloth bright and fresh. The contents, with spotting to the prelims and closed text block edge, are otherwise clean throughout and without inscriptions or stamps. Complete with the rubbed, nicked and darkened dustwrapper that has several short closed tears and some small chips with loss at the base of the spine. A partially removed publisher's 'The Crime Circle' paper label covers the 7/6 net printed price on the spine. A scarce title in dustwrapper.

One of four mystery novels written by Eden Phillpotts under the Harrington Hext pseudonym. The Templer family has been targeted by a mad killer. It appears that a crazed German soldier, someone they call the Man in Black, is killing the heirs in order of their succession according to the legacies listed in family patriarch Sir Augustine Templer's will. Bertram Midwinter, a police inspector, is summoned by Father Felix Templer to find the killer and stop the decimation. But the mysterious Man in Black seems far too elusive and efficient a killer to stop. (Hubin).