THE VERY HOT WATER-BOTTLE [THE HOT-WATER BOTTLE MYSTERY]

First edition, first printing. Original light blue cloth with red and gilt titles to the spine. In the dustwrapper. Illustrated throughout with lovely expressive black and white line-drawings by Edward Lewis. A very good copy, the binding square and firm, the text block edges and endpapers with a little light spotting, are otherwise clean throughout and without previous owners' stamps or inscriptions. Complete with the rubbed and nicked pictorial dustwrapper that is otherwise without loss or large tears. Not price-clipped but with the original printed price on the front flap neatly crossed out in pen. Scarce in the first edition.

The true first edition (it was later re-titled 'The Hot-Water Bottle Mystery'). A children's detective caper in which a hot water bottle that a lady has hidden her pearls in goes missing, leading two children on a chase around London.