YOU PLAY THE BLACK AND THE RED COMES UP. New York: Robert M. McBride and Company, 1938. Octavo, pp. [1-8] 1-213 [214-216, blank] [note: last leaf is a blank], original red cloth, front and spine panels stamped in black. First edition. Classic hard-boiled mystery novel set in Southern California. "The book does read like James Cain filtered through Thomas Pynchon. Although Knight’s first person narrative begins in typical tough-guy fashion, with Dick Dempsey, an Oklahoma-born AWOL Marine hopping a freight in Texas for Southern California in pursuit of his wife and son, it soon moves off in another, wilder direction — more like a noir Alice in Lotus Land than a cool and conventional hard-boiled novel." - Woody Haut, the online Los Angeles Review of Books (29 July 2011). The only mystery novel by Hallas who is best known as the creator of Lassie the dog. "Property of Vanguard Films, Inc." stamped on endpapers and title page. Touch of shelf wear to spine ends and corners, a little soiling at edges, a bright, nearly fine copy, lacking the dust jacket. (#137046).

Price: $750.00

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