THE SINGING BONE. London, New York, Toronto: Hodder and Stoughton, n.d. [1912]. Octavo, pp. [i-v] vi [vi-viii] [1] 2-312, publisher's red cloth, front panel stamped in black, spine panel stamped in gold. First edition, first printing. An important book in which Dr. Freeman "invented what is now called the 'inverted' detective story ... in which deliberately he threw overboard the elements of puzzle, surprise, and suspense; but his dangerous and noble experiment was an historic success. The Freeman 'inverted' tales were a monumental contribution to the development of the detective story, and from them have stemmed some of the great modern masterpieces of crime writing -- especially those purely psychological studies in which the reader follows step by step the terrifying events leading up to the tragedy." - Queen's Quorum 52. "Special significance, however, attaches to THE SINGING BONE (1912), in which the author made the experiment of revealing to the reader the full stories of the crimes first, then describing the steps leading up to the solutions by the detective. This rather dangerous departure -- perilous in that it dispenses almost entirely with the puzzle and suspense elements -- Freeman never repeated in toto; but in all the Thorndyke stories the revelation of the criminal will usually be found subordinated to the means of detection." - Haycraft, Murder for Pleasure (1972), p. 69. A Haycraft-Queen Cornerstone. Barzun and Taylor, A Catalogue of Crime (1989) 3802. Pronzini and Muller, eds., 1001 Midnights: The Aficionado's Guide to Mystery and Detective Fiction, , p. 273. Queen, The Detective Short Story, p. 43. QQ 52. Hubin (1994), p. 306. Donaldson 7a. Tiny gift inscription dated 3 September 1913 at the upper right corner of the front free endpaper. Small leather bookplate of John Talbot Gernon affixed to the front paste-down. A clean, bright, nearly fine copy. Quite a nice copy. (#177745).
Price: $1,000.00
No statement of printing.