Tracks In The Snow. Being The History Of A Crime.

GODFREY R. BENSON

Publication: Longman's, Green, and Co, 1906, London

First edition. 8vo. Olive green cloth, titles stamped in gilt on the spine, 281 pp. Bookplate of the great collector Ned Guymon affixed to the front pastedown sheet. Vincent Starrett's copy with his inked signature at the top of a front fly leaf and his bookplate affixed to the rear pastedown sheet. The story begins in 1896 when the parish of Long Wilton is disrupted by the murder of Eustace Peters, a friend of the narrator, the Reverend Robert Driver. Peters is found stabbed to death in his bed. Clues seem to point to the gardener, and the police arrest him, but an overlooked bit of evidence will proclaim his innocence. Reverend Driver sets out to solve the murder of his friend and after a time feels he knows who is the guilty party, but gathering conclusive evidence presents him with quite a challenge. After 100 years this is still an extremely readable novel, and is the author's only mystery novel. Later the author was elevated to the peerage as Lord Charnwood and published a very well received biography of Abraham Lincoln in 1916, but never wrote another mystery story. Howard Haycraft called this novel, "a modern and eminently readable detective novel." Haycraft/Queen cornerstone and a very scarce title. Former owner's inked name and date on the front free flyleaf, spine panel is browned, else a very good tight and clean copy of a very scarce book.