James Bond First Editions

A View To A Death.

O'HARA, Kenneth [psudonym of MORRIS, Margaret Jean].

London: Cassell, 1958. [Crime fiction] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (21 x 14cm), pp.185; [3]. Publisher's black cloth with silver titles to spine, illustrated dust-wrapper priced at 12s 6d. Contents clean. Library label and marking to endpapers, no stamps to text pages, edges speckled green, jacket is close to fine but for front flap slightly trimmed. Shows well. A murder mystery set in the Sussex countryside, the first of two novels featuring scientist Dr. Alun Barry, who investigates a corpse linked to the theft of top secret Naval Intelligence documents. Ian Fleming worked on the similarly-titled James Bond story A View To A Kill (serialised in the Daily Express in September 1959); this book may have been in his mind. From the comprehensive archive assembled by Jon Gilbert (bookplate within). His encyclopaedic guide to the works of Ian Fleming (2012) won the 16th Breslauer Prize for bibliography. Item #67548

Gilbert, p.90.

Price: £55.00