A Very Bookish Christmas...OR Bev Was a Very Good Girl This Year

It was a very bookish Christmas at the Reader's Block house this year. Between them, my own set of personal Santas (hubby, son, and parents) managed--through the wonders of internet shopping and my husband's inability to pass up an Ebay auction--to add 56 new-to-me books to my vintage reading family.



First up, books from Mom and Dad:
More Work for the Undertaker by Margery Allingham
One Touch of Blood by Samm Sinclair Baker
Cards on the Table by Agatha Christie
Terror in Times Square by Alan Handley
Stone Cold Blond by Adam Knight
The Moving Target by Ross MacDonald
   (writing as John MacDonald)
The Corpse and the Three Ex-Husbands by Sue MacVeigh

The Whip by Sara Elizabeth Mason
The Mirabilis Diamond by Jerome Odlum 
As Tough as They Come by Will Oursler
There Was an Old Woman by Ellery Queen



And several installments from the Hubby and Son:

A couple of bundles of Mercury Mystery book digests (some complete works and some abridged):

Look Your Last by John Stephen Strange; Fish & Kill by MacDonald Hastings; He Fell Down Dead by Virginia Perdue; A Grave Case of Murder by Roger Bax; Trial by Terror by Frances & Richard Lockridge; With Blood & Kisses by Richard Shattuck; The Black Rustle by Constance & Gwenyth Little; The Golden Swan Murder by Dorothy Cameron Disney

The Ticking Clock by Frances & Richard Lockridge; And Hope to Die by Richard Powell; When Last I Died by Gladys Mitchell; 13 at Dinner by Agatha Christie; The Party Was the Pay-Off by Elizabeth Sanxay Holding; The Girl Who Kept Knocking Them Dead by Hampton Stone; Too Good to Be True by J. F. Hutton; And Dangerous to Know by Elizabeth Daly

More Mercury Mysteries and then a boatload of Dell Pocket Size Editions (and one Avon SF title that somehow got thrown in with the mysteries--not that I mind):

Killer in the Straw by Frances & Richard Lockridge; Terror in the Town by Edward Ronns; The Christmas Murder by Cyril Hare; Cocktails and the Killer by Petery Cheyney; Keep Cool, Mr. Jones by Timothy Fuller; The Opening Door by Helen Reilly; Hardly a Man Is Now Alive by Herbert Brean; The Pigskin Bag by Bruno Fischer; To Wake the Dead by John Dickson Carr

Mr. & Mrs. North and the Poisoned Playboy by Frances & Richard Lockridge; The Case of the Untidy Murder by the Lockridges; The Dishonest Murderer by the Lockridges; Mr. & Mrs. North and A Key to Death by the Lockridges; Murder Is Served by the Lockridges; Invitation to Murder by Rex Stout; A Holiday for Murder by Agatha Christie; Murder in Three Acts by Agatha Christie; Murder Begins at Home by Delano Ames; At Last, Mr. Tolliver by William Wiegand [observant followers will notice that Mrs. North is wearing a nearly identical outfit and reaching for an identical phone with a nearly identical corpse--different tie--in the background on two of the covers]

Man Missing by Mignon G. Eberhart: The April Robin Murders by Craig Rice & Ed McBain; The Broken Vase by Rex Stout; The Tiger in Smoke by Margery Allingham; Dead Men's Plans by Mignon G. Eberhart; Run to Death by Patrick Quentin; The Corpse in the Wax Works by John Dickson Carr; The Follower by Patrick Quentin; The Evil of Time by by Evelyn Berckman; Out of the Silent Planet by C. S. Lewis

Which all adds up to a very happy (and thankful) Bev! I'm thankful that my husband loves to see my face light up every time I open a package full of books.