The Mercenaries.

DONALD E. WESTLAKE

Publication: Random House, 1960, New York

First edition. Inscribed by the author on the title page, "For Sam .... The first of them, The Mercenaries, by golly! Donald E. Westlake." Author's first book. Page edges uniformly tanned, else fine in dust jacket lightly sunned on the spine, and with light wear to the head of spine. Mavis St. Paul has been murdered, and Billy-Billy Cantell, a stuttering dope user/dealer is the prime suspect. His friend and colleague Clay believes Billy-Billy is innocent and, following orders from their boss, gangster Ed Ganolese, is trying to clear Billy-Billy's name. Unfortunately, now Billy-Billy has disappeared, and the police are getting too involved in Ganolese's operation. Clay must now play amateur detective and discover who killed Mavis and framed Billy-Billy, apparently just to sabotage Ganolese's outfit. Nominated for the Edgar Award.

Inventory Number: 31836