The Queen Of Hearts. In Three Volumes

WILKIE COLLINS

Publication: Hurst and Blackett, Publishers, 1859, London

First edition. Three volumes. 12mo. Original blind stamped cloth, titles in gilt on the spine. Volume I: iv + 314 pp. plus 16 pp. of publishers catalog, Volume II: ii + 360 pp., Volume III: ii + 308 pp.

Queen's Quorum 3 that lists the 125 most important books of detective-crime mystery short stories. In Mystery & Suspense Writers edited by Robin W. Winks and commented on by Audrey Peterson, she says: .... but three stories advance Collins' skill in mystery technique. In "The Diary of Anne Rodway," two young seamstresses, Anne and her friend Mary, live in London in appalling poverty, described by Collins with deep concern. When Mary dies, Anne is certain that Mary was murdered and her pursuit of a series of clues that disclose the identity of the guilty man have led some historians of detective fiction to name Anne as the first lady detective.

A more fully developed detective story, "A Plot In Private Life," features the ingenuity of Mr. Dark, a lawyer's clerk who solves a complicated case involving elements that have become familiar in twentieth-century mystery fiction: a disappearing husband, a bloodstained nightgown but no body, and a conclusion in which Dark gives a full account the steps by which he unraveled the mystery, analyzing and explaining each clue."

Each volume contains the neat bookplate of the former owner affixed to the front pastedown sheet, gilt on the spine is dull but readable, silk binding of each volume shows wear but still very serviceable, housed in a clamshell case with titles stamped in gilt on the spine.