Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Chandler, Raymond. Five Sinister Characters. Avon Book Company, New York, 1945.
Price: US$51.33 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: Paperback Original. Includes 'Trouble is My Business,' 'Pearls are a Nuisance.' 'I'll be Waiting,' 'The King in Yellow' and 'Red Wind.' Avon Murder Mystery Monthly No. 28. Creasing to the top right corner of the front cover, the bottom left corner of the rear cover and down the rear cover next to the spine. Two inch tear running up the spine from the bottom next to the front cover. Light staining to the top of the rear cover. Small piece torn from the outside edge of the final page. The pages are quite heavily browned with a little corner creasing but are otherwise unmarked. Cover illustration by Paul Stahr. First printing.
Seller: Raymond Tait, Beccles, SUFFO, United Kingdom
Raymond Chandler. Five Sinister Characters. Avon, New York, 1945.
Price: US$85.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: First printing of this collection in trade sized covers (Avon would publish a traditional smaller paperback size the following year with slightly different mcover design). Color illustrated softcovers. Murder Mystery Monthly No. 28. 168 pp. Good to very good, light creasing to the covers and wear at the spine extremities. The first book appearance and first collected edtiton of these five tales that originally appeared individiually in pulp magazines. The stories are: "Trouble Is my Buisness', "Pearls Are a Nuisance", "I'll Be Waiting", "The King In Yellow", "Red Wind"
Seller: Old Book Shop of Bordentown (ABAA, ILAB), Bordentown, NJ, U.S.A.
Raymond Chandler. Five Sinister Characters (Donald Yates Personal Copy). Avon Book, 1945.
Price: US$125.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: Five Sinister Characters. New York: Avon Book Company, [1945]. 12mo. Publishers color pictorial wrappers (extremities creased or rubbed, few old tape repairs to spine panel). DONALD YATES PERSONAL COPY with his rubber stamp to title. Bruccoli A13.1.b. Provenance: ownership signature and stamp of Donald A. Yates; literature professor, translator, and detective fiction critic who maintained an extensive correspondence on the subject between both Chandler and Cornell Woolrich.
Seller: Neverland Books, waalre, Netherlands
Price: US$140.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: New York:: Avon Book Company, 1945. 5" wide by 7.5" tall. Tight copy. No store stamp or owner's name. Brown speckles (foxing) to inner covers. Light cover creases. No chips. No tears. Lightly rubbed spine is square/flat, with no creases. Pages are a bit age toned, as usual. Avon Murder Mystery Monthly #28. Cover price: 25 cents. This is the FIRST BOOK APPEARANCE and the FIRST COLLECTED EDITION of 5 detective tales that, in 1938 and 1939, appeared in 5 separate issues of DIME DETECTIVE or THE SATURDAY EVENING POST. Includes: TROUBLE IS MY BUSINESS; PEARLS ARE A NUISANCE; I'LL BE WAITING; THE KING IN YELLOW; and RED WIND. The striking, bright, full-color cover painting (artist not credited) features the head of a beautiful woman, surrounded by 4 smaller heads. [This FIRST EDITION should NOT be confused with New Avon Library #88, a reprint with the same title issued the following year]. Bruccoli A6.1. . First Printing of the First Collected ed. Soft Cover. Very Good condition. 168pp. . First Printing of the First Collected ed.
Seller: About Books, Henderson, NV, U.S.A.
Raymond Chandler. Five Sinister Characters. Avon Murder Mystery Monthly #28, 1945.
Price: US$160.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: This 1945 issue is the first publication of this Chandler story by Avon. They republished it in paperback book form in 1946. The digest is in Very Good to Near Fine condition. There is a faint reading crease and minor wear at the spine top. Edgewear to top of back cover. Faint reading crease and light rubs to spine on front cover.
Seller: Parrots Roost Vintage Books, Tulsa, OK, U.S.A.
CHANDLER, Raymond. Five Sinister Characters. Avon Book Company, New York, 1945.
Price: US$165.00 + shipping
Description: First Printing. Digest-sized octavo (19.5cm); original pictorial card wrappers; 168pp. Modest external wear, spine gently sunned and a little rolled, with mild tanning to text, and a few faint creases to wrappers; Very Good. Digest collecting five short stories previously published in the pulp magazines: "Trouble Is My Business," "Pearls Are A Nuisance," "I'll Be Waiting," "The King in Yellow," and "Red Wind." BRUCCOLI A6.1.
Seller: Lorne Bair Rare Books, ABAA, Winchester, VA, U.S.A.
CHANDLER, RAYMOND.. Five Sinister Characters. New York: Avon, 1945, 1945.
Price: US$225.00 + shipping
Description: First Edition; original wrappers. A very good copy. All books described as first editions are first printings unless otherwise noted.
Seller: Peter L. Stern & Co., Inc, Newton, MA, U.S.A.
Price: US$242.00 + shipping
Description: 28 almost near fine PBO. Cover by Paul Stahr.
Seller: GRAHAM HOLROYD, BOOKS, webster, NY, U.S.A.
Chandler, Raymond. FIVE SINISTER CHARACTERS. Avon Book Company, New York, 1945.
Price: US$350.00 + shipping
Description: Octavo, pictorial wrappers. First edition. Avon Murder Mystery Monthly #28. Digest size format, Collects five stories; "I'll Be Waiting," "The King in Yellow," "Pearls Are a Nuisance," " Red Wind," and "Trouble Is My Business." Tiny faint water stain at bottom edge of rear cover (barely noticeable), touch of rubbing to spine ends, tiny closed tear at fore-edge of rear cover, a bright, nearly fine copy. (#139166)
Seller: Currey, L.W. Inc. ABAA/ILAB, Elizabethtown, NY, U.S.A.
Chandler, Raymond. FIVE SINISTER CHARACTERS. Avon Book Company [1945], New York, 1945.
Price: US$375.00 + shipping
Description: Octavo, pictorial wrappers. Avon Murder Mystery Monthly #28. Digest size format. Collects five stories, I'll Be Waiting, The King in Yellow, Pearls Are a Nuisance, Red Wind, and Trouble Is My Business. Hubin, p. 152. Tiny 10 mm closed tear to lower front panel, slight color fade to spine, a nearly fine to fine copy. (23453)
Seller: John W. Knott, Jr, Bookseller, ABAA/ILAB, Laurel, MD, U.S.A.
CHANDLER, RAYMOND.. FIVE SINISTER CHARACTERS.. Avon Book Company, [1945]. [1945], New York, 1945.
Price: US$475.00 + shipping
Description: First edition. A digest-sized paperback. Murder Mystery Monthly 28. Foxed on inside covers and to a few end pages, and tiny nick to corner edge of top edge of rear panel and adjacent to the spine on top of rear panel, else near fine, tight copy in pictorial wrappers. Contains five short stories . "Trouble Is My Business," in which Jerry Jester who was considered "upper crust" to the tabloids was nothing but toruble to his millionaire father and to the gambler on whom he welshed; "Pearls Are A Nuisance," in which old Mrs. Penruddock's pearls are stolen; "I'll Be Waiting," A story where a hard-boiled hotel PI turns out to have a heart of gold; "The King In Yellow," where the master of swing gets involved in murder; and "Red Wing," involving murder in a bar.
Seller: BUCKINGHAM BOOKS, ABAA, ILAB, IOBA, GREENCASTLE, PA, U.S.A.