Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Edmund Crispin. The Moving Toyshop. A Detective Story. Victor Gollancz, 1946.
Price: US$45.28 + shipping
Condition: Fair
Description: First edition hardback, no dustjacket, blue cloth covered boards. Some fading to spine and edges. Small previous owners name otherwise internally clean. Good - condition.
Seller: Buckle's Books, Cambridge, United Kingdom
CRISPIN, Edmund. The Moving Toyshop. Victor Gollancz, 1946.
Price: US$71.15 + shipping
Description: Crispin's most celebrated novel. Slim post war production (paper is thin). Spine faded as usual and inscription dated 1947 to fep otherwise VG copy of this crime classic.
Seller: Hadwebutknown, Birnam, PERTH, United Kingdom
Crispin, Edmund. The Moving Toyshop: A Detective Story. Victor Gollancz, London, 1946.
Price: US$75.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: A poet takes a break in Oxford and, entering an unlocked toyshop, finds a dead woman and is knocked on the head. Enlisting the aid of old friend Professor Gervase Fen, they return to the scene of the crime to find no dead body, and the toyshop is now a grocer. Gently bumped and rubbed, spine a bit sunned with a faint stain to the lower edge of the front board. A few spots of foxing to the edges of the text block, binding square and solid.
Seller: MLC Books, Northfield, MN, U.S.A.
CRISPIN, Edmund. The moving toyshop: a detective story. Victor Gollancz, 1946.
Price: US$97.02 + shipping
Description: 1st edition, in blue cloth with gilt. Internally VG, but cloth on spine very faded with tarnished gilt lettering Used - Good. Good hardback (no dust jacket)
Seller: Cotswold Internet Books, Cheltenham, United Kingdom
Price: US$250.00 + shipping
Description: Octavo, pp. [1-6] 7-151 [152: blank], cloth. The third Gervase Fen novel. "The climatic scene, revolving around a chase to catch the criminal, is so powerful, so moving, that Alfred Hitchcock borrowed it to use as the windup in his film Stranger on a Train." - Pronzini and Muller, 1001 Midnights, The Aficionado's Guide to Mystery and Detective Fiction, p. 173. ".if one accepts the books in the spirit in which they were written, they are splendid examples of the detective story as great entertainment. The amuse, they shock and they surprise." - Pederson (ed.), St. James Guide to Crime and Mystery Writers, (4th ed.), pp. 255-257. Hubin, p. 200. Haycraft-Queen cornerstone. Adey, Locked Room Murders and Other Impossible Crimes (1991), 533. Small neat inked name and date to upper front free end paper, mild toning to end papers and text block, small booksellers ticket to bottom of front paste down, some fading to cloth edges and spine, a good copy in a good dust jacket with dust soiling, chips with loss to corner tips and spine ends (affecting title lettering). (30925)
Seller: John W. Knott, Jr, Bookseller, ABAA/ILAB, Laurel, MD, U.S.A.
Crispin, Edmund. The Moving Toyshop: A Detective Story. Victor Gollancz Ltd, London, 1946.
Price: US$439.83 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Hardcover in very good condition, with unclipped dust jacket in good condition for its age. Jacket is marked and sunned, particularly the spine, and edges are creased and nicked. Board corners and spine ends are bumped and rubbed, and page block is tanned and foxed. Pastedowns and endpapers are also very lightly foxed. Previous owner's name penned to FEP. Pages are clear and unmarked throughout. LW
Seller: PsychoBabel & Skoob Books, Didcot, Oxfordshire, OXON, United Kingdom
Price: US$650.00 + shipping
Description: Hardcover first edition - First printing. A classic mystery, the third featuring Oxford don Gervase. A Haycraft-Queen Cornerstone title, this is generally considered one of the best mysteries of all time, In 2006 it was named by P. D. James as one of the 5 "most riveting" British mysteries - she commented that "Edmund Crispin is one of the few mystery writers able to combine situation comedy and high spirits with detection." 150 pp. Near fine in a very good dust jacket (some rubbing to the lettering on the spine of the book, tape reinforcement to bottom of dj spine on the interior of the dj, slight chipping to top of spine) Uncommon in the first edition, and especially so in this condition.
Seller: Bookfever, IOBA (Volk & Iiams), Ione, CA, U.S.A.