SHOOT A SITTING DUCK By: David Alexander Copyright: 1955; Stated First Printing Published By: Random House This vintage first edition Hard Cover detective book (236 pages) is in Very Good condition inside and out. No marks or blemishes to interior at all. Cover in good condition, including spine ends and corners, especially for its age. The covers does show signs, on front and back, of old tape marks from where a dust jacket (now missing) was once held in place. Interior of this great collectible is tight and beautiful. Extremely collectible in very good vintage condition! About Book: Broadway is his beat. BART HARDIN was the rambling, gambling two-fisted editor of The Broadway Times, who starred in eight novels back in the fifties, fondly remembered these days for, among other things, living above a flea circus in a Times Square tenement. The Broadway Times was essentially a throwaway rag, covering horse racing, the fights and show biz, and as such, gave its pugnacious, decidedly hands-on editor ample opportunity to wander around and get involved in all sorts of jams and scrapes. Fortunately, the hard-drinking, hard-boiled ex-Marine, who apparently favoured flowered vests for some reason, was more than up to the task. Over the course of the series, Bart got involved in everything from a serial killer named "Whacko" stalking women in the theatre district (Terror on Broadway) to drug trafficking (Paint the Town Black). And fans of Yuletide murders that take place in flea circuses could do worse than checking out Shoot a Sitting Duck. The books were full of colourful street characters, and offered a great look of the Great White Way of that era. Among the many recurring characters was Bart's usually friendly (but not always) rival, Lieutenant Romano of the NYPD, who had also been a character in Alexander's other series, featuring Tommy "Twotoes" Tuthill and Terry Bob Rooke. Author David Alexander was the managing editor for ten years for New York's The Daily Telegraph, a paper that served as obvious inspiration for The Broadway Times. He also wrote for the New York Herald Tribune and National Thoroughbred, but what he really wanted was to write crime fiction, so he enrolled in New York's Institue of Criminology, and was actually offered several jobs in the field. But he stuck with fiction and wrote numerous short stories for the pulps and digests of the time, as well as novels, which included the dark standalone The Madhouse in Washington Square (1958), the Hardin series, and another one featuring the exploits of Tuthill and Rooke, a detective team similar to Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin. Fantastic Vintage gift for the detective book fan or first edition collector in your life!!!!! Your satisfaction is important to me. Any and all questions answered, and happy to send more pics / info etc. Please look at my feedback and buy with confidence. Please see my other listings for more great collectibles and books! Happy to discount shipping for multiple wins!