1951 Pocket reissue

one of SMB founder Bill Farley’s Top Five Mysteries of all time. Sir Eustace is a cad of the first water, with a specialty in other men’s wives, and the list of people who might want to do him in could fill a London phone book. But which of them actually sent the chocolates with their nasty hidden payload? Scotland Yard is baffled. Enter the Crime Circle, a group of society intellectuals with a shared conviction in their ability to succeed where the police have failed. Eventually, each member will produce a tightly reasoned solution to the Case of the Poisoned Chocolates, but each of those solutions will identify a different murderer. First published in 1929, this is both a classic of the golden age of mystery fiction, and one of the great puzzle-mysteries of all time.

Farewell, My Lovely x 21

1940 Knopf hardcover

1940 Hammish Hamilton UK first edition

1943 Pocket reissue – cover art by H. L. Hoffman

1944 World Press tie-in

1964 Pocket reissue, 14th printing – cover art by Harvey Kidder (owner’s copy)

cover art by James Neil Boyle

1951 Pocket reissue, 10th print – cover art by Paul Kresse (owner’s copy)

1950 Penguin UK reissue, 3rd print

1966 Penguin reissue – cover design by Bob Brooks

1973 Penguin reissue – cover design by James Tormey

1973 Ballantine reissue – cover art by Tom Adams (owner’s copy)

1976 Vintage reissue – cover art by Richard Waldrep (owner’s copy)

1976 Ballantine movie tie-in

1976 Penguin movie tie-in

1988 Penguin reissue

1988 Vintage/Black Lizard reissue

1994 Vintage/Black Lizard reissue

2002 Penguin UK reissue

2009 Penguin Classics UK reissue

2010 Vintage reissue

2011 Penguin UK reissue

[updated 3/3/26, 3/8/26]

June 1955 Pocket paperback

1946 Morrow hardcover

28th Perry Mason novel

June 1955 Pocket paperback reissue, 7th printing

cover photo by Alfred Gesheidt

better image than previously posted

1959 Cardinal paperback reissue

cover art by Charles Binger

better image than previously posted

The Clew of the Forgotten Murder

1935 Morrow hardcover as The Clew of the Forgotten Murder as by Carleton Kendrake

April 1953 Pocket paperback reissue, 19th printing

cover painting by Frank McCarthy

better image than previously posted

1958 Cardinal reissue

cover art by Ernest Chiriacka (Darcy)