Scarce Hitchcock Source

The Tender Poisoner [Five Roundabouts to Heaven]

Bingham, John

Publication: New York: Dodd, Mead, 1953. First US edition.

Notes: A scarce 1950s novel, first published in the United Kingdom as Five Roundabouts to Heaven, that became the basis of an Alfred Hitchcock Hour episode in 1962 and the 2007 film Married Life, starring Pierce Brosnan, Chris Cooper, and Patricia Clarkson.

Avis DeVoto, the editor who saw Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking into print, also wrote a syndicated newspaper column, Thrills and Chills Dept., that offered capsule summaries of new mysteries. She summarized The Tender Poisoner as "Subtly handled, well written story of a man so kindhearted that he decides to kill his wife rather than subject her to the indignity of divorce." In her distinctive rating system, this novel was described as "Tricky."

Published as a Red Badge Mystery for April 1953.

232 pages.

Edition + Condition: First US edition (with no indication of later printings). A very good copy in the publisher's green-paper covered boards. The dust jacket has snags and tears at the edges; about very good.

This copy comes from the collection of the late Portland collector James Strand, with his small letterpress estate bookplate on the front pastedown.

Item No: #366012

Price: $300